Sports

L-S Names Steve Connelly New Girls Basketball Coach

Connelly had been an assistant under Liza Feldman.

UPDATED

Liza Feldman says nine years is enough.

In an email sent to Sudbury Patch, the now former Lincoln-Sudbury girls basketball coach is stepping away from the program for personal and professional reasons.

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"Balancing the extraordinary responsibility of coaching with my teaching/administration job at the Carroll School was a significant challenge, and I just got to a point where I felt I couldn't do both the way I really wanted to and needed to," she said. "I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had at LS and for all the memories, joys, lessons, and relationships that my coaching experience has brought me."
 
Filling the void will be her assistant, Steve Connelly, a long-time coach of the AAU Jaguars basketball team and Sudbury resident.

"I'm very excited," he said, adding he accepted the job on Sept. 4. "I loved working with Liza. But this was a total surprise."

During his time with the Jaguars, Connelly led a top-tier AAU team that traveled the East Coast and was ranked in the top-10 in the country in AAU Division 2. Many of his players went on to play collegiate basketball.

Some of Connelly's other coaching experience include:

  • Head girls basketball coach at Boston’s Cathedral High School;
  • Former head JV coach and varsity assistant at Newton South High School.
"I'm confident in my ability to teach the game. I'm confident girls will have a great time and work harder than ever before," he said. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But I don't worry about that. I worry about teaching the game, teaching life, and busting your butt. If you do that, then you've done your job as a coach."

Feldman said stepping down from Lincoln-Sudbury was not an easy decision to make.

"It is hard for me to leave such an outstanding group of players, and I hope to remain involved in some way," she said. "I am excited to see what this group can do this season, and I know that the program is in good hands with a caring, knowledgeable, passionate coach like Coach Connelly at the helm."

Connelly has strong roots in Sudbury. The Lettery Circle resident has a son who is attending the high school, and he opened the Field House, a 50,000-square-foot sports facility for leagues and clinics, in 2007. 

Find out what's happening in Sudburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"He assisted Liza Feldman last year and did a terrific job," L-S Athletic Director Nancy O'Neil said in an email. "We are delighted!"




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