The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Veteran women’s basketball coach Cathy Inglese dies
Former Vermont, Boston College, Rhode Island head coach suffered a traumatic brain injury in a recent fall
Wallingford native and veteran former college women’s basketball coach Cathy Inglese died on Wednesday night a week after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a fall.
Inglese’s sister Nancy confirmed her death in a social media post on Wednesday night.
“It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of our sister and daughter Cathy Inglese, due to complications from a traumatic brain injury. We will miss Cathy sooo very much. Our thanks go out to everyone for their unbelievable love and support. Cathy’s legacy lives on!! Xoxo
The Inglese Family” The 60yearold Inglese won a state title as a junior at Sheehan High School in 1976. She would become a doubledigit scorer in each of her four seasons at Southern Connecticut State.
Inglese’s coaching career began at Glastonbury High School before she embarked on a long run in the collegiate game. Her first collegiate head coaching gig was at Vermont when she led the Catamounts to back to back undefeated regular seasons. Inglese landed the head job at Boston College in 1993. Inglese led the Eagles to seven NCAA tournament appearances including trips to the Sweet 16 in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
She was the head coach at Rhode Island and recent
ly was on the coaching staff at Fairleigh Dickinson before being named as an associate head coach at Hofstra last month.
“Our hearts are hurting with the passing of Cathy,” Hofstra coach Danielle Santos Atkinson said. “Cathy was one of the kindest and nicest people I have come to know in the coaching industry and in her short time with our program she left an indelible mark. Our entire program and the Hofstra family are heartbroken that she has passed but her memory will continue to influence our program every day we step on the court. Please join us in sending our thoughts and prayers to her family. Cathy lived a wonderful life and personally I am honored to have been able to call her a friend, colleague, coworker and mentor.”
Inglese was a captain of the Southern Connecticut basketball team as a senior and also a member of the Owls’ softball program for three years. She was named the school’s female athlete of the year as a season and was inducted into the Southern Connecticut State Athletic Hall of Fame.
“As I think about Cathy as a basketball player, I remember how she was my first captain in my first year after I was hired,” former SCSU women’s basketball coach Tony Barone said. “She was truly one of the most disciplined athletes I ever had and certainly one of the most knowledgeable. She was a great individual and a very caring person. She loved coaching, it was her passion and she was dedicated to it for a long time. I have no doubt that she’s in some way still coaching today. I’m going to miss her.”
Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller got to know Inglese when he was an assistant coach at Syracuse and Inglese was coaching at Boston College. He reflected on her legacy before a recent game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“It is devastating news and I shared with my staff that as a young assistant in the Big East, she was very approachable and built that relationship 25 years ago,” Miller said. “The other thing that people don’t realize is that Cathy has been to multiple practices and at the end of practice we have been able to talk, I had just great respect for her basketball mind and it is just a sad thing. Prayers have been sent from our organization.”
The reaction from the women’s basketball world was swift and heartfelt when news of Inglese’s recent fall surfaced and more tributes followed on social media Wednesday night.
“It is hard not to imagine as we rush around at camp running from one court to another, one thing to another and to know that something happened on a staircase, it could happen to any of us and it is just how crazy life is,” Miller said.
james.fuller @hearstmediact.com; @NHRJimFuller