There has been a changing of the guard in our local diocesan Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA).

After nearly 50 years, Ray Nash has announced his retirement as the Brooklyn/Queens boys’ Catholic league’s president — a position that he held longer than any CHSAA past president. He leaves behind an enduring legacy that kept the student-athletes and the values of sports at the center of everything he did.

From a young age, sports — especially basketball — played an important role in Nash’s upbringing while attending grammar school at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“That’s where I first got my love for basketball,” Nash said. “I lived across the street from Madison Square Park, and I saw Connie Hawkins, Roger Brown, and all these guys playing, and then I played on the basketball team at Our Lady of Good Counsel.”

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Nash then enrolled at St. Francis Prep when it was located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He played basketball for legendary coach Chick Keegan and was team captain of the Prep’s 1959 first-ever CHSAA city championship baseball team.

He went on to play basketball and baseball at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, where he studied education. When he graduated in 1963, he worked as a physical education, health, and history teacher at Bishop Ford H.S., Park Slope, while serving as assistant coach on the varsity basketball team under his high school coach Keegan, who had moved to Ford.

“I always wanted to teach and coach,” Nash said. “I never really thought about doing anything else. I loved the game of basketball when I got into St. Francis Prep, and I thought this would be a great way to live my life — help young kids, coach, stay with the game — and it actually turned out to be correct.”

Nash also coached freshmen basketball and junior varsity baseball at Ford before becoming the school’s athletic director. He later coached varsity basketball for more than 25 years.

After spending two years as chairperson of baseball and vice president on the CHSAA executive board, Nash was elected president in 1978. His mission was to take what he learned as a basketball coach and translate it to the chairpeople of every sport across the Catholic league.

“I learned from Chick Keegan to surround myself with good people and let them do their job,” said Nash, who also served as Bishop Ford’s president starting in 2000. “That’s what made the CHSAA run so well.

“The CHSAA was always respected for its honesty and trustworthiness, and that was one of the things we have to make sure we preserved. After all, we are the ‘Catholic’ High School Athletic Association. If we didn’t set the example, who would?”

Nash was instrumental in expanding CHSAA sports to the state level. In basketball, the state federation tournament in Glens Falls, New York, was a late-season highlight until its discontinuation in 2023. Another lasting accomplishment will be his transformation of the CHSAA Hall of Fame induction ceremony — which is about to celebrate its 40th year — into a golf outing. He plans to continue to emcee the event even after his retirement.

In thinking about what he will miss most, Nash said the day-to-day working with the league’s athletic directors, chairpeople, and coaches who all shared a similar vision of what youth sports is all about. Some of his lifelong friendships have been with his CHSAA colleagues. Even when they coached against each other, they were all on the same team in terms of promoting Catholic education.

“Our relationships were more than what was just on the court,” Nash said. “The CHSAA is a family — the coaches, athletic directors, executive director, and so on. We are all family within the Catholic high school league.”

Nash — a member of the St. Francis Prep, St. Francis College, Bishop Ford, CHSAA, Basketball Old-Timers of America, and New York State Basketball Coaches Association Halls of Fame — said he feels the timing is right for him to step away. Yet, the CHSAA has been such a major part of life for so long that he will still remain involved in the diocesan sports scene.

“You can be sure you’ll see me around the basketball city playoffs,” he said. “There’s no doubt.”

The CHSAA’s new president is Sal Fischetti, the longtime athletic director at St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows. Stay tuned to “Good Sports” for a full feature on his new role.