Turco out at ND, Roche to take over
LAWRENCEVILLE » A mass exodus of players over the summer, a new grandson and a change in residence has led to the departure of the head basketball coach at Notre Dame High School, but his replacement has quickly been found.
After seven years with the Irish, Bob Turco has resigned, citing a move to Barnegat to be closer to his family and the fact that five players transferred over the summer as the main reasons.
His position will be assumed by Athletic Director Rich Roche, who was asked to take the position by Principal Mary Liz Ivins, since a search at this late a date would not have been feasible with the season starting in a few weeks.
Turco resigned Tuesday evening, and Roche’s appointment was made official Friday morning. The players were informed Friday.
Ironically, Turco was Roche’s first hire when he took over the program in 2010.
“I’m tremendously sorry to see Bob go because he’s such a good friend,” Roche said. “The job he did over the course of seven years was phenomenal. Losing a coach of his caliber was a big hit. I’m sorry to see him go and I know he has his reasons, so I’m just going to let him address whatever he has to say about that.”
Turco said that while losing six players factored into his decision, there were other reasons as well.
“It’s been roaming around in my head for the past two months,” he said. “All the stuff that happened this summer really took its toll on me. And I am leaving for personal reasons, the most important one is becoming a grandfather and moving down to Barnegat to be closer to my kids. My daughter just had our first grandson three months ago so I want to be with him.
“I admit, the kids leaving did hurt me personally and was included when making the decision. But the biggest factor by far was becoming a grandfather and having a chance to move closer to my grandson and be part of his life, especially since I am now an empty nester. But I would have still loved to coach the kids that stayed. They are all great young men who will be successful both on and off the court.”
The Irish went 148-46 with two Mercer County Tournament championships and numerous Colonial Division titles during Turco’s regime. The Irish appeared to be loaded coming into this season until the deluge of transfers took place.
The first player to go was Isaiah Wong, the Colonial Valley Conference’s top returning player as a junior. Wong went to Monsignor Bonner in Upper Darby (Pa.) and the dominoes started to fall. Soon after, Travis Cumber, Joe Baldachino, Titus Beard, Peter Sorber and Julian McGowan all left for other schools. None were seniors.
Turco, who came to Notre Dame from Monroe High, said he has already been contacted by coaches in Middlesex and Ocean counties to help out as an assistant this season. He hopes to be a head coach somewhere down the road, but closer to where he lives.
“I don’t feel I want to be finished coaching,” he said. “I still have time left and things I want to accomplish. Winning a division is great, yay. Winning counties is great, yay. But I want to win the ultimate game (a state final). I failed at that in public school, we got to the finals and lost, and we didn’t get to the finals at Notre Dame.
“But I promised some things when I came here and we accomplished a lot of them. We built something the school could be proud of, we did it the right way. We have no regrets about how we did things.”
Roche takes over with 20-plus years of coaching experience in high school and college. He has not coached for 11 years but said, “I didn’t forget how to do it.”
The Long Island native had several stints at St. Anthony High School on South Huntington, Long Island. He was an assistant at SUNY Farmingdale, served as a three-year unpaid assistant under Steve Lappas while working toward his Masters degree at Villanova, and was the head coach at Hobart College in Geneva N.Y. for nine years.
In looking at the situation he steps into, Roche is not expecting miracles.
“It’s a team that’s young and inexperienced,” he said. “We’re not going to concern ourselves with who’s not here, we’re going to concern ourselves with who is and do the best we can. We have a bunch of hard working kids, they’re going to dig in and play.
“The goal is to be better than day one, realistically. I know we still have terrific a player in Cartier Bowman and juniors that can still play. I’m excited. It’s a lot to take in, in a very short period of time, but I’m anxious to get going. And I wish Bob all the luck. These are big shoes to fill.”
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores