Lake Catholic coach hits 100 career victories

Lake Catholic improved to 15-4 with a dominant 9255 victory over rival NDCL Feb. 15. The Cougars, 7-2 in the North Coast League’s Gray division, also clinched at least a share of their conference.

The night also marked a personal achievement on Lake Catholic’s sideline. Matt Moran, in his fifth year as the Cougars’ coach, picked up his 100th career victory. One of six children to legendary John Carroll coach Mike Moran and his wife, JoAnn, Moran attributes his achievement to what he learned from his family and those who guided his professional development.

“I didn’t get into this profession for individual achievements,” Moran said. “To me, reaching that number, I’m very fortunate people like Sam Colacarro gave me the opportunity to coach at Lake Catholic, Tim Armelli giving me the opportunity to coach at Chardon and Ryan Madison gave me my first opportunity at Parma.”

After Moran graduated from West Geauga, he played for his father at John Carroll and helped lead the Blue Streaks to the Final Four of the 2004 Division III tournament. He served as an assistant to his brother, Pete, at Berkshire and then with his father at John Carroll. Pete Moran is currently the John Carroll head coach and his brother, Pat, an assistant.

Matt Moran began his head-coaching career at 25 when Parma hired him in 2006. After a year there, he coached at Chardon for three seasons. Moran, a teacher at Lake Catholic, joined Mark Chicone’s staff and assisted him for four years. When Chicone stepped down in 2014, Colacarro elevated Moran to lead the program.

Since, the Cougars won the 2017 Ashtabula District title and finished as the runner-up in two other seasons. The Cougars begin the 2019 postseason as the No. 2 at the D-II Ashtabula District behind junior forward Luka Eller, averaging 24.8 points and 10 rebounds per game, and junior guard Luke Frazier, scoring 19.7 points per game.

“It’s been a real honor to play for coach Moran,” Eller said. “Year after year he puts his players first. You never see the guy talk about himself, it’s always about the team and I love that about him.”

Always humble, Moran points toward others before taking credit for any of his own success.

“To be able to still coaching,” Moran said, “be able to hit a milestone, it just makes me appreciate the people that I surrounded myself around, people that helped me out, the people that have given me the opportunity to do the one thing I love to do, and that’s just to coach basketball.”