SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- To the people here he remains "Riles," the high school star with a crewcut instead of slicked-back hair, and short basketball shorts in the place of tailored Armani suits.

For, despite his many accomplishments in the sports world, people who know NBA coaching great Pat Riley say he is just a small-town boy who hasn't left his roots or his friends behind on the way to the top in places like Hollywood, Manhattan and South Beach.

"He looks so slick and he's not," said Margaret Denio, whose husband Dom coached Riley in football and baseball at Linton High School. "He's not that person at all. He's just a nice kid."

On Tuesday, the Miami Heat coach with four championships and 1,079 wins on his NBA resumé was back in his hometown just outside Albany to speak at the fifth annual Schenectady City School District Hall of Fame and Reunion Dinner, where a class including Dom Denio and local sportswriter Al DeSantis -- whom Riley called a father figure -- was inducted.

"I had direct relationships with them, absolute direct, personal relationships with their families," Riley said. "They were very, very big influences on me."

Riley, a 1963 graduate of Linton, was inducted into the hall of fame in 2000 and school officials say he was instrumental in its creation.

The school named its sports facility after Riley in 1997, prompting Riley to encourage the establishment of a hall of fame to honor the other sports standouts, including New York Yankees pitching coach Billy Connors and former NBA player Barry Kramer, who hail from the district.

Riley still has family, including his mother, living in the area, and trips back afford him time to visit with old friends and coaches.

The occasion also gives his old high school buddies, who ran around with Riley in a group Dom Denio affectionately refers to as the "Goose Hill Gang" after a section of the city, an opportunity to prevent any delusions Riley may have about getting a big head.

"He'll get his heat this year because he didn't make the playoffs," Paul Heiner, a high school basketball teammate of Riley's, said with a laugh.

"It's a riot when he comes back because when he was in high school he was kind of quiet ... and even though he's an icon and a speech-giver and whatnot, he sort of gravitates back to his rank in high school," said Heiner, again laughing. "He's back on the rung he was on in '63. He doesn't go to the top rung, not even close to the top rung."