Peabody girls basketball coach Jane Heil calls it a career

PEABODY – Every year, when the first Monday after Thanksgiving would roll around, Peabody High girls basketball coach Jane Heil would brace herself for the phone calls from local sports reporters looking to preview the team for the upcoming season.It didn?t matter that it was the first day of practice and the coaches were just getting a look at the incoming talent, it was the official start of basketball season and it was game on.Heil probably won?t miss that particular aspect of the job, but who knows, maybe in time … and time is one thing she?ll have a little more of next winter. Heil announced Wednesday she is retiring after 33 years as the head coach.Heil, 66, said she and her husband, Bob, started talking about this being her last year last summer and fall. Bob Heil ended up having some serious health problems this winter (his prognosis is 100 percent recovery) and although that wasn?t the reason for the decision, it was a factor.Heil said the team has had some magic numbers this season, one being senior Carolyn Scacchi?s march to 1,000 points. She said the magic numbers Wednesday were one, 66 and 22. One was for the team, which she said is No. 1 in her heart because it was her last. The 66 is for her age and the 33 represents the number of years she coached.?Half my life has been given to this program,” Heil said. “What this program has given to me I couldn?t even begin to tell you. I don?t think I could put it into words or one sentence … my life has been made better and richer because of this program and these people I have been fortunate enough to work for and with.”Heil has put up some pretty impressive numbers during her career, which she breaks down into part 1 and part 2. Heil became the Peabody High head coach in 1977 and held the job until 1995. During that time, her teams won 12 Greater Boston League championships, made the tournament 17 times, won two Division 1 North titles, an Eastern Mass Division 1 state title and in 1985, a Division 1 state title.She had a record of 309-85 over those 18 years.Heil retired after the 1994-1995 season and that lasted until her return for the 1999-2000 season. Over the course of the next 15 years, she compiled a 219-98 record. Her final record is 528 wins, 173 losses. Overall, she won 17 GBL titles, one Northeastern Conference title and went to the tournament 27 times. She also won four North Shore Hoop Invitational titles.Heil has racked up a slew of other awards, the most recent coming this past fall, when she was inducted into the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.Heil said although she plans to spend some of those winter months in a little warmer climate (she and her husband, along with his sister and brother-in-law, have a place in Florida), she still expects to get up this way quite a bit and she?ll catch some games.Heil is also an avid tennis player (she?s a member of the Bass River tennis team), and she and her husband enjoy traveling, having recently traveled to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Germany and Italy. Heil is also busy being a grandmother. Her daughter Kristin and her husband, Nick Papanickolas, are both on Heil?s coaching staff, as is Bob Heil. Heil?s two grandchildren are Angelia, age three, and Emmanuel Nicholas, who was born in October.Heil announced her retirement at the high school on Wednesday. Among those present were Peabody High principal Eric Buckley and athletic director Phil Sheridan.Sheridan recalled how back in the 1980s, when he was a track coach, he and Heil shared the gym for practice.?And we?re both still breathing,” he joked, adding that Peabody is losing a great coach, but gaining a No. 1 fan in the future.Sheridan said Heil touched the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands, of players, their families, coaches and officials.Buckley thanked her for all her help over the years, the guidance she?s given and her friendship.Heil said she will be available to help players set up summer programs and get going on summer leag