May 21, 2008

Stephanie comes back to New Jersey

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


Since graduating from Ocean City High School after a Hall of Fame career, Stephanie Vanderslice Gaitley has played college basketball in Pennsylvania and coached in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York. Last week, she finally brought her career back to New Jersey.

Actually, the newly hired head women's basketball coach at Monmouth University has been spending some of her summer months back in Ocean City conducting camps, including a team camp with her high school coach, Pat Dougherty. This summer, her Hoop Heaven Camps at Ocean City High School for boys and girls in grades K-8 are scheduled for July 14-18 and August 4-8.

"Coaching the young kids is just pure enjoyment," said Gaitley, "and seeing them just enjoy the sport. It brings back my father in a lot of ways, the way he always thought sports should be enjoyable and how much he loved them. You need to make sure at a young age that kids enjoy the experience. That increases the chances that they'll stay with the sport."

There are many who believe that young athletes specialize too soon. Orthopedic surgeons will tell you that no sport - not even the so-called healthy ones like running and swimming - should be practiced all year 'round. The wear and tear on the joints, muscles and tendons can cause big problems.

Gaitley is also concerned about burnout. "Some kids do burn out by playing the same sport all the time," she said. "I've got a son who plays basketball in college (at Monmouth, conveniently) and a couple of younger ones who are playing a couple of sports. Everybody has their own opinion but I think if there is a sport in which a young athlete excels more than the others, around the end of the sophomore year in high school is a good time to start concentrating more on that sport. I played both basketball and softball at Ocean City, though basketball was clearly my primary sport. I had been around softball and baseball all my life."

Gaitley has been inducted into the Ocean City High School Sports Hall of Fame, the South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame, the Villanova Hall of Fame and the Big Five Hall of Fame. The Northeast Conference Coach of the Year last season at Long Island University before making the move to Monmouth, she never forgets how much influence her high school coach has had on her career and her life.

"Mrs. Doc (Pat Dougherty) was a big, big part of me becoming what I am," she said. "I try to constantly remind her how important she is. Her discipline was very important. Coming from a family of eight kids there had to be discipline in our house for things to work right. But she created that discipline on the court. I later realized, when I was making coaching decisions, that that type of discipline is what makes successful programs."

And the young women at Long Island, and now Monmouth, can thank Dougherty for those sprint drills. "She used to have us do these two minute sprints and everybody hated them," said Gaitley. "Near the end of the drills we'd grab the slower girls and pull them through the line so we wouldn't have to do it again. When I began coaching I realized that if we hated that drill so much, it must be doing some good. So I'm still using it.

"Mrs. Doc was way ahead of her time. In fact, she's probably still ahead of a lot of today's coaches. She just has a great knack for the game and a great knack for motivating kids."

Gaitley also has relied heavily on Dick Bernhart, a friend of her late father's and a successful coach at Monsignor Bonner in Philadelphia. "He has guided me through some situations and been a big help to me," she said.

The Monmouth women's basketball job was one that Gaitley interviewed for more than 20 years ago. "Now I've got it," she said. "There is very little not to like about Monmouth. You are right in the middle of two major cities. It is almost like a Villanova on the beach. There is a beautiful campus with additional appeal to those who want a beach type surrounding. At LIU, you only appealed to the athlete who wanted a big city experience. This offers more options."

Gaitley had basically been commuting from suburban Philadelphia to LIU. Now she will relocate her family to Central Jersey, making for a more stable existence.

Plus, there is the $60 million arena.

"It is currently called the MAC (Monmouth Athletic Center)," she said, "and it will include a basketball arena and an indoor track facility. I really like the vision of the people here at Monmouth. I believe this school is really going to take off."

Taking over in May puts Gaitley in a tough recruiting position for next season. "We only have one scholarship left for this coming season," she said, "but we'll have five for the following year. That will be critical for our program. We're already talking to all the high school coaches we can, trying to get caught up because we need to get the right people with those five scholarships."

Gaitley leaves a couple of former Cape-Atlantic League stars behind at LIU - Connie James from Absegami and Chelsi Johnson from Holy Spirit. And an all-state player, the dynamic Lakeisha Sutton from Trenton Catholic, had committed to Long Island.

"That is really tough," Gaitley said. "It kills you because you know that you, as the coach, were a big part of their decision. They are all terrific people and they come from wonderful families. We're going to be playing them twice (Monmouth and LIU are in the same conference) and that will be a killer. I think Long Island is ahead of Monmouth right now but with the new arena and the forward thinking here, I think we'll catch up pretty fast."

And with Stephanie Gaitley's trail of success at Richmond, St. Joseph's and Long Island, who could argue with her?



Read more of Tom Williams' columns