You know Loyola-chicago’s Sister Jean; now meet Villanova’s Father Rob
BOSTON — Move over, Sister Jean. And make some room at the Final Four for Father Rob.
Villanova has a beloved team chaplain, too. And while the 98-year-old nun Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt has been getting international attention for her role with Loyola-chicago during its deep run in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the Rev. Rob Hagan also has a spiritual connection to a Final Four team. He has had a hand in Villanova’s success for more than a decade.
But do not expect any trash talk this week with his fellow basketball-fan-of-the-cloth.
“As someone who is a product of 16 years of Catholic school, I always learned that you respect the nuns,” Hagan joked outside Villanova’s locker room Sunday, after the Wildcats earned their second trip to the Final Four in three years with a victory over Texas Tech.
On the TD Garden court minutes earlier, Hagan, 53, had stood with his arm wrapped around coach Jay Wright as Villanova players and staff members climbed a ladder to snip at the nets. Wright and Hagan have worked together since 2004, nearly the start of Wright’s tenure with the Wildcats.
Hagan said afterward that Wright was confiding in him something the cool, confident coach might not readily admit to the public or the news media.
“He was just saying, ‘I know I don’t deserve this,’” Hagan said. “I can tell you, nobody works harder than him. But I think in that moment he was just aware of how blessed and grateful he is.”
Said Wright: “When you realize you’ve made it through the final eight and you’re going to go, you just feel so blessed. You think, why me? You know there’s a lot of great teams out there, a lot of great programs. At this point, you don’t really try to figure out why. You’re just soaking it in.”
Hagan’s approach to support, he said, is just to be there to listen.
As an associate athletic director, and a priest of the Order of St. Augustine, Hagan lives on campus and travels with the basketball team, for which he customarily delivers a pregame prayer.
But he also serves as a counselor and confidant, building relationships that have lasted well beyond the basketball court. He recently performed the wedding of the former Wildcats star Randy Foye, and has baptized the children of other former players.
“They have a million people telling them what to do,” Hagan said. “Sometimes it’s nice to just be the person that gets to listen.”
On Sunday, Hagan’s pregame prayer focused on humility, a theme he has repeated with the team all season. “Don’t drink the perfume,” he said. “You don’t get too high when things are going well, and you don’t get too low when things aren’t going so great.” Several players echoed the message in their postgame interviews.
Hagan attended Villanova and went on to law school at Widener University in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania, before serving as a lawyer for seven years. But after leaving his career to become ordained as an Augustinian in 2003, he joined the Villanova athletics department to work on compliance matters (university officials thought his law degree would help.) In 2004, he replaced the longtime basketball and football team chaplain, Rev. Bernard Lazor, who retired.
As far as Sister Jean, Hagan laughed at the idea of any rivalry between the spiritual leaders of teams that could ultimately meet for a national title. On the contrary, he said he loved the attention Schmidt was bringing to her faith and her mission.
“It’s brought a lot of awareness and enthusiasm to Loyola and to the order of the BVM sisters, the work that they do, the mission, the people they serve,” he said, referring to the Sisters of the Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “I couldn’t be happier for her and her order. It’s really great to see.”
Hagan does, however, have one thing he can brag about: Unlike Schmidt, who only had her Ramblers reaching the Sweet 16, Hagan had a bit more faith in Villanova.
“I picked these guys all the way,” he said. “Every year.”