Spevak:

So for the record, can you state your full name and your hometown?

Valore:

Ahh, hometown being where I was born or?

Spevak:

Where you grew up.

Valore:

Okay. For the record its John Joseph Valore and it’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Spevak:

And you have been married how long?

Valore:

Since 1974, 32 years.

Spevak:

And how many kids?

Valore:

We have two.

Spevak:

And what are their names?

Valore:

The oldest one is a daughter and her name is Jennifer and my son is J.C.

Spevak:

And what was it like growing up in the Valore household?

Valore:

Well, I don’t think my parents ever saw me because I was playing ball. In those days, you always played, no matter what the sport was and we played during the summer, it was a lot of basketball; in the fall, it was like touch football on the blacktop surfaces which we had, back to basketball, and then during the spring it was basketball and softball. So it was a little bit of everything.

Spevak:

And who was your biggest influence as a kid?

Valore:

As a kid I would have to say I tried to emulate a fellow who played basketball at the local high school who went on and played in college and knowing how meaningful it was for him to make the team at that time. They only kept twelve players at St. Joe’s University, and then he went on and played on a national team and went to the final four. His name is Harry Booth, who eventually became the basketball coach at St. Joe’s University. I like the way he worked at it, he had me out on the playground everyday working with him and I think learning from him and his drive caused me to have what I feel was the catalyst to improve and play at the level at which I played.

Spevak:

And when did you decide to become a teacher?

Valore:

I think I decided that in high school. I thought I wanted to coach and teaching and coaching were a great combination. When I first went and applied, I was very interested in social studies but as I talked to the coach about the coaching aspect of it, he had me turn over to a related field of physical education.

Spevak:

And what did it mean to you when you saw your players from the past thirty years of coaching come back to the Millville game and show their support towards you?

Valore:

It was just awesome. We worked very, very hard in those days. Our philosophy was from the get go, from 3:00 to 6:00, one drill after the other, continuous running and so forth and a lot of dedication and I think they remembered, through the night they reminded me how tough practices were but, as I just received one or two e-mails recently, that has carried over in their personal lives which allows them to be successful also. That dedication to constant work really paid off for them in the long run and I also heard that from a lot of the players that night, but they all have isolated good memories of what happened during practices and during the games. I’m not saying our players don’t work as hard, we have adjusted and become a little bit more flexible in our philosophies of handling, handling young men in those days was different than handling young men today.

Spevak:

What was the best season that you have ever had as a coach?

Valore:

Any season in which I’m involved in, I considered a great season. I enjoyed every season, even when we weren’t as successful as other seasons. It was the idea of working with young people, trying to put things together against some of the competition which we faced in South Jersey in those years, in the early years, was just awesome and from the beginning to the end it’s just bringing the team together and working as a team with the coaches and the players, I think every year you have consider it a year in which you really felt good about.

Spevak:

Now, throughout the years, you’ve had hundreds of students, hundreds of athletes, come under your wing as a coach. Which kid do you think made the biggest impact on you?

Valore:

I think the biggest impact, I have had many, many, many excellent basketball players but when you come down to impact, it must have had an impact on me because two of my players, when my daughter was born, one of my players who was a senior at the time, unheard of in families, I made him godfather to my daughter and when my son came along I made one of my seniors godfather to my son. Both had great impact on me as being fine young men. Both are very successful in their businesses -- Kurt Barbera is co-owner of KRB, which is a printing firm, I have to guess 30, maybe 30, 25, 30 people working for him and Leon Rose, who is now a very successful professional agent. But they didn’t become godfathers to my kids when they were older, they showed me what they had as individuals to my liking when they were in 12th grade and both kids happened to be born at that time, the same time they were in 12th grade, so they merit many, they were very meaningful to me and I always wanted my kids to have the drive which they had to be successful.

Spevak:

How did you feel when you were honored with being inducted into the South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame?

Valore:

Well, there is no question about it. You’re in there with a lot of, many coaches, players who have put exceptional amounts of time into the game but to recognize for the time which you put into the game and the years in which you have given back to the community, as well as the summer leagues, during the winter, as well as the invitationals we ran and so forth like that, it is nice to know that someone out there feels grateful for all the times you put into the high school as well as this community and surrounding South Jersey area. Because at one time, we were the biggest, the largest, and the best Summer league in the State of New Jersey and that was documented, forty varsity teams, four divisions of ten of each, and everything was coordinated. It started on time, it was very well ran, not just with me, but with the people surrounding me also.

Spevak:

Let’s talk about this year’s team now. What was so instrumental to this team’s success?

Valore:

I think there is no question about it. It’s the young men that I have had for three and a half years. He is whatever I want on the court. We don’t have success without that point guard. He is a very exceptional point guard, who committed to the athletic program here at Cherry Hill East. He does it 365 days a year, he’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He leads by showing, he’s very low key. I think they learned from his example and he doesn’t say much but whatever he says is very meaningful to them and they follow him and that’s the kind of person you would like to have. We don’t have success the last three years without Jeremy Kaminer. Eighteen wins, twenty wins, twenty-one wins, he is the one and he’s the most important person in our program and you can go right down the line but I think the next person in line was the vast improvement of Michael Sexauer I had somebody, and he was in there by himself, rebound the ball at times, where he’s 6'6 and had to go up against some stiff competition. I mean he was complimented by Tony Sherman and Cameron Kates and Ryan Suli, but he, he was blue collar. By blue collar means he got his lunch pail and he went to work. And, again, it is difficult. You can’t separate one from the other but the person who stands out would be Jeremy and the person I think of the most behind him would be Michael.

Spevak:

For the past two years, you have had really strong support, really strong cheering sections at the games, this year, the Cougar Countrymen brought six buses, over 200 kids, down to Atlantic City with touting their motto on the back of their t-shirts, In Valore We Trust, now what does that kind of support mean to you?

Valore:

There is no question about it. That group of young men who were there as the season went along and were very vocal at the games, that gives you energy. There is no question about it. You play in a different level when you have those young men cheering the way they did, getting involved in the game the way they did, from the tap until the very end and what I saw, and believe me during the 80's we used to draw about 2,000 at times, at certain isolated games, we had three division, four division one players and we used to have the bleachers behind the basket and the place used to be full but there is nothing like what I saw this year and what came together down in Atlantic City. The only disappoint was, not that we lost the game, is that we didn’t have an opportunity to move on to the next game because I know we would have doubled that crowd and it was just unbelievable. We fell a little short and it was just like a blur right now, what happened the last two minutes, but you can’t say enough. Well behaved, well organized and it was just awesome. I don’t think I’ve seen a group like that, and I have been coaching since 1976 as a varsity coach, and I have been to a lot of games, we’ve played the top teams in our earlier years when places were crowded, but never, never like the energy that those kids gave forth, especially going, and I’m gonna tell ya, I’ll go another step further, we don’t win Toms River East without those kids. We don’t beat Williamstown without those kids. If we had the opportunity and had those kids in our gym, Atlantic City doesn’t come within ten points. That ten point lead does not evaporate because you’re so close and the players feed off of that, there’s no doubt about it. They were just awesome. Our success is due part to them.

Spevak:

February 24th was John Valore Day in Cherry Hill, what did that mean to you? Did you do anything afterwards to celebrate the special day?

Valore:

Well they had something special at Champs and we all came together at Champs in a large room in the back and it was just awesome. I don’t think I had anything to eat or anything like that, I just talked, worked with the kids who played for me for a good maybe 3 and 1/2 hours before we broke up. It was just a pleasure to talk to each and every one of them, find out what’s up, what their doing and so forth and the memories they had. It’s unbelievable the isolated memories they have from practices, games, what I said at that time, and so forth. So, it was special. It was also special to know that they had a day after me but the special thing was meeting with my players.

Spevak:

Now, I don’t know if this is going to be your favorite question but why do you think that you’re so liked around school? Why do you think that people look up to you, not as a coach but as a person and people regard you as a living legend? Why do you think that is?

Valore:

I don’t know about that. I have learned one thing over the years, don’t be afraid to say hello, don’t be afraid to smile, don’t be afraid to shake someone’s hand, have eye contact, try to remember as many people as you possibly can, their names and so forth, and if you don’t, you know, try to shake their hand and say, John Valore, how are you, ya know, Coach Valore, and they usually give you their name and so forth like that. I think that’s very important. I think eye contact, shaking hands, listening to what people have to say, a lot, kids have a lot of stress in their lives and I think just letting them know that you’re there for them and you can laugh a little bit, maybe that helps. Because I know I didn’t have any of the stress that goes with kids today. Believe me, life was easier at that time. What goes on today is just unbelievable and I knew that and started to find that out as my kids grew up and so forth. So its good to let them know that not everything in life is serious, learn to live a little bit as far as kidding around and laughing and don’t be afraid to say hello to somebody, ya know, things along that line. Now does that carry over whether they like me or not? I don’t know. I don’t know, but that’s me.

Spevak:

Do you have anything else you would like to add, anything you would like to say?

Valore:

Well, there’s no question about it. Being here since 1968 basically maybe a half a year after the school opened up, I never gave thought of ever leaving Cherry Hill East. Had great opportunities but never wanted to make a move in a different direction. I have had phenomenal support from administrators, and that includes the people within the building, the people over at Central Administration, my players and so forth, and the community itself. I have been allowed to coach at probably one of the better positions in South Jersey. Well, I couldn’t ask for anything more and I couldn’t ask for the type of person that I have in my program. When you coach at Cherry Hill East, mostly 99.9% of your kids don’t have to worry about going to college and meeting the grade requirements and so forth. They are all so, well, academically sound which helps a lot in coaching. So that whole mix of support and having kids that achieve in the classroom, it’s a great combination that leads to me staying at Cherry Hill East and being as happy as I have been over the years.

Spevak:

Alright.

Valore:

Is that okay?

Spevak:

That’s about it.

Valore:

All right then.

Spevak:

Thank you sir.