To view photos of the celebration, visit the Photo Gallery and view the Central Bucks East/Central Bucks South game gallery.
Tom Lonergan became involved in coaching basketball for the most basic of all reasons - his love of the game.
“Here it is, 28 years later, and I still love the game,” the Central Bucks East girls’ coach said. “I look forward to practice each day and the games each Tuesday and Friday just as much as I did 28 years ago.
“If I wasn’t feeling that way, I would have stopped a long time ago.”
A journey that began at Archbishop Ryan where he was the jayvee coach for two years took Lonergan to Bishop McDevitt for a 15-year stint as girls’ varsity coach. He has spent the last 11 years at East.A common denominator at all of Lonergan’s stops is that his teams win. And win a lot.
East’s win over Hatboro-Horsham on Jan. 8 was win number 500 of a stellar coaching career. All told, Lonergan’s record is a dazzling 505-194 with 240 of those wins coming at East.
“The word that comes to mind when I think of him is intense, but intense in a very, very good way – intense in the sense of hard working and just relentless,” said Jen Zenser, who played for Lonergan at McDevitt.
Zenser – who personified that intensity on the court – is McDevitt’s all-time leading scorer and earned a spot in the Big 5 Hall of Fame after a standout collegiate career at LaSalle.
“I can tell you – there’s absolutely no way I would have ever been able to play at LaSalle without Mr. Lonergan,” she said. “He really prepared you for the next level.
“I didn’t get to LaSalle and feel overwhelmed. Again, I think it goes back to the way his practices were run. They were intense.”
Zenser as well as former players from both McDevitt and East were on hand to honor their former coach before Tuesday night’s game against Central Bucks South. Lonergan accepted framed commemorative jerseys recognizing the occasion from the alums of both schools.Lonergan’s present team wore t-shirts recognizing the milestone win with the words ‘Legacy of Excellence’ emblazoned on the front.
“You can’t put a price tag on the experience that I was fortunate to have on Tuesday night when you see former players from both schools come back, some as far back as my first year - Jenny McGowan was a freshman on my first team at McDevitt,” Lonergan said.
Lonergan’s career has been defined by teams that not only achieved but overachieved.
“When I think back, we might not have been the most talented team, and the game that stands out like no other was in ’97 when we played (Archbishop) Carroll, and they had six or seven Division One players,” Zenser said. “If anybody saw it on paper, they would have said, ‘There’s no way. There’s absolutely no way.’”
Lonergan’s McDevitt team played the role of giant killer, downing a heavily favored Carroll squad and advancing to the Philadelphia Catholic League title game.
“We were successful because of the work and studying of teams and everything coach Lonergan did to prepare us,” Zenser said. “That was a trend when I think back over my four years.
“We were always more prepared than other teams. We always knew what we had to do to win. It wasn’t because of the talent that was on the court. It was because of what we had done beforehand.”
On the sidelines for Tuesday night’s showdown against neighboring Central Bucks South was his former player and, more recently, assistant coach, Beth Mattern, who is now at the helm at South.
“His motto is easy – it’s to win, and you do what you need to do to get there,” Mattern said. “Certainly he has coached girls who are great athletes and great basketball players, but he’s also coached girls who weren’t necessarily the best athletes but are willing to play basketball his way and who accept their roles and thrive in it.
“They just have to be willing to work.”
Hard work and attention to detail has resulted in four PCL championships, three trips to the PCL finals and seven PCL North Division championships during Lonergan’s years at McDevitt. Not coincidentally, McDevitt has not had a winning season since he left.
“He was just a very, very good coach,” Zenser said. “He genuinely cared. He really, really cared about the girls, and he cared about winning.
“He gets absolutely everything he can out of every one of his players, and that’s important.”
At East, he has won eight SOL titles, and his team is at the top of the standings this time around. Under Lonergan, East has made 10 consecutive District One playoff appearances and has been to the PIAA State Tournament nine times.Christine Maurone-Cochran, who is now a health and physical education teacher at East, was part of Lonergan’s first season at East.
“He brought a whole different perspective to the game,” she said. “You could tell he was very dedicated and had a great passion for the sport.
“He definitely doesn’t just teach you the game of basketball. He teaches you how to become a better person. He just showed you that if you put hard work into things, good things would come, and it’s showing from his success.”
Maurone-Cochran played on back-to-back championship squads at East and came back and assisted Lonergan for two years after graduating from college.
“East had great players and a lot of potential before he came,” she said. “But he was able to get the team to the state tournament and deep into the playoffs, which they hadn’t done before.
“He put East on the map.”
That success, according to the 2001 East alum, was the direct result of hard work.
“I know coach Lonergan has those girls in the gym every second that he can get it,” Maurone-Cochran said. “Any time the gym is available and he’s allowed to practice and he’s allowed to run drills, he has them there.
“It takes a lot to get high school girls on board with that – waking up at eight on Saturday morning for practices.”
Lonergan’s players are on board, and the results speak for themselves.
“When you buy into his system and what he wants to do, you see results,” Mattern said. “Those who buy into it are normally pretty successful.”
Ask Mattern the first word that comes to her mind when she thinks of Lonergan, and she has an immediate response.“Coach,” she said. “I still call him coach. He’s a teacher, and he’s a coach in all aspects.”
Lonergan has had basketball in his blood since his trips to the Palestra as a youngster with his father – a St. Joe’s alum – and siblings.
“Just the atmosphere of being down at the Palestra,” Lonergan said. “It was just an awesome feeling to be around. That’s what got me into the sport itself.”
When Lonergan accepted the position at Ryan, he was just out of college. His experience on the sidelines prior to that consisted of coaching boys’ CYO.
“Right away, I noticed the difference,” he said of coaching girls. “I noticed the eagerness of the girls to learn and absorb everything you say.
“Here 28 years later, you get that same feeling. You walk in the gym, and the girls are just excited to learn and excited to get better at the game. To me, there’s a lot of fun seeing how they evolve over the course of the season and how well they mature as a team and then taking the next step and seeing how they mature as young ladies.”
Lonergan acknowledged the assistants who have served with him over the years. John McBride, who worked with Lonergan for more than a decade at McDevitt, shared emcee duties with Lonergan’s wife Kathy at Tuesday’s celebration.
“I’ve been very blessed to be around tremendous coaches,” he said. “They’ve made it fun and enjoyable.”
The line of assistant coaches began with Matt and Terri Fasano at McDevitt and culminated more recently with his East assistant of six years, Melissa Carr.
“You can’t accomplish everything you accomplish without such great support around you,” Lonergan said.
Lonergan also pointed to the many friendships he’s forged along the way – not only with his former players but also their parents, and he went on to acknowledge the significant role his family plays in his coaching experience.
“For us, it’s easy between November and March because we all have a common love interest, and that’s the game of basketball,” he said. “It’s always been a family affair.“If my wife is not at the game because of her responsibility as a Division One official, she’s doing something somewhere along the way, whether it’s making goodies for after that game or practice or putting signs up in the locker room.
“She’s always been very supportive and instrumental to the success of the program behind the scenes. All the effort and work my son TJ has done over the years - and trying to pick up the mantle is my younger son Tyler. It certainly makes for some interesting conversations around the dinner table.”
For Lonergan - named the Coach of the Decade by the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2000, coaching basketball has never been about the wins and losses or milestones reached along the way.
“I have always loved the game of basketball,” he said. “I have always loved being around it.”
And that’s something that doesn’t figure to change any time soon.
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