McNamara takes over at Aurora Christian
When Pat and Peggy McNamara decided to send their youngest son to Aurora Christian, Pat called Eagles athletic director Dan Beebe to volunteer with the basketball program any way he could.
He’ll definitely be with the program, in much greater capacity than as a volunteer.
A former head coach for Marmion, Plano and at two high schools in his home state of New York, McNamara has been hired as Aurora Christian’s new head boys varsity basketball coach.
“I love coaching, I like kids, I love basketball and I’m looking forward to it. I think they’ve got enough kids interested in basketball that we can do OK,” said McNamara, a Yorkville resident who spent the last three seasons as a varsity assistant for Aurora Central Catholic head boys coach Nathan Drye.
McNamara follows the successful three-year term of Steve Hanson, who resigned the position in order to focus on continuing his education as well as his administrative capacities as dean of education.
“I want to pursue a career on the administrative side,” said Hanson, whose senior son, Jake, is headed to play catcher at Valparaiso University. “I didn’t think it was fair to the kids to hang onto the job and pursue that. I love to coach, but I’ve been getting my master’s and that really piqued my interest to go that route.”
Hanson said the Eagles would be in good hands with McNamara. Aurora Christian athletic director Dan Beebe agreed.
“I think Pat’s a teacher of the game,” said Beebe, who hired McNamara on Friday and released the news Wednesday.
“He’s got a great understanding of the game. I consider him a good teacher of the game, he understands the fundamentals. He’s a humble man who will get the most out of the kids.”
McNamara grew up in the small town of Wappinger’s Falls in upstate New York. He was head coach at Franciscan High School and John F. Kennedy High School, the former no longer operating, the latter in Westchester, N.Y.
In addition to the incoming freshman, he’s got a senior daughter at Aurora Christian and another child at the University of Dayton. Peggy McNamara, who met her husband at Northern Illinois, is a special-education teacher at a Yorkville elementary school.
Armed with an undergraduate degree in physical education and a master’s in athletic administration, he headed west to study law at Northern Illinois University. McNamara earned his degree, passed the exams and is a licensed attorney though professionally he has been more involved in real estate investments in Kendall County, he said.
“Coaching is my passion,” he noted.
At Marmion five seasons from 2002 through 2007, McNamara earned a 73-58 record with a top mark of 17-9 in 2003-04. He went 39-40 at Plano in three seasons from 1999-2002, going 18-8 his final year there.
Leaving Aurora Central Catholic’s program will be “sad in one way because I’ll miss the kids and miss the daily contact with the coaches,” he said.
Yet he’s hit the ground running at Aurora Christian, where he inherits returning starters Cory Windle, Ryan Suttle, Johnathan Harrell and sixth man Ryan McQuade.
He’s already watched film of the Eagles. He can elaborate his style when he meets with them early next week.
“For me it’s always been the same thing — we love to play man-to-man defense, love to press full court,” McNamara said.
“My philosophy is if the kids can play defense and block out and hustle like crazy then in my opinion we’re two-thirds of the way there. After that they need to play unselfishly and play smart. I like guys who play up and down (the court).”