Falcon in Florida
Brownsville grad Linza cites WPIAL title run as key to coaching success
Angelo Linza may be part of a championship high school basketball program in Florida but he hasn’t forgotten what got him there and where he came from.
Linza, a Brownsville graduate, was a member of the Falcons’ WPIAL Class AAA championship team of 2001. He has served as an assistant coach at Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens since 2017 and has been a part of six district titles, two state finals and one state championship while there.
Linza is part of head coach Fred Ross’s team. Ross has been coaching for 34 years and led Dwyer to four state championships, eight regional championships and 15 district championships. Ross, who played at Stetson, is in the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame and the Panthers’ gymnasium, Fred Ross Court, is named after him.
“Coach Ross has over 900 wins,” Linza who is part of Ross’s large coaching staff. “I do whatever Coach needs. We all play a role for him,” Linza said. “Coach prides himself on defense.
“I coached JVs for three years, then I moved up. I do a lot of the film breakdown. I keep the stats during the game, shot chart, turnovers, looking for trends and everything.”
Ross has had an impact on Linza’s life on the court and off.
“Coach Ross helped me tremendously,” Linza said. “He’s like a father figure to me. My parents divorced when I was 15-16. He’s like my second father. He teaches me a lot about basketball but he teaches me a lot about life, too.
“He’s pretty intimidating when you first get to know him. I was scared to death of him at first. I can’t thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to coach on his staff. I mean the guy’s a legend, one of the greatest high school coaches of all time, and I get a chance to work with him.”
The Panthers have been highly successful during Linza’s time with the team. They were district champions and reached the regional semifinals in 2020 and during the COVID season of 2021 they won the regional title and lost in the state final. Dwyer made the regional final the next year then came the banner season of 2022-23 when the Panthers won the district, regional and state championships. The next season Dwyer won another district title and reached the regional final.
“We were ranked nationally last year,” Linza said. “The year before we won the state title and were ranked around 10th in the county.
“I’ve been blessed. I tell people I’m just a kid from Brownsville. I wasn’t a superstar, I wasn’t a 1,000-point scorer on that Brownsville team but now I’m doing something I love and being successful at it. If you look at it. I was part of a WPIAL championship at Brownsville. They put us in the Fayette County Hall of Fame. Then I won six district championships and a state title coaching in Florida. I’ve had a pretty good run in basketball.
“Coach Ross’s style isn’t complicated. We talk basketball a lot. He teaches the game so simple. AAU has ruined the game of basketball to me personally. You’re trying to teach all this higher end stuff when really you’ve got to make sure you learn the fundamentals of the game and have that down pat first. That’s what he stresses and teaches.”
The 42-year-old Linza and his wife Addy have two daughters, Mariah and Hannah.
“My wife has been supportive of my involvement in basketball. Sometimes she tells me I like basketball more than her,” Linza said with a laugh. “But she knows the passion I have for it and how much I love it.
“I’m pretty laid back most of the time. I’m not a rah-rah kind of screaming guy but there are times when during a timeout – Coach will let the assistants talk first – and I will be pretty intense about what we’re doing wrong or what we need to work on. I like to coach individually. I’m big on pulling a kid aside and making sure he understands what we want him to do.”
Linza has thick skin which he attributes to his upbringing.
“I get my toughness and I get my attitude from my mom Lauren,” Linza said. “She’s a tough cookie. I probably get part of my coaching style from my mom. My mom was loud. I can be loud. She always supported me. My dad was a basketball player and friends with the Nesser family and coached me when I was first starting out.”
Linza recalled his days growing up and playing basketball in Brownsville and the Falcons’ improbable run to the WPIAL title in 2001 with great fondness. Although he wasn’t a starter on the championship team he credited that experience for much of his success as a coach.
Mark Gates, Bob Turcic, Derrick Clements and Josh Bruschi were led by senior star George Lemon and coached by Pete Logan.
“That team started to form when we were young, We all played together from the time we were like in fourth or fifth grade,” Linza said. “That team and that group spurred my coaching career.”
Linza recalled team unity as a key to success.
“We played everywhere together. We all played pick-up games throughout the summers,” Linza said. “That’s one of the reasons that team was so good.”
Linza lauded Larry Cash and brothers Paul Hough and Joe Hough as coaches who influenced him greatly at Brownsville.
“Paul and Joe Hough deserve a lot of credit,” Linza said. “We played throughout our younger years under them. They taught me a lot about the game of basketball and I’m always grateful for the time I spent with them. They were about culture and teaching you to play as a team. We learned that early on from them.
“Another guy I think was the first one to give us that attitude that we could win a lot, is Larry Cash. His practices when we were in eighth grade were the hardest I have had as a player. I think he created that toughness, that grit to want to take the heart out of your opponent. Larry pressed until the buzzer went off. There was no backing off.”
Then there was Lemon, the star with the heart of a champion.
“George Lemon doesn’t get enough credit for what we accomplished, for what he did for all of us,” Linza said. “He made us all tough and thick-skinned. If George wanted to average 40 a game he could’ve done that although we wouldn’t have won as much. But he bought into the team aspect and got the best of our abilities out of us. We had an attitude about us and a lot of that was from George. We weren’t afraid of anybody. We didn’t care who we played.
“George would say we’re not doing this good enough, we didn’t do this right, we didn’t do that right. I hated him sometimes but in hindsight, that experience with George helped build me to where I am now as a coach. That molded me to have a chip on my shoulder.
“I give credit for the way I teach and the way I coach to my upbringing in Brownsville and to that team.”
The Falcons knocked off the top three seeds during their run to the district title, stunning heavily favored No. 1 Blackhawk, coached by the legendary John Miller and led by Ohio State recruit Brandon Fuss-Cheatham, 66-63 in the final after rallying from a late seven-point deficit.
After graduating from Brownsville, Linza went to Indiana University of Pa. and the first bricks were put down for his coaching career.
“I went to IUP and met a good friend, Eddie Peterson, who was a star at Sto-Rox and graduated the same year as me,” Linza said. “He was a great player at IUP and befriended me when I was there as a freshman, so I got to workout and practice with the team a lot. I was around the team all the time. I got to see how a college program works.”
Uniontown head coach Rob Kezmarsky gave Linza his first shot at being a member of a basketball coaching staff.
“I came home from college in 2005 and I got on with Rob Kezmarsky in 2006,” Linza recalled. “Rob gave me my first opportunity. I was helping out Uniontown, doing the stats for them. Then (Uniontown assistant coach) Warare (Gladman) took over Albert Gallatin for awhile, and he gave me the opportunity to help coach his middle school team with Kenny Musko at Albert Gallatin South. I was around helping out with Brownsville a bit at that time, too.”
Linza left the area in 2009.
“I moved to Florida and I started training some guys,” Linza said. “Really, I’ve had a chance to see basketball at all three levels. I got to see it at the high school level as a player, being involved in it, and on the other side as a coach. I got to see how a college program works at IUP. Then when I moved to Florida I met a guy by the name of Leemire Goldwire, a Dwyer grad who played professionally. I got to work out with him sometimes and see how he approached it. So I’ve seen how a pro works, how a college team works and how a high school team works.
“I got to work out with a lot of pros in the area and I was training a lot of overseas guys. Then a friend of a friend hooked me up with Coach Ross in 2017 and I’ve been there ever since.”
Dwyer has produced some significant professional athletes over the years, as Linza pointed out.
“We had two players go D-I off the state championship team, to Cleveland State and FIU,” Linza pointed out. “In fact, seven guys off that team went on to play college basketball. It’s always fulfilling to see your players get to the next level.
“Jacoby Brissett, the NFL quarterback, played under Coach Ross. Alonzo Gee is another one, he went to Alabama and played for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And Goldwire went to the University of Charlotte and also played in the NBA, just to name a few.”
Linza has a good job, “I work for Clear which is the fast lane at PBI (Palm Beach International) Airport,” but spends most of his free time focusing on basketball.
Asked if he would consider a head coaching job somewhere at some point, Linza said, “I wouldn’t do anything as far as seeking a head coaching job until Coach Ross retires. He’s the one that gave me my opportunity.
“I would love to be on a college staff maybe someday. I’ve had some other coaching offers. We’ll see what the future holds.
“I’m happy with the way things have turned out. Not bad for just a small town kid who wasn’t really a basketball star.”