The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
New coach, same goal for Bay
Rockets ready for success under former Gilmour coach John Curran, will look to soccer players for inspiration
After six years as an assistant at Magnificat and Gilmour, John Curran finally got his shot at being a head girls basketball coach last season.
He made the most of it, going 25-4 with Gilmour and advancing the Lancers all the way to the Division II state championship game, where they lost to Toledo Rogers, 51-37.
In fact, one of the teams Gilmour beat on its way to the state final was Bay in a regional semifinal at Barberton.
As fate would have it, Curran, a longtime Bay Village resident, would step down at Gilmour, primarily because of the travel, and Rockets coach Brian Hill decided to step down as well. It wasn’t long before Bay found its new coach living literally one mile away from the school.
“The proximity to my house was a big thing for me,” Curran said. “I lived 40 miles away from the gym at my last job. I loved Gilmour, but the geography was the biggest reason I decided to leave. A couple of weeks later, the Bay search committee called me and, it was so close, I had to take it.
“I’ve been a Bay resident for 30 years, so it’s great to be back within the community and working with a really good group of young women who are pretty motivated and very accepting of the challenge so far. Hopefully they understand they can accomplish something great if they come together.”
Hill guided the Bay girls to its first district championship in 12 years last season, finishing 18-9, so the Rockets have had a taste of success.
And, three girls in particular have had a more recent taste of success, as senior Maeve Johnston and juniors Barbara Aldridge and Carolyn Fowles were starters on the state finalist girls’ soccer team this year. The deep playoff run prevented the trio — who Curran expects to be regular members of his eightplayer rotation — from getting practice time with the new coaching staff early on. However, Curran believes there could be a benefit.
“I told those girls that, of everyone on this team, they have the understanding of the level it takes to get to a final four or a final two,” Curran said. “We want to take some of that culture from the girls’ soccer team and apply to the basketball side.
“Unfortunately, we are a little behind in figuring out our rotation because of their deep playoff run. We’re just trying to understand what we can do. We don’t really know about some of these girls. We know who our top eight are, but other than (senior four-year letterwinner Maddie) Edgerly, we don’t know who will score or who our best defenders are.”
Curran’s success at Gilmour has him coming in with a championship mentality. He’s also brought with him aggressiveness on both the offensive and defensive sides — the Rockets will switch from zone defense to press man-to-man and will run on offense instead of playing a slow-down game.
“I think we all had to just get used to new people and a new process, especially because our soccer team made it to state,” Edgerly said. “For the last two weeks of practice, we didn’t have those girls with us. We had to integrate them back in and teach them the plays. But it’s going quicker than we hoped, and they are picking up on things really well.
“The man defense is a lot different than what we’re used to, since we ran zone the whole time. Even though we have a lot of upperclassmen, our team is pretty young with experience. But we have a lot of really fast quick guards this year and we’re looking to get out and run in transition this year. I am excited about the changes that have been put in place.”
Edgerly, who will play collegiately at Division III Hope College in Michigan, said she is used to playing a faster pace because of her experience playing at the AAU level during the spring and summer and is trying to help her teammates make the adjustment.
“I think once we get it down, I think it will really make us a threat,” she said. “We are coming off the deepest postseason run we’ve had in 12 years and our coach made it even deeper last year. I think the way he taught us to practice, even just the game plan he’s put in, has made a difference.
“He and the assistant coaches came in with a winning mentality, a championship mentality, and stress a hard-work ethic. I think that’s going to help us go further than we’ve ever had in the past.”
Other starters for the Rockets along with Edgerly and Johnson include juniors Haley Andrejcak and Aldridge. Junior Grace Chilton, sophomores Maddie Hibbs, Audrey Hyland and Kayla Koz, and freshman Chaeli Ziebarth should also be factors in both the starting lineup and in Curran’s rotation this year.
“The girls have been great, and their attitude has been very good so far,” Curran said. “It was just a different level at Gilmour. But there are talented girls in this program. We’re just trying to raise the bar a little bit. We aiming to get through our district again and the ultimate goal is to take this program to Columbus.
“We’ve been there as coaches and now we’re trying to get the girls to believe in that and think that way. A good goal would be to win the (Great Lakes) Conference. Elyria Catholic is one of the better teams in Ohio in Division III, so we know that will be a great challenge for us.”
Curran beefed up Bay’s scrimmage schedule, playing Wadsworth, Berlin Hiland and Solon among others, to try to prepare his new team for what it can see in the postseason.
“We’re just trying to get comfortable with a new way of playing and a confidence that it’s going to work,” Curran said. “It’s been a process without three girls who we expect to be a big part of it, but I’m looking forward to the new challenges here. I’m really excited to be here and to see what we can do.”