Roche homecoming is Saints’ gain
Shen grad departed Vanderbilt for director of hoops operations job
Shenendehowa graduate Morgan Roche was known for being remarkably organized during her six years as Vanderbilt’s assistant director of student services.
She stayed on top of the academic performance of the men’s basketball team, coached by former NBA star Jerry Stackhouse, at the prestigious university in Nashville, Tenn.
“She’s got a chart and an Excel sheet for every single thing,” said Adell Harris, Stackhouse’s chief of staff. “She’s got every one of our guys’ schedules and assignment schedules, calendars after calendars, just to keep us organized.”
Harris said she’ll miss that meticulousness now that Roche has left to become the director of basketball operations for the Siena women’s basketball team. She started with the Saints on June 1.
Roche will use that attention to detail to help new Saints head coach Jim Jabir, returning for his second stint leading the Saints.
“That starts with taking care of the coaches, the players from
an organizational standpoint,” Roche said. “Making sure the program is run flawlessly and that no detail is left unturned. Organizing travel, a lot of responsibilities that have nothing to do with coaching basketball in generic terms, but managing all the other sides of the program so the coaches have the opportunity to do what they’re here to do and bring in students and develop them and leave everything else for me to get done.”
She said she’ll work as a liaison to Siena academic advisor Sarah Sivertson to support the players academically.
“I think she’s going to do really great things for us,” Jabir said.
Siena men’s basketball director of operations Matt Miner is also a Shenendehowa alumnus. Roche graduated in 2008, two years before Miner.
At Vanderbilt, Roche helped the Commodores perform much better in the classroom than they did on the court during Stackhouse’s first two seasons. While Vanderbilt is 20-37 in two seasons under Stackhouse, they had eight players make the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll this winter.
“I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Jerry, to be a part of his transition to college coaching,” Roche said. “I think I was a helpful asset to his staff because they got there and they were new to Vanderbilt and I wasn’t new. I played a big part in help acclimating their staff and making sure that transition went as smoothly as possible.”
Harris said Roche was very popular with the Vanderbilt players despite being the one who had to stay on them about their schoolwork.
“She was a great partner from the beginning, just awesome to work with,” Harris said. “Coach Stackhouse treated her like she was a member of our staff, in a way, almost like he had hired her. That’s the most important loss — that our student-athletes really, really liked Morgan.”
Roche said she left Vanderbilt because she wanted to come home. She was a three-sport athlete at Shenendehowa who gave up basketball her senior year to focus on her running career. She earned a track scholarship to Quinnipiac.
She has a family background in basketball. Her uncle is former Burnt Hills coach Don Juron and her cousin Jeff Juron is head men’s basketball coach at Division III Suffolk.
“I think it all began with a personal decision to come to the area, the area of New York that I was born and raised in,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate enough in my professional career to be able to work with college athletes and it’s something I’m very passionate about.”
Roche is staying with her parents, now located in Saratoga Springs, while shopping for a house.
“A little bit of a commute is right, but obviously the opportunity to be here in this position is what I’m excited about,” Roche said. “So it’s just good to be back home.”
Harris said she wasn’t surprised to see Roche leave Vanderbilt.
“Vanderbilt is not her ceiling and I don’t think the Siena women’s basketball DOBO is her ceiling, either,” Harris said. “She’s going to do whatever she aspires to do in college athletics. We wish her well and want the best for her.”