By Aldona Casey
Winter is approaching fast and with it comes the end of fall sports and the start of basketball, winter cheer, track and hockey. For girls basketball it will be an exciting year, as they will be getting a junior varsity coach.
As of last season, there wasn’t a JV team, only a middle school and varsity team, let alone a coach. Coach Tresca is the varsity basketball coach, but for both the JV and varsity teams to prosper, they each need to have their own coach. The new coach this year, Mary Keleher, happens to be the mother of Mashpee's own basketball all-star, Ashley Keleher.
Winter is approaching fast and with it comes the end of fall sports and the start of basketball, winter cheer, track and hockey. For girls basketball it will be an exciting year, as they will be getting a junior varsity coach.
As of last season, there wasn’t a JV team, only a middle school and varsity team, let alone a coach. Coach Tresca is the varsity basketball coach, but for both the JV and varsity teams to prosper, they each need to have their own coach. The new coach this year, Mary Keleher, happens to be the mother of Mashpee's own basketball all-star, Ashley Keleher.
Coach Keleher went to Rockland High School and Stonehill College and played a variety of sports throughout her high school and college career, including basketball. She was a South Shore League soccer, basketball, and softball all-star her senior year of high school. Adding to her already impressive athletic history, she was also Patriot Ledger and Enterprise All-Scholastic for soccer and basketball. Sports have always been a huge part of her life, so it is very fitting for her to be an athletic coach. There is, though, a huge difference between being an athlete and being the coach of an athlete, but luckily for the JV team, Coach Keleher has some coaching experience.
For this year her goals are to “Work with varsity coach Chris Tresca in helping to improve the MMHS girls basketball program” as well as “...to teach the players the basic fundamentals of basketball and continue to reinforce the importance of these skills throughout the season.” She also added “As the season progresses my goal [will be] to help the players improve and prepare [themselves] for future play at the varsity level.”
By taking her extensive knowledge of athletics, Coach Keleher is in position to help the girls basketball program move forward. She has set some impressive goals, that focus on learning and improving, rather than winning and scoring, although the latter is still on her list of hopes for this season.
For this year her goals are to “Work with varsity coach Chris Tresca in helping to improve the MMHS girls basketball program” as well as “...to teach the players the basic fundamentals of basketball and continue to reinforce the importance of these skills throughout the season.” She also added “As the season progresses my goal [will be] to help the players improve and prepare [themselves] for future play at the varsity level.”
By taking her extensive knowledge of athletics, Coach Keleher is in position to help the girls basketball program move forward. She has set some impressive goals, that focus on learning and improving, rather than winning and scoring, although the latter is still on her list of hopes for this season.