IT’S A SMALL WORLD..

As a rising senior in high school the assistant coach from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, Tom Flahive called to express interest in my truly amazing point guard skills   The match didn’t end up working out, but somehow his presence remained in my life for the next 17 years.  When I was in college at Hofstra University he interviewed for the assistant position on the staff; as Coach walked him through the gym I thought to myself hey there is the assistant from St. Francis, wonder what he is doing here.  Once again no match.

Ten years after that I went to work as an assistant at Army and our director of basketball operations turned out to be his daughter Kelly who became my roommate.  So Coach Flahive was at our games, our house and eventually got his break as a head coach at Queens College in New York.  A well deserved opportunity after mentoring plenty of New York basketball players.  However a daunting task lay ahead of him as Queens College was not the dominant Women’s Basketball Program it was in the late 70s. 

Our paths crossed again as he hired my dad to be his assistant coach;  two Irish Catholic men out of Brooklyn and the Bronx, a coaching match made in heaven!  One loud, one not quite as loud, both with the ability to talk to anyone about anything.  (Actually on a phone call from Coach Flahive, I was able to put down the phone, get a drink and came back without him taking a breath!)  More importantly both possess a desire to teach, coach and mentor student athletes, all the right reasons for coaching and none of the wrong ones.  My father and Coach Flahive made basketball their life calling over the past thirty years and are now realizing their dreams after retiring from the jobs that allowed them to raise families.   Last night Queens College beat Molloy College to take over first place in the ECC and run their win streak to 12 games in a row.  Not many teams in the country can say they have strung together 12 wins in a row at this point in the season.

And so a phone call to our house 16 years ago has come full circle as two coaches perfect for each other and their team, are leading the women of Queens College on the ride of a lifetime!