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Joe Wootten returned the phone call from his car four hours before his Bishop O’Connell High School boys basketball team was scheduled to play Fairfax (Va.) Christian in a Monday afternoon matinee.
The severe winter storm that descended upon the Washington, D.C. area earlier this month forced teams to postpone and reschedule games. This would mark the fourth game in seven days for the Knights, who will then turn around and fly from their Arlington, Va., home to play twice this weekend in the seventh Quincy Shootout.
It’s a grueling stretch, even by their standards, but it’s part of the job and coaching basketball is what Wootten was seemingly born to do.
“My wife says I’m organized in basketball and nothing else,” he quipped.
The youngest of five children, Joe grew up hanging around the gym while his father, Morgan Wootten, coached at DeMatha Catholic High School.
Morgan Wootten won 1,274 games (against just 192 losses) and five unofficial national championships over 46 seasons at the school in Hyattsville, Md. He never had a losing season and failed to win at least 20 games just once. Only Robert Hughes of Fort Worth (Texas) Dunbar compiled more coaching victories (1,333).
The elder Wootten’s teams won 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championships and 22 Washington city titles. He also was among the founders of the McDonald’s All-American game, and the summer basketball camp he started with 20 campers in 1962 that bears his name is now the oldest and largest in the country, with 4,000 players participating each year.
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