Moylan ties Rockland wins record
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- December
- 31
Move over Lou Kliewe. Rockland County is about to have a new John Wooden.
Yesterday’s 63-44 win by Pearl River over Clarkstown North was the 447th career W for Pirates coach Lorraine Moylan. That is also the number of wins held by Kliewe, the all-time winningest basketball coach in county history—girls or boys.
Pearl River’s next game is Sunday at home against Minisink Valley. Win then and she would stand alone with 448 wins.
Moylan is 447-121 over a career that includes two state championships Albertus Magnus and a sectional title at Pearl River. Considering that title came last year, and considering she’s won the last two Rockland Coach of the Year awards from The Journal News, the woman is obviously at the top of her game. When she’s through, that wins record is going to be awfully hard to catch.
Lou Kliewe retired in 1995 after 35 years of coaching boys hoops at Albertus Magnus and Spring Valley. He remains the only person to coach a Rockland boys team to a state title, which he did with Spring Valley in 1982. He died in 2007 at the age of 72.
I’m curious what observers think of Moylan as a coach. Anybody want to share thought you have on her career or coaching style?
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm by Jake Thomases. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting, Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University, where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in history.
Lorraine Moylan puts in the time, she scouts, she studies, makes adjustments to her players and to game situations. She is a coach who expects commitment from her players and does not let them off the hook because they are girls-something that a male coach of girls/women sometimes does, usually not intentionally.
She understands that to coach, one must teach, and watching her on the bench, she teaches, sometimes quite emphatically, from the first whistle to the clock shows double zero.
Well done and congratulations Coach Moylan. Considering the girls game was played with six players just over three decades ago, the game has evolved quickly-let’s keep it going.
Congrats to coach-she truly understands the girls games and has done tremendous job with the PR girls…she is a class act and earned evry win
Great coach who truely understands the game. She developes her bench so year after year they are a force to be delt with. Other coaches could learn from her- always make adjustments if needed, require committment, and look to the future and develope the talents of ALL players on the team.
Best Wishes for continued success.
Great Coach
BUTTTTT
always has had talent to work with, which is not a knock on her at all.
Like a Joe Torre type
She wouldnt be able to turn a Keio, Rye Neck, Lincoln, Saunders, Yonkers, Schecter, Bxville, Hastings, Sleepy Hollow into a power.
AM and Pearl River have fed her solid players who she has won with, again No knock on her, she does a GREAT JOB!!
Mike Hoops always trying to pour the “hatorade”
no hate
GREAT COACH, GREAT SUCCESS
but, lets not forget she always works with serious talent
yes she has a tremendous talent pool but excells where other coaches in Rockland who have the talent DON’T..she nkows how to put the kids where and succeed
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her coach for Pearl River, and have seen the most successful teams in the region during the same stretch, plus lots of AAU games.
This lady is hands down the best coach in our region. A professional.
Is she better then Adams at White Plains? or the Ursuline Coach? or Vaccaro at Scarsdale?
Or McGuiness at AM or the Briarcliff coach? or the Irvington coach????
Steve Spurrier was GREAT at Florida, not so great at South Carolina, did he all of a sudden forget how to coach?????
Joe Torre, great manager as a YAnkee, not so great with Cards and Mets.
Its all about the TALENT.
SHE IS A GREAT COACH< AMONG MANY GREAT COACHES IN SECTION I.
But be real, her record is helped by being at AM and PR. Two places wwhere top level talent comes through year in and year out.
I mean AM, wins no matter who is there!!
And PR gets players from a real solid CYO/AAU.
Yet, she obviously MAXIMIZES the talent she receives.
Lets not make her the best because of scouting, X and O’s, its TALENT
Let me just pipe in and say that she is far better then most of the coaches out there. Congrats to her.
Has anyone else noticed how bad some of the coaching is? There are some very good coaches who study the game and put in a lot of time but there are also a lot of dummies as well.
Which do you think is worse, the coaches or the refs?
Who are the good ones and who are the bad ones?
Last question, has anyone seen the Poo Poo Bandit?
Hey did anyone do the Math? How many years of coaching vs. wins. Maybe that would be a more accurate reflection of how successful a particular Section 1 coach is.
Can anyone get that info?
Refs are worse than the coaches hands down! One more question, any word on which coach has the most players to play ball at the college level?
I think Stan Hamlet of Keio is an outstanding coach even without comparable talent. Plus he’s a class act.
i agree with Balance, Moylane is the best coach in girls backetball in our region. As to she always has great talent, i disagree. She has above average talent and she makes them look great, i never thought Perl River had the best talent in the area. I can only imagine what they would be like if they great talent. Coach Moylan has built a girls basketball dynasty at Perl River. I’ve seen her palyers in AAU when she is not coaching and they are not the same. I’ve seen them when MOykan was an assitant coach in AAU and they were not the same players as ehrn she has total cottrol. She demands intensity and excellance and gets it. Adams and Vacarro are great coaches too but in my opinion Moylan gets the edge. As to Ursuline’s coach, avergae at best. Ursuline like lourdes are mini AAU clubs and she comes up short with better players then most treams.
She is a very very good coach. She has had good talent but I would estimate that the talent she had reached a level that was higher than they would have reached without her. That to me is the sign of a good coach. Mike hoops asked if she could turn Keio, Rye Neck, Lincoln, Saunders, Yonkers, Schecter, Bxville, Hastings, Sleepy Hollow into powers, no probably not. No coach could for any number of reasons. But she probably could get them to play better, which is the sign of a good coach.
Talent is very important but coaching is very important as well. To consistently win at any level you need talent and coaching. Look how many “talented” teams do not win.
Lorraine Moylan is a class act who knows the game of basketball as well as anyone who has ever coached. She is a dedicated and committed coach with a fierce passion not only for the game but more importantly for the young women who play it. Congrats from everyone “accross the bridge” to a great lady.
Funny, how in the realm of sports, people here want to toss in all these, ‘wait…but’ statements. I’ve had the chance to scout for our local high school, have seen all the ‘big name’ coaches over the last few years, and formed my opinion about Coach Moylan BEFORE she led them all in the wins department.
Sorry, but there are few realms in our society where RESULTS matter…and this lady is #1 in that category. Lots of others have coached:
a) Talent (with many notable failures despite abundant talent);
b) Catholic and other schools capable of recruiting, benefited from transfers.
And like Pat Summitt, Coach Moylan reigns over male and female coaches in her region in the most wins department—as I feel confident she will get at least one more under her belt, and rather soon.
To those that would rather diminish her accomplishment…go win something yourself and come back and let us know how you did. I have nothing but respect for this leader as an athlete, coach, and parent of athletes…she’s tops.
Balance
For my money, Sue Adams (White Plains Coach) is better
4 straight AA titles, r u kidding me?
Pearl River only won a section title because Class “A” was horrible last year!!
Moylan is a great coach, but has 1 public school section title??????????
The 2 Albertus teams had a sick collection of CYO players from 2 great CYO programs of that day (St Aug and St Pauls).
Ill take White Plains coach!!
Now the Mount Vernon coach, nobody does less with more
She has great talent but can’t win the big one.
By the way Brian Giorgis (former LOURDES coach) is the best of them all!!!!!!!!!!
Giorgis posted an astounding record of 451-44 in his 19 seasons, good for a winning percentage of .911. In his last two years, his teams posted a combined mark of 56-2.
He led Lourdes to the league title all 19 of his seasons there and won 15 Section One crowns, with the last 11 coming consecutively.
And now look at MArist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike hoops
On the one hand you defame Moylan for only winning one “public” school titile , which isnt true. She won two public school titles while at Albertus.
The reason she didnt win more was because of Lourdes. Look up how often PR lost to Lourdes during Girogis’ run.
Then you go on about Giorgis who is a great coach but fail to mention his “talent”. You cant have it both ways.
By the way Adams was a great coach but she benefited as well from an amazing array of “talent”.
To be the “best” or rank with the “best” you need coaching ability and obviously, talent.
Why can’t everyone just admit she’s a phenomenal coach? To win that many games over that period of time is an amazing accomplishment-regardless of talent. Period
fAN,
My point was that if we include the Private school success, then Brian Giorgis is head and shoulders above everyone!!
his record and titles are way better!!!
If Moylan gets credit for 2 state titles at Magnus, her crown achievements then you have to include Giorgis at Lourdes.
If you want to look at just success based on Public schools, Sue Adams, White Plains is the best. She won 4 titles with only the best team 2 of the 4 times.
You do agree last year they were 5th or 6th most talented in AA. Yet she got them a title, with 2 privates in their bracket. Lourdes & Ursuline, thats impressive
Too bad Coach Moylan didn’t go into the Business field and work for Chase. I’d bet their stock price would be a lot higher than the $3.00 it reached a few months ago. Tough reading most of the 21 previous blogs. Some people just don’t get it…Happy New Year !!
Sorry I meant to say Citibank,,,I have been watching too many AAU games.
yes Mr C C it could just be nicey nicey but who wants to read just that. It has been a respectful discussion. Mrs Moylan has done a great job as have her players at PR and should be proud. There are always a lot of factors and the “who” is best is academic at best. At least there are a lot of talented coaches who make the game and education in it better for all. Because good competiton is what is needed more not some dominant team or coach racking up numbers that in the end mean little.
Mike Hoops
Giorgis is a great coach no doubt. But go back and look at his rosters. He had the most talent consistently. Did he make them better , ? yes. But did they always have the most talent? definetly.
PR (and Albertus) always had talent. Always the best ? no. Like I said earlier look up how many times PR lost to lourdes.
WP with the exception of last year always had the most talent. Adams is a good coach and had loads of talent.
The number of D1 players to come out of WP in the last 4 years is pretty impressive.
Moylan is a great coach -
no buts- did she have talent? yes Did she make that talent better? yes definetly.Fan,
How many section titles has Moylan won with 2nd or 3rd or 4th most talent in her bracket?
ZERO, they were definitely the favorite last year! and the AM years
Adams at White Plains has won 2 Section titles when they were not the top 2 talented in their bracket!!!
WHEN DID AM OR PR WIN WHEN THEY DIDNT HAVE THE MOST TALENT??
Mike Hoops
I have watched Moylan coach through the years and her teams were always prepared and always played beyond the experts opinions of them.
She has won when she has had talent and she has won when she was supposedly in the rebuilding mode.
If it wasn’t for the extraordinary teams Lourdes had over probaly a ten year period where it seemed PR was beaten by them annually, she would have had more section titles.
Section titles are not the only barometer to use to measure a coach’s performance.
You obviously have an axe to grind regarding coach moylan so it is pointless to try to have a rationale discussion.
Fan,
No Axe to grind, called her the best Rockland County Coach Ever
However, match up her success with the White PLains coach????? 4 in a row, AA, thats incredible!!!!!!!!!!
And then the Lourdes Coach is sick, you do know he is the Marist Womens Coach now and turned them into a TOP 25, do you know that? I mean, thats incredible
I must have missed your “best rockland county coach ever”, actually I still dont see it but it doesnt matter.
No one has said Moylan is the best or better than any group of coaches or particular coach. You were the only one to name names and ask the question better than this or that one.
Bottom line is she has over a long period of time won consistently. Did she have talent, of course. If she had no talent we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Did she make that talent better by preparing them for the season and individual games,? yes. End of story
And by the way Yes I am very well aware of who giorgis was and is and what his performance was and is. He should have been in the college game years earlier, but waited until the right job came along that suited his personal life.