Crosby-Ironton Boys’ Basketball Coach Galovich Breaks 800 Wins

Crosby-Ironton boys’ basketball has cracked the top 10 rankings in the state in Class AA. And they’re sitting firmly in that #10 spot, thanks in part to a win against Cloquet Tuesday night that has the Rangers at a perfect 10-0.

Couple that with long-time head coach Dave Galovich becoming the fourth high school basketball coach in Minnesota history to break 800 wins, and C-I basketball is becoming the talk of the town.

Last Friday’s game against Pillager drew in quite a crowd to see a monumental milestone that Coach Galovich tried to humbly downplay.

“When you’re in coaching, it’s day by day,” said Galovich. “You’re looking to plan every day, evaluate every practice, try to make the next practice a better one. Try to get your guys ready for every game, but to get to the 800 wins, [it’s] a very significant milestone. But I realize that [it’s] just a small piece of the puzzle and the biggest piece of the puzzle is our players.”

And although the players weren’t initially privy to Coach Galovich’s impending feat, the team knew they couldn’t let the crowd – or their coach – down.

“I actually didn’t know about the 800th win until like last week or something like that, but it’s definitely pretty cool,” said team captain Joseph Ringhand. “We don’t want to like blow it for like the whole – because a lot of people showed up to see him [get the 800th win] so we didn’t want to let anybody down.

“It’s a lot. I mean, it shows you how many people he’s coached throughout, like, I don’t know, 40 years,” added team captain James Stokman. “It shows, I mean, his competitiveness and just loyalty to C-I basketball means a lot.”

While Coach Galovich’s been in the spotlight recently, the C-I boys are making noise of their own this season by winning their first 10 games by an average of 25 points. But in order to clinch their first state tournament trip since 2017, the Rangers know the hard work’s only just begun.

“It’s definitely a long season and basketball is the … four- or five-month season. So I think the main thing is just, you know, not burning out, keeping guys interested,” said Stokman. “And I mean, winning games helps obviously. You know, if you win games, it’s a lot more fun. But yeah, we just got to stick together as a team and just have fun with it, that’s all – what it’s all about, you know?

Crosby-Ironton will shoot for 11-0 against Greenway tomorrow. A win would mark the program’s best start since the 2021-22 season when the Rangers opened the year 13-0.

The only team remaining on the Rangers’ schedule that is currenty ranked is #5 Esko. That game will be away at Esko on Feb. 20.