January 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

A Father’s Club alum finds success as NCAA coach
by JUSTIN GOLDMAN

Niagara University head basketball coach Joe Mihalich has most of the accolades that a coach could want. His .586 winning percentage is highest among active Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coaches, he has been named MAAC coach of the year twice and he has made it to the NCAA tournament twice.

Despite a tough home loss to Siena last Friday in a game televised on ESPNU, he still has a team more than capable of winning another MAAC title. He also has Charron Fisher, a Roman Catholic graduate who leads the nation in scoring, averaging 27.9 points per game.

Mihalich, 51, has had a long road to becoming the coach of Niagara. He is a Mt. Airy native who attended Holy Cross grade school and La Salle College High School. He attended La Salle University where he was a four-time letter winner in basketball, and was named co-captain for the 1977-78 season. While playing for the Explorers the team went to two NCAA tournaments and won one Big Five championship.

Mihalich stayed close to his Philadelphia roots even after his collegiate career was over. He chose to stay at La Salle as an assistant coach to legendary coach Speedy Morris for 17 years. During that span he also chose to get his master’s degree in athletic administration from Temple in 1990.

Mihalich’s first coaching gig came alongside high school coach Morgan Wooten at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md. where he served as the varsity assistant for three years and the junior varsity head coach for another three. As a head coach, his teams compiled a 34-5 record.

“I always knew I wanted to be a coach,” he said. “My dad was my coach in the Father’s Club [now the Chestnut Hill Youth Sports Club] which made me want to coach also.”

Even with all of his vast experience, a lot of the fundamentals about winning, teamwork and how to play the right way came from Mihalich’s early experience playing basketball and baseball in the Chestnut Hill Father’s Club.

“My father Joe, his buddy Tony Giovanozzo and all the other fathers dedicated their time to us, which was amazing,” he said. “Everyone taught us how to win, how to lose and how to play the right way and the wrong way and how to play as a team, which are all incredibly important skills in life and in sports.”

Even with all the accolades that Mihalich has accumulated, there will always be a place in his heart for what he learned at the Father’s club. Mihalich joined the Father’s Club when it was only three years old.

“My fondest memories are that my dad was my coach and we won a couple of championships in the mid 1960s,” he said.

Mihalich had been a Philadelphian for most of his life, so the decision to leave this area was not easy, but he is happy about how the people around him in upstate New York have graciously accepted him over the last 10 years.

“I love Philadelphia and always have,” he said. “My wife is from there also, and I miss my family a lot. But you have to go where the opportunities are, and I have found a new home which is thankfully a great place to live.”

Even though he is 400 miles away from his hometown — Niagara University is upstream from Niagra Falls, not far outside of Buffalo —  he still tries to bring some of the city with him. This includes all he learned as a player and coach at La Salle High School and College, and in his approach in recruiting. It includes Fisher in who he saw something special when he first started to recruit him.

“There are great high school basketball players from the Philadelphia area and if we can get one or two, we are always happy about it,” he said. “With Charron, I could never predict that he would become the leading scorer in college basketball, but I knew he could score and that if he worked hard he had a chance to be a great player.”

Even after last Friday’s tough loss to Siena, the Purple Eagles still have an excellent chance to win another conference tournament and go back to the NCAA tournament for the third time under Mihalich.

“This is a good team with a chance to win a championship, and all you want is a chance,” he said.

With all the important values that he has learned throughout the years, and the gritty Philadelphia attitude that he possesses, Mihalich and the rest of the Purple Eagles are likely to be a factor in college basketball for years to come.