Harames finally done

Friday night, however, the home crowd at the “Panther Pit” got one last chance to thank Harames for a coaching career that spanned five decades.

“It’s been wonderful here (at Burlingame). … I kept trying to talk myself into staying,” Harames said before Friday’s game against rival San Mateo. “It’s been very emotional.”

Haremes first stepped down at Capuchino in 1987 before returning three years later. After “retiring” as Capuchino’s boys’ varsity basketball coach in 2000 after his 17th season with the Mustangs, Harames was done.

But a chance meeting with then-Burlingame assistant coach Bob Ennis led to Harames taking over the Panthers’ freshman team at Burlingame. When longtime coach Jeff Dowd was not brought back after the 2011-12 season, Harames, somewhat reluctantly, took the reins.

“I basically recruited Pete to Burlingame,” Ennis said. “When the whole thing went down (with Dowd being replaced), I was adamant I wouldn’t be head coach. Pete said the only way he would do it is if I was his assistant.”

Harames put together a stellar career at Capuchino, leading the Mustangs to the 1995 state championship game. But he won his only Central Coast Section title in 2013 when he led the Panthers to the Division III title.

He could have walked away after that, but he kept coming back, even though the Panthers have struggled the last two years.

“He could have left a couple years ago with a lofty record,” Ennis said. “But he stayed because he loved the kids.”

Friday, after a series of pregame well-wishers alternated shaking Harames’ hand and giving him a hug, a short pregame ceremony was held to list his accomplishments, which include 325 wins. He was then presented with a crystal statuette to commemorate his career.

It’s the first time Harames has actually been acknowledged for his career. When he retired from Capuchino for the second time in 2000, he did so after the season, so there was no time for an end-of-season send off.

That was 18 years ago. After a decade-long layoff and returning in 2010, Harames coached his last home game Friday, but the Panthers could not write the Hollywood ending as San Mateo posted a 49-39 victory. San Mateo (5-6 PAL South, 12-11 overall) led just 39-33 after three quarters, but Burlingame (3-8, 4-19) managed only six points in the final eight minutes and didn’t score until nearly halfway through the period.

The Bearcats, who led for all but a few minutes, led 11-6 after one period and were up 21-12 after Antonio McGurk made a pair of free throws with 2:29 to play in the half. But Burlingame’s Robert Bonnici ended the half with back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Panthers’ deficit to 21-18 at the half.

Bonnici buried a 3 to open the third quarter for Burlingame and that ignited a 9-0 run as Cal Spurlock heated up. He scored six of his team-high 21 points to give the Panthers a 27-23 lead with 4:31 left in the third. Spurlock would go on to score 16 of his team’s final 18 points.

Then San Mateo’s Viraj Chandra heated up. Chandra, who finished with a game-high 26 points, buried three straight 3-pointer to retake the lead for the Bearcats, 32-29. He would add his sixth 3 of the night late in the quarter.

San Mateo then pulled away in the fourth quarter to keep its CCS playoff hopes alive.

Watching from the wings was Ennis, who planned on staying with Harames only one season. Heck, Harames didn’t think he would stay in the position very much longer than that. But Ennis, and Harames, kept coming back.

“We learned at Burlingame, we had a great system. What we lost sight of … was the kids. It was more about the system,” Ennis said. “Pete shows up and it’s all about the kids. That means it’s not plug and play. It’s, ‘Let’s get to teaching the whole game, not just the system.’

Despite being together only a handful of years, Harames has already become “Uncle Pete” to Ennis’ calvacade of kids, the oldest of which, Maddie, is a rising basketball star at Ennis’ alma mater of St. Ignatius. Ennis is now so close to Harames he has developed into a confidant.

“What stayed with me was … he was one of the best people I’ve ever met,” Ennis said. “He’s a legend.”