America’s best coach? Pinkham wins regional, heads to national contest
In the USA Today best coach vote, Boothbay Region High School coach I.J. Pinkham found himself in a dogfight with West Hartford, Conn.'s John Mirabello.
As late as January 28, Mirabello led the voting, albeit by percentage points.
But on January 30, the polls closed and it is Pinkham who will be moving on to the next round: the best coach in the United States!
Pinkham notched 127,886 votes against Mirabello's 119,038 to move onto the national stage. Voting to win the grand prize, which includes $2,000 for the school, starts at noon, Friday, Jan. 31.
It was a two-candidate race form early on between the Connecticut and Maine representatives; only Rhode Island's Stephen Demeo (5,206 votes) and Vermont's Bob Prenevost (1,782) eclipsed the 1,000 vote mark. The New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York coaches all failed to crack 100 votes.
Pinkham’s total was the highest across the country but not by much; J.O. Johnson (Huntsville, Ala.) coach Jack Doss received 127,812 votes.
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