Tim McConnell, like many prep boys basketball coaches, swore he’d never cross that Rubicon and switch to coaching girls.
Why would the father of Sixers guard TJ McConnell ever leave the Chartiers Valley boys bench? He and TJ had guided the Colts to the 2010 Class 3A state final where they lost a heartbreaker to Philadelphia power Neumann-Goretti.
TJ averaged 34 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists his senior year before playing collegiately at Duquesne and Arizona.
Tim’s younger son Matty went through Dad’s program, too. The 6-foot-1 guard eclipsed the 1,000-point barrier, like TJ, and did it again at Division I Robert Morris University.
In 25 seasons, Tim’s boys teams went 531-150.
Why would he leave a program on solid foundation to coach one that the previous season had eight girls competing in grades 9-12?
“People have asked me if I could ever see myself coaching girls,” Tim said on Tuesday. “I told them, ‘Not in a million years.'”
His sister Susie McConnell-Serio had made her name as a coach on that side of the gender line. First, she won a state title as a point guard at Seton-LaSalle High in 1984. The former NCAA women’s basketball career assist leader from Penn State became the WNBA’s newcomer of the year.
Her career path diverted to coaching in 1991. She went on to lead Oakland Catholic to three girls’ basketball state titles and five finals appearances as head coach.
She later became WNBA coach of the year with the Minnesota Lynx. Surely Tim didn’t want to chase that standard.
For one, he saw potential in the girls who did play for Chartiers Valley High. They weren’t many, but they were much, to paraphrase Morgan Wootten.
He’d have size in 6-foot-2 center Gabi Legister (10 ppg., 6 rebounds), who’s already committed to Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Former Pitt coach Agnus Berenato lured Legister south.
Pair Register with 5-11 leading scorer Mackenzie Wagner (Loyola, Md., University commit) and McConnell has a tall and talented interior set. Wagner averages 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals per game.
A strong six-member freshman class was on the horizon, led by 5-10 starting guard Aislin Malcolm, who’s already been offered a scholarship to Pitt. She averages almost 12 points per game.
The Colts are winning with 13 girls to fill rosters for varsity and JV.
“I don’t know if anybody out (in the Pittsburgh area) has a freshman team anymore,” Tim said. “There’s just so much to do nowadays. With lacrosse and all the other sports, there’s a lot to choose from.”
Tim’s program crossover wasn’t about any of the aforementioned selling points. No, it was the puppy dog eyes of McConnell’s daughter Megan, now a 5-foot-7 junior guard, hoping that basketball would–for a change–bring daddy and daughter closer, not break them apart as it had during her younger years.
“She kind of got shortchanged,” Tim said. “Over the years I’d miss time with her because I was coaching or out scouting a game or spending time with the boys. This whole year with her has been an absolute joy. At first she was a little scared that if I got on the girls, they would become mad at her. It hasn’t worked out that way.”
Megan, a D-1 recruit herself, averages 11 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals.
As Tim mulled coaching his daughter and her teammates, McConnell-Serio advised him to proceed with a lighter touch, to temper his intensity when coaching the fairer sex.
The photo that ran in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette after securing the District 7 title says it all. Megan and Dad are head-hugging, foreheads connected, hands bracing the other’s ears for support. Both are smiling.
It’s the kind of photo a coach enlarges, prints, frames and never forgets. This season has worked out similarly, even for the veteran coach.
“I just kind of fell into this situation,” Tim rationalizes. “It’s worked out great.”
He won six WPIAL titles with the boys. Now he has one with the girls, who also had won it two years ago.
Chartiers Valley employs a full-court press most of the game and is one of four remaining unbeaten girls teams in Pennsylvania (see chart below). Two of them–Dunmore and St. Basil in Class 3A–faced off Tuesday night, with Dunmore winning by 10.
On the boys side, both unbeatens fell on Tuesday.
The biggest test Chartiers Valley has faced thus far was a three-point win at Thomas Jefferson, aided by a last-second three-pointers by Jefferson that halved the margin. The Colts pounded Jefferson by 16 in the District 7 final with Megan and Malcolm each netting 18 points.
CV won another game by eight. Everything else has been double digits.
The Colts JV team went 19-1, giving the program’s two teams a 45-1 combined record. McConnell credits the continuity of his coaches. Longtime boys assistants Shawn Sherry (22 seasons) and Kate Gannon (19) followed McConnell to the fair side.
It’s been a storybook season on par with TJ’s state final run,. Back when TJ was a senior, the Colts lost just two games–one to a future state champion from Ohio in a tournament in California, and the other in the state final.
In the second round of the 2019 girls tournament, the Colts face Slippery Rock (20-5) for the right to face the survivor of a game between lower-seeded District 7 teams, where CV was the champion.
In his 26th season of coaching at CV, McConnell continues preparing players for the future. His Better Practice, Better Results offseason workouts have developed a baker’s dozen of 1,000-point scorers on the boys side. He plans to ramp up his girls sessions now.
A deep run in the PIAA playoffs would help generate more interest.
Said McConnell, “I feel good about this team. We take them one game at a time.”
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Coach Tim McConnell (left) and his Colts celebrate at Pitt’s Petersen Center during a press conference after winning the WPIAL title. Photo courtesy of Tim McConnell
