Legendary EPCHS Basketball Coach Bruce Scaduto To Retire

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Bruce Scaduto, who has been courtside as head coach of an Evergreen Park Community High School varsity basketball team for more than a quarter-century, has announced that he will retire from coaching at the end of the 2023-2024 EPCHS girls basketball season.

“I feel that it’s time,” Scaduto said. “I’ve been doing it for so many years that I feel it’s time to step down and let someone else have it.”

Scaduto has been at the helm of either the boys or girls basketball program at EPCHS since the 1997-1998 school year. He led the boys program from 1997-1998 to 2010-2011, and then the varsity girls team from 2011-2012 to now. He’s the Lady Mustangs all-time winningest coach, according to the IHSA, and is the second winningest coach in Mustang boys basketball history, coming in only three wins shy of Tom O’Malley Sr.

The Mustang boys had “some nice records,” including multiple 20-win seasons, Scaduto said, but pointed to a three-year run with the girls teams in the 2010s as the height of his basketball coaching career in Evergreen Park.

“We won the regional three years in a row,” Scaduto said, referring to the Lady Mustangs regional championship teams in 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.

Scaduto remains in touch with the core players from those years, Megan Pfister, Nicole Larkin and Maddie Vojacek, to this day. Both Pfister and Vojacek have served as coaches on Scaduto’s staff.

The girls program’s all-time best record, 25-4, didn’t come until the 2017-2018 season. But the Lady Mustangs weren’t able to capture either a conference or regional title that year due to the strength of one of its biggest rivals.

“We just couldn’t get past Argo that year,” Scaduto remembers. “They were just too strong.”

Kacey Gardner, a member of the 2017-2018 Lady Mustangs who now plays professional basketball in Portugal, credits Scaduto for much of her success on the court.

“Duto always pushed me to play my best in every practice and every game,” Gardner said. “I always knew he cared about my well-being outside of basketball, always making sure I had everything I needed to succeed in life and in basketball.”

Although Scaduto’s time leading the boys and girls programs has been roughly the same, it’s those girls teams that he’ll remember the most.

“The girls were more enjoyable to coach because they always give their full effort and appreciate everything,” he said. “It was fun to coach the boys, too. I enjoyed watching them get better and move on to the next level.”

Jim Soldan, EPCHS Director of Athletics, has worked with Scaduto for 20 of his 27 years at Evergreen Park.

“He is an excellent head coach and has dedicated countless hours to the success of both the boys and girls basketball programs at EPCHS,” Soldan said. “He will be truly missed, but I'm sure he will enjoy his first Thanksgiving and Christmas break off in 27 years!”

Scaduto’s legacy at EPCHS will go beyond the basketball court, however. He’s led the driver’s education program there since the day he was hired. It was a logical choice for the school to make, since his family had owned a popular driving school in nearby Oak Lawn for decades.

“I’ve always enjoyed watching and helping kids become safer and better drivers,” Scaduto said.

The #BehindTheWheel series is the name of the yearly boys basketball rivalry game between EPCHS and Oak Lawn Community High School. It’s a nod to the Scaduto driving school family, including Bruce and his father, Len Scaduto, who coached the OLCHS boys team for 28 years.

Bruce played for his father at Oak Lawn before graduating from there in 1982. He said his dad is doing well living in Hawaii at age 91.