Jeff Anastasia

Jeff Anastasia

Jeff Anastasia was born in Olean, NY, graduated from Olean High School and became the winningest coach in Western New York high school basketball history at Olean High.

Anastasia began coaching at Olean HS in 1983, working with freshmen from 1983-86 and the junior varsity in 1986-87. In 1987, he took over the reins for the varsity and began a run to a record of 602-139, and an incredible winning percentage of 81.2%.

In his 32 seasons of coaching, his Olean Huskies teams won 21 league championships, 14 Section VI titles, made 12 trips to the regionals, seven appearances in the NYSPHAA Class B Final Four and won two New York State championships (in 2008 and 2016). The 2015-16 team set Olean HS records for most wins and most consecutive wins (28) in school history. Anastasia retired in 2019 with an active 78-game home winning streak.

Anastasia has received numerous awards including the Bob Johnson Memorial Cattaraugus County Boys Coach of the Year Award (1991), the Thomas K. Oakley Big 30 Coach of the Year Award (1995, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2008), the BCANY Section VI Coach of the Year (1996, 2003, 2008, 2009, and 2012), the BCANY New Balance NYS Boys Coach of the Year (2008), the BCANY Coach of the Year Class B (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019), the BCANY CCAA League Coach of the Year (2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019), the BCANY Service Award for 25 Years of Coaching, the Centercourt Coach of the Year (2014 and 2016). He received the City of Olean Service to Youth Award, was awarded the NYSPHSAA Section VI Coaches Sportsmanship Award, and the BCANY Lifetime Achievement Award (2019).

Anastasia had opportunities to move up to the next level as a college basketball coach, but he loved working with high school age student-athletes and was able to combine his love for teaching kids with his passion for sports. And, though winning was very important to Anastasia, it wasn’t the only thing. Near the end of a hard fought and physical state semifinal game that Olean was about to lose, Coach Anastasia is known to have insisted on this from his crestfallen players: “I want nothing negative said to the other team. No matter what is said by them. We take the high road, we show class, we show character. That is who we are!”

This quote from St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt (who had three sons play for Anastasia) sums up Anastasia’s years of coaching: “He has a passion for the game, he really works at it. He cares about his players, he calls them on graduation. He runs a program that a lot of people look at as really successful. He does it the right way, he treats the kids in the right manor, he coaches them well.”

For his accomplishments, Anastasia has been inducted into the NYS Basketball Hall of Fame (2016), the Cattaraugus County Hall of Fame and the Olean High School Wall of Fame.

The biographies contained on this website were written at the time of the honoree's induction into the Hall of Fame. No attempt has been made to update these narratives to reflect more recent events, activities, or statistics.