When the chest pains started, Irv Leifer knew something had to change.

“I used to not sleep any time we lost a game,” Leifer said. “I had a lot of trouble sleeping and I decided it was time to quit. It was a little too stressful for me toward the end.”

Now 88, Leifer left Renton High in 1978 as the school’s most successful coach, with four state titles in boys basketball.

Leifer and the Indians won their first title in 1953. The team beat Lincoln, Cleveland, Elma and Aberdeen.

“The greatest accomplishment by one of my teams was the 1953 team,” Leifer said. “We played against one of the first seven footers to play in the state. Everybody was getting beat really bad by Elma that year.”

Elma’s star was Gary Nelson, who stood 7-foot-1. Nelson had been mowing through the opposition that season and scored 40 points the previous day against Bremerton.

Leifer’s strategies to slow Nelson down included extreme ball-control offense. Renton passed the ball upward of 40 times before shooting and led 7-5 at the half.

The Indians, and primary defender George Strugar, held Nelson to 13 points and won the game 34-30. They went on to beat Aberdeen 51-48 in the title game.

Leifer guided Renton back to the state tournament in 1954, 1957 and 1959 before winning it all again in 1960. Those Indians won games by an average of more than 13 points and beat Central Valley 59-41 in the title game.

The second round of the 1963 state tournament against Bishop Blanchet sticks out in Leifer’s mind as one of his toughest losses. The Indians led the entire game until committing a foul at the final buzzer.

“They hit their free throw after the buzzer had gone off and we lost,” he said. “That was a hard thing to take.”

The Indians got back on top in 1966 when they won another state title, Leifer’s third. Renton then won again in 1967 with what Leifer called his best team ever.

He finished his career at Renton with a 481-202 overall record and 72 wins to 31 losses in the postseason. Leifer only had three losing seasons in his career. He won 12 league titles and four state titles. In 2010, he was elected to the WIAA hall of fame.

In his 30 years at Renton, Leifer taught a variety of classes from math and science, to PE and health. And, eventually, he knew when it was the right time to leave.

“I can’t say I didn’t miss it,” he said of coaching. “I thought I quit at a good time.”

These days Leifer still gets to Renton High games when he can, and he still lives in the Renton Highlands. He walks two miles each morning to stay healthy.

“I’m not a kid anymore,” he said with a chuckle.