Mars boys basketball coach Rob Carmody resigns after 26 years

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 | 10:10 PM

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Once Rob Carmody decided now was the time to resign as Mars’ boys basketball coach, his son Robby had a request.

“He said, ‘Dad, I want to get in the gym with you one more time before this all happens,’” said Carmody, who fulfilled that wish over the weekend. “We had a good cry. It’s sad. But by the same token, I know I’m doing the right thing by my family, by my business and for the kids in our program.”

Carmody resigned after 26 years as the Mars coach, a span that included two WPIAL titles and two trips to the state finals.

But professionally he is a co-owner of an electroplating business that has been in his wife Stephanie’s family for decades. As older partners retire, there is always more responsibility to take on, he said, and the business is entering one of those transition periods.

That left him to choose between family, work and coaching, since there wasn’t time for all three.

“No one can just walk in (to the business) and do what we do. You really need time and training,” Carmody said. “And no one could be the husband that I am to my wife or the father I am to my children. The one job that someone could fill is being the coach at Mars.”

Carmody, 52, says this isn’t his retirement from coaching. He said he expects to coach again somewhere in the future, maybe as an assistant, but couldn’t make the time commitment needed to be a head coach now.

His career record is 408-235.

“Until two weeks ago, I was still running open gyms,” Carmody said. “I was trying everything in my power to find a way to do everything that I want to do. But it gets to a point where you know you can’t. … I would never want someone to not give their all coaching one of my children, so I can’t turn around and do that to someone else’s.”

His sons, Robby and Michael, both played basketball for him. They combined on a WPIAL championship team in 2018, and Michael won again a year later after Robby graduated. The Planets were state runners-up in 2016 and ’18.

Carmody announced his resignation in a social media post Tuesday night. In his announcement, Carmody noted that Mars made its 17th straight trip to the WPIAL playoffs last winter, and won nine section titles in the past 15 years.

He also counted 13 Mars players who scored more than 1,000 points since 2006.

“Thank you to all of the guys who have worn the Mars uniform over the years,” Carmody wrote on the social media platform X. “It is through your talent, dedication and toughness that our program is what it is today.”

Robby, a 2,000-point scorer for Mars, is a post-graduate transfer on Le Moyne’s roster. He previously played college basketball at Notre Dame and Mercer. Michael is a redshirt junior lineman for UCLA, after transferring from Notre Dame. A third Carmody sibling, Mackenzie, is a student at Penn State.

Carmody became Mars’ coach in 1998 at age 26, taking over a program with only scarce success. He previously spent four years as an assistant at North Catholic, his high school alma mater. Before that, he was playing college basketball at Westminster.

“I started playing basketball in fourth grade,” he said. “It’s literally been a life-long love affair.”

Carmody was pleased that Mars has eight letter-winners and three starters coming back from last season’s playoff team, and that the youth program had more than 180 boys. He also praised the support he received from the school’s administration and community.

“I took the job, and immediately my wife and I said, ‘We want to raise our kids here,’” Carmody said. “Mars went from being a place I didn’t know anything about to being my home. I want nothing but the best for the kids. That’s really what drove this decision.”

For the last 26 years I have been proud to represent the Mars School District as the Boys’ Basketball Coach. During that time, I was fortunate that my family and work responsibilities aligned with the demands of overseeing our basketball program.

— Rob Carmody (@CoachRobCarmody) August 28, 2024

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Mars