Twenty-seven years as a head coach across five Virginia high schools, followed by more than two decades as an assistant to his own former assistants.
Donald Joseph McCool is born on December 19, 1934, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grows up in Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he plays at Parkersburg High School. He goes on to Marietta College in Ohio on a basketball scholarship, starting at point guard for the celebrated "Firehouse Five" and graduating Magna Cum Laude.
Drafted into the U.S. Army, McCool plays on the storied Fort Lee basketball team before launching his teaching and coaching career.
McCool takes his first head-coaching job at Prince George High School, bringing the full-court pressure style that would define his career. He later earns his master's degree at the University of Wisconsin.
In just his third season, McCool wins his first state title at Prince George, defeating Midlothian 68–55.
He spends three seasons as head coach at Falls Church High School.
McCool builds the Spartans into a regional power: three Northern Region championships and two trips to the state final, 1972 (lost to Hopewell) and 1974 (lost to Petersburg and Moses Malone by two points).
After leaving West Springfield in 1975, McCool stepped away from head coaching for a time, including a year off the sideline, before returning to the game.
In a single standout season at Hayfield, McCool led the Hawks to the school's first District Championship, a 16–8 year, before his most famous chapter.
McCool takes over the Mount Vernon Majors, where he would become "Mount Vernon's Magician."
Mount Vernon becomes the first basketball team in Fairfax County to start five Black players, and wins the school's first and only state championship, beating 25–0 Petersburg in the semifinals and Maury 73–72 in the final.
The Majors go 22–5, win the Gunston District and Northern Regional titles, and reach the Virginia AAA state semifinals.
McCool steps down as a head coach at age 53, finishing 431–134 with two state titles, seven region titles and ten district titles.
For more than 20 years he serves as an assistant to several of his own former assistants, an almost unheard-of second act.
Named Virginia High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
Inducted into the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame on October 14 in Charlottesville, in a class that included NBA star Alonzo Mourning.
Don McCool passes away on March 3, 2023, in Fairfax, Virginia, at age 88, surrounded by family, friends, and his faith. He leaves a legacy measured in championships and, more lastingly, in the players and coaches he shaped.
Sources: Connection Newspapers (2015); The Journal "Mount Vernon's Magician"; 1983–84 championship plaque; Washington Post obituary (2023). See In the Papers.