Portland coach Joe Russo holds the Gold Ball as he and his team celebrate after the Bulldogs beat Camden Hills 76-60 in the Class A final on Feb. 28 at Cross Insurance Arena. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

Joe Russo has retired as Portland High’s boys basketball coach.

Russo, 69, had been weighing the decision to retire for months — his friends and fellow coaches would say years. On Tuesday he made it public.

“I handed in my resignation. I sat and had a good conversation with Spencer (Allen, the Portland athletic director),” Russo said Tuesday evening. “Something is telling me this is the right time.

“The truth is, I still enjoy it. I wish I could do it forever. But I knew I would have to give it up sometime. When do I pass the torch? And I just said, ‘maybe this is the time.'”

A Portland native, Russo coached the Bulldogs for 36 seasons and won his sixth state championship with the program in February, guiding a gritty, defense-oriented team that lost six regular-season games while dealing with injuries, sickness, and players staying away from practice during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation.

“There’s not many leaders out there who could have navigated all of that and keep teenagers focused,” said South Portland boys basketball coach Kevin Millington.

Millington said he used to joke that “this was the 15th straight year (Russo) had said he was done but I always felt this year was different. Not because they had won (the championship) but because of the way he said it.”

Russo said that his final game being a state championship win had little to do with his decision.

“I never really coached for championships. I always coached to be competitive, for the players to be the best they can, and give a good effort,” Russo said. “When I do look back, it won’t be the last year I won. It will be that I’ve been very fortunate to have 36 great years,” at Portland.

Russo’s boys basketball teams won 517 games, including 11 over his first three seasons at Bonny Eagle. At Portland, he also helped start and coach the Portland girls volleyball program.

In 2018, the same year Russo was inducted into the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame, he overcame non-Hodgkin Large B Cell Lymphoma cancer. Russo was back coaching both volleyball and boys basketball in the 2018-19 school year.

Russo said he is healthy and that was not a factor in his decision to retire.

Russo won his 500th game in a AA North quarterfinal in 2025. That made him the 10th coach in Maine high school basketball history to reach the mark. He is now sixth on the all-time wins list.

After the Bulldogs defeated Camden Hills to win the 2026 Class A title, Russo indicated to friends, peers, and other acquaintances that he had probably just coached his last game.

He had made similar statements for at least a decade, usually in the muted light of a Cross Insurance Arena hallway after Portland had been eliminated. Russo would look tired and worn down. Then he would take a couple of weeks to think about it and by the next season would be back on Portland’s sideline.

Last season felt different. The Bulldogs won a state title and Russo was beaming. In mid-summer, Russo was still waiting to make his retirement final but also saying he was 98% sure he was done. He was letting his assistant coaches run the summer program.

As late as mid-September, Allen, the Portland AD, said he figured each day that passed increased the odds that Russo would return as Portland’s coach. Allen joked that on the days Russo was at the high school as a part-time physical education teacher he would try to avoid crossing paths with Russo.

“If he doesn’t see me he can’t give me his resignation,” Allen said.

As recently as last week, Russo said he was tempted to keep coaching, “because our freshmen are dynamite.”

Portland boys basketball coach Joe Russo and most of his grandchildren celebrate Russo’s 500th career win after the 2025 Class AA North quarterfinal. Russo became the 10th coach in Maine to hit the milestone and is now sixth on the all-time list with 517 wins. (Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image

The first day of practice for the 2026-27 season is Nov. 16, less than five weeks away.

Possible in-program successors as head coach would be top assistant Dan LeGage, a former head coach at Westbrook, and long-time assistant Joe Johnson. Russo’s longest tenured assistant Joe Giordano has indicated previously that he planned to step aside whenever Russo retired.

Russo said there are a “lot of qualified people,” who could succeed him, including several in “our own building.” He added that because he’ll likely know so many of the candidates he doesn’t want to be involved in the hiring process.

Russo was born on Dec. 7, 1956, the same day as Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird. Russo and his family moved from a different Portland neighborhood to Munjoy Hill when he was in third grade. The new house had a basketball hoop.

“So I started playing it. I played all the way through college and rec leagues. I studied the game,” Russo said. A point guard known for his defense, Russo said he was often referred to as “peppery,” by Portland sportscaster Frank Fixaris.

After graduating from Portland High in 1975, Russo earned a degree and played basketball at UMaine Presque Isle. He started his teaching and coaching career at Bonny Eagle, a job he enjoyed, but he and his wife Donna, who met in junior high and began dating as high school juniors, both wanted to stay in Portland. The Russos have been married 46 years. They have three grown children and nine grandchildren.

After his 500th win, Russo talked about what it meant to him to teach and coach at Portland High.

“When this job (at Portland) came, it was the dream job, pretty much,” Russo said. “Mainly because being from Portland and going to Portland High, you’re happy for the players. I was just like them growing up. So it means a lot when you’re doing it for the school you grew up in. I’m happy for the city and the school and the kids.”

Russo’s Portland teams won state championships in 1999, 2004, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2026, and finished as state runner-up in 2007, 2015, and 2023.

The 2016, 2017, and 2023 state finals were against South Portland.

“From a basketball perspective, Joe’s teams were always an elite defensive team,” Millington said. “The other thing he’s really elite at is, he’s very patient. Maybe that comes with age. He wasn’t trying to win the state championship in the first game or the fifth game and they were always much better at the end of the year than they were in the beginning.”