November 30, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

New hoops coaches for Mount, Springside
by TOM UTESCHER

New Springside head coach Don Paettie with team tri-captains (left to right) Kira Theuer, Emily Duffy, and Nan Weisel. (Photos by Tom Utescher)

The basketball teams at Springside School and Mount St. Joseph Academy will each have a new hand on the tiller this season, as Don Paettie takes over the helm for the Lions and John Miller becomes the new skipper for the Mount Magic.

Paettie has worked with several high school teams, including a stint last winter as the assistant coach for the girls varsity at Marple Newtown Senior High School, but most of his coaching experience has come with the Philadelphia Belles’ club basketball squads. The Belles, a highly-successful AAU organization, began to use Springside’s new Vare Field House as a home base when the facility opened earlier this year.

During the ten years Paettie has been involved, many successful players have come through the Belles’ program. The 16-year-old team he coached in 2005 reached the round of 16 at the AAU national tournament, producing three All-Americans and a total of seven athletes who went on to play Division I college basketball.

His own daughter, Jessica, is an Archbishop Prendergast graduate who is now on the hoops team at Kings College in Wilkes Barre.

The Mount’s new head coach, John Miller, with seniors (left to right) Caitlin Eccleston, Megan Sabia, and Mollie Flynn

James Clark, a former Division I player who’s originally from California, will assist Paettie in piloting the Springside Lions.

“They had ten wins last year, so this year we’re shooting for 15, “ he said. “The style we’re teaching them is a quicker tempo from what they’re used to, but I’m seeing some good things from the kids.”

Paettie has also begun working full-time at Springside in the school’s maintenance department, so he’s learned his way around very quickly.

Although new Mount St. Joe mentor John Miller grew up in Reading, PA, most people assume he’s a Philly native, probably because he’s been coaching basketball here for 35 years.

For five seasons he was the freshman coach and varsity assistant to Speedy Morris at Roman Catholic High School, then from 1976 to 1986 he was the boys varsity head coach at two other Philadelphia Catholic League Schools, Archbishop Ryan and Monsignor Bonner. In the meantime, Morris had taken charge of the women’s team at La Salle University, and when he moved over to coach the Explorer men in 1986, he persuaded Miller to assume his former post.

Miller went on to spend 18 seasons coaching the La Salle ladies. Following a staff shake-up at La Salle in 2004, he became the assistant coach at St. Basil Academy, helping the Panthers finish as Athletic Association of Catholic Academies champion in 2005 and as the league runner-up in 2006.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how good the league was and how competitive it was,” he related. “I think that there’s a lot of talented players and a lot of very good coaches in the league.”

When the coaching vacancy at the Mount was brought to his attention, it piqued his interest.

“The people at St. Basil’s were fabulous towards me,” he said. “But the more I thought about it, the more I felt it would be nice to run my own program again. I was familiar with the league, and secondly, I live in Roxborough so the Mount is only about ten minutes from my house.”

Last winter, Mount St. Joe finished with an overall record of 18-7, losing to eventual champ Villa Maria in the semifinal round of the AACA playoffs, while Springside went 10-14 and tied for fifth place in the Girls Inter-Ac League.