As we celebrate Mother’s Day weekend, we take a moment to recognize the sacrifices that sports moms make for their children, from every game and practice to all of the preparation that accompanies each.
Moms, though, will be the first to tell you that it’s not a sacrifice at all: It’s part of their duty, part of their purpose, and part of the blessing of motherhood — and they’re so proud of it!
That’s exactly what you’d expect to hear from a mom. Sports mothers have a knack for getting everything done — no matter how long their list — so that they can enjoy watching their children play the games they love.
For the former varsity basketball coaches at the now-closed Bishop Kearney High School in Bensonhurst, the day eventually came for an incredibly tough decision: keep coaching while missing out on their children’s sporting events or hang up the clipboards so they could follow along with their children’s athletic careers.
It was not an easy decision for head coach Cathy Crockett and assistant coach Kerry O’Grady, but both agree that they had no regrets in leaving, as they were then able to follow their younger children more closely in their many sports and activities.
Crockett grew up in Immaculate Heart of Mary, Windsor Terrace, where she played for and later coached the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball team. She sought to join the NYPD, but getting injured in a car accident put that dream on hold. She then took the junior varsity basket- ball coaching vacancy at Bishop Kearney in 1986, thinking she’d only be there for a short time.
The following season, at just 23 years old, Crockett was elevated to the varsity ranks. In her first year, the Tigers won all of Brooklyn, marking the beginning of a memorable run that would last 23 seasons and ultimately result in her induction into the GCHSAA Hall of Fame.
“I loved basketball, but this was not my goal in life to be a basketball coach,” said Crockett, who compiled a 349-208 record with eight diocesan regular season titles, five state championships, and three federation titles. “I coached that first year, but then it just took off. I really developed a passion for coaching.”
Crockett has four sons: Ryan, Timothy, Mat- thew, and Kevin — all of whom went to Xavier High School in Manhattan. Even while coaching at Bishop Kearney, she was able to coach CYO hoops for Ryan and Kevin at Blessed Trinity, Breezy Point.
Yet when Matthew was about to enter high school with aspirations to play basketball, Crockett had a family meeting with her sons to determine her next move. She missed many of Ryan and Timothy’s sporting events, so she wanted to see her other two sons compete more often.
Meanwhile, O’Grady, who played her senior year at Bishop Kearney for Crockett, was now Crockett’s assistant varsity coach for a 12-season run after coaching the Tigers’ junior varsity team. She grew up playing CYO at St. Mark’s in Sheepshead Bay and later continued her career in college at St. John’s University, Jamaica.
She’s been a teacher for 30 years at P.S. 255 in Brooklyn and has three children: Patrick, Kailey, and Kristin. While she was able to coach Kailey in CYO at Good Shepherd in Marine Park, she missed many of Patrick’s basketball games when he played for Xavier, as she was coaching at Kearney.
“It was in my head that maybe I needed to retire,” said O’Grady, now a parishioner at St. Francis de Sales, Belle Harbor. “It wasn’t necessarily to give it up forever, but just not to miss Patrick’s high school years, because you can’t get those back.”
So in 2009, Crockett and O’Grady approached Bishop Kearney’s administration to announce their retirement. Crockett didn’t miss a game for Matthew and Kevin at Xavier, and O’Grady was always around as her daughters followed in her footsteps by playing basketball at Bishop Kearney.
It was a tough decision to walk away, but these mothers ultimately embraced their true role as supporters of their own children. As much as the players they coached became part of their family, they now have the memories of being there as their children enjoyed athletics.
“Being a mom is probably the most important title you could have,” said Crockett, who eventually joined the NYPD, working as a crossing guard for the past 20 years. “I take a lot of pride in that, and my kids know that. To this day, it means so much to me. I never looked at it as a sacrifice.”
“I didn’t really feel like it was a sacrifice either,” said O’Grady, who now teams up with Crockett every summer for a youth basketball camp at Blessed Trinity, where they wind up coaching many of the children of the student-athletes they themselves coached at Bishop Kearney.
“It was our life, and I felt like this is what I love to do. It was good for my children to see a mother who works hard.”
When it comes to being a mom, these two former coaches have achieved the ultimate victory. To them, it wasn’t a sacrifice; it was their calling.
To all the sports moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
Contact Jim Mancari via email at jmmanc@gmail.com.