Note: This is not an official ballot. Also, just because a coach’s name isn’t here, that doesn’t mean that Phil and I don’t respect that coach and his/her ability and skill. This is based on this season’s results. The Journal News all-stars article will be published on April 13.
Pat Buckley, Albertus Magnus (14-8): At the beginning of the season, we said that Albertus Magnus was a young, talented team to watch. After a shaky regular season, the Lady Falcons proved they belonged among the section’s best after upsetting top-seeded Pearl River in the Section 1 Class A semifinals, 59-56 in double-overtime. Magnus would later lose to No. 11 Peekskill in the title game. As talented as this team was, Buckley (pictured below with Moylan) was still at the disadvantage of not having his starting point guard Kelly Guarino, who tore her ACL for the second straight year. Buckley broke in a new point guard, junior Ryan Doherty, who shined in the role, and developed players like sophomore Madison McGrath into those worthy of an all-section selection (Doherty was selected, McGrath was snubbed). Led by Manhattan-bound senior Maeve Parahus, the Lady Falcons turned heads this year, and will be one of the top teams to watch next year.
Jennifer Chiera-Frank, Clarkstown South (15-5): For the second consecutive season, Chiera-Frank (pictured above) led the Lady Vikings to an undefeated league championship, but yet they were still given a rather low seed (in my opinion) for the Section 1 Class AA tournament. As the No. 7 seed, the Lady Vikings beat a talented Horace Greeley team in the first round before losing a nail-biter to No. 2 Lourdes on the road. Playing a very competitive schedule, the Lady Vikings notched quality wins against teams like North Rockland, Hackley, Sleepy Hollow, and Horace Greeley, while losing to very worthy opponents such as Monroe-Woodbury (Section 9 Class AA champ), Albertus Magnus (Section 1 Class A finalist), Pearl River (18-3, top-ranked Class A team), and Tappan Zee (sank 11 3-pointers to beat the Lady Vikings).
Lorraine Moylan, Pearl River (18-3): After leading the Pirates to their first state final four appearance in program history last season, few expected the team to have anything resembling a repeat this year. Despite losing the 2012 NYS Class A player of the year (Christa Scognamiglio), Moylan guided the Pirates to the best record in Rockland County and a No. 1 seed in the Section 1 Class A tournament before losing a thrilling, double-overtime semifinal game to No. 4 Albertus Magnus. Moylan (pictured below with Buckley) announced her resignation in early March after 30 seasons as a head coach. She is Rockland County’s all-time winningest basketball coach (536).
14 Comments
My vote goes to coach Chiera. She really did an amazing job this season.
I second the vote for the Cl South coach( not that the other 2 aren’t shabby either) but she really has turned the south program around..the other 2 coaches have great( been that way for a while) programs
Why the emphasis on Rockland coach and player? Weren’t they part of Section 1 this year? I know that Coach Maher and Saniya Chong have gotten most of the awards and praise this year, but there are many others in the section who deserve to be recognized, too. There are three Section 1 teams going to Troy this week and none are from Rockland. Maybe you should do a poll excluding Coach Maher and Saniya. Just a thought…
Since there are no Rockland teams left, we’re starting with them. We will be putting up similar posts for Westchester player and coaches of the year between now and next week.
Def coach moylan!!!!
Section 1 fan..chill..step away from the keyboard and breathe…they have been doing things like this year( seperating Rockland and Westchester)
Jen Chiera deserves it – hands down. Prior to Chiera – that team didn’t win a league game in YEARS!!! (Someone must have that stat). She appears to find the best skill in each of her players….a real professional!
Metcalf, North Rockland
Coach Buckley is definately deserving of this award. Had team over come many injuries and got players to step up and play different roles all season to whatever the team needed on any given day
Coach Moylan, hands down. Look what she did this year. Not to downgrade any of her players, who are a hard working, hustling bunch, but she had no “stars” returning as did the others, and no one expected them to do what they did(she is one of the best coaches section 1 has ever had!)
@hoopfan85…. Hahahahaha
Albertus-Pearl River-Clarkstown South. Chiera is in good company. I vote for Chiera as a relatively new, up and coming coach. She’s the newbie and has done a great job at south. She pulled a team from under the radar to a top contender. The games they lost were nail biters.
No disrespect to PR or AM-they had great seasons with well seasoned coaches.
Lets show Chiera that she has caught our eye and we are expecting South to continue to play well. Congrats to all three teams.
agree with jimmer
I agree with jimmer. Moylan definitely should be Rockland Coach of the Year. At the start of the season Albertus was the favorite. Pearl River after losing 4 starters from the previous season was not expected to have the success they did this season. They were undefeated in Rockland during the regular season beating Albertus twice and Clarkstown South once…only to lose in double overtime to Albertus in the semi-finals. Having all that said both Buckley and Cheira are terrific coaches as well just the edge goes to Moylan.