PHILADELPHIA, PA. 4/23/2018 – On Monday La Salle University Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw introduced Philadelphia native Mountain MacGillivray as the new women’s basketball coach. For MacGillivray it completed a journey from Delaware County through New England, and now back home. He will be an integral part of what he saw while growing up and worked towards when he was making his career decisions. And is now a part of La Salle University, the Atlantic 10 Conference, and the Philadelphia Big Five. An emotional MacGillivray put it this way.
“It is a dream come true,” said MacGillivray. “I grew up watching Big Five teams.”
“Eleven years ago when we made the move, the idea was to get back here, and do things right.”
And he nodded to the new La Salle Men’s coach Ashley Howard, who also has long time ties to Philadelphia basketball.
“Ash, we’re Explorers now!”
MacGillivray spent the past nine seasons helping Tricia Fabbri build a program at Quinnipiac. Prior to that was an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator at New Hampshire.
He is a 1996 graduate of Temple University with a degree in Journalism. MacGillivray and his wife Grace have seven children; Chiara, Mary, Brigid, Sean, Catherine, Joseph. and Theresa.
His early days in coaching were located here in the Philadelphia area coaching high school and AAU levels for 13 years. The hallmark team for MacGillivray was Archbishop Carroll in Radnor, and was involved with the Philadelphia AAU Lady Running Rebels and the Delaware County Comets.
At the introduction MacGillivray thanked all of those locally who helped him get to this point. He acknowledged: Cathy Rush, the legendary Coach of the National Champion Mighty Mac’s of Immaculata; The Gallagher family an icon in Delaware County basketball according to MacGillivray. John Gallagher is the current head coach at Hartford; and Chris Day, the former Vermont women’s coach. Great calling cards in our city.
“It was Cathy Rush who let me run her basketball camp,” MacGillivray said. “From Cathy I learned many valuable lessons. Teaching basketball, managing the staff, it was a basketball laboratory. I learned the business of being a coach.”
Wins and losses are nothing more than statistics. MacGillivray will put the lessons of learning, development, and family as the foundation of his program at 20th and Olney. La Salle feels they hired the right person. Time will tell if that works out on the court. The vision and strategy will be Philadelphia in scope. A good first step along the long road home. And it has a sound of Philadelphia about it.
“Every possessions matters, play at a fast pace, use our roster, wear out our opponents,”
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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