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player ready...You just can’t retire for more beautiful reasons than those mentioned by Marist girls basketball coach Mary Pat Connolly.
She has four sons, three daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren — with three more on the way.
For two decades, her family has shared in her basketball journey. Now, they’ll get all the attention.
Well, except for when she’s playing pickleball.
“I got into that during the pandemic,” Connolly said. “I’ve been competing in tournaments.”
She hasn’t been that competitive since she was a professional women’s basketball player with the Chicago Hustle.
I can definitely see her as a prominent, prime-time paddler.
“Ehh, I’m getting there,” Connolly said, laughing. “But you know, it’s just fun to compete again. It’s fun to go out there. I get to perform. I get to play.”
After watching Connolly for 30 years, developing some of the best girls basketball players in the Southland, I think it’s just great.
She deserves the “me” time.
It’s also great she’s going out on her own terms — satisfied with her career, happy with life, happy with Marist.
“It’s just a matter of having different loves in my life than when I started coaching,” Connolly said. “My oldest son was 13 then and my youngest one was 5.
“It’s been a fun journey for my family. They went through all these years with me. I’ve lived my job, and it’s been a great life. Now, I just want to do what I want to do without having to worry about the program.”
OK, so let’s break down her incredible career.
Connolly — then known as Mary Pat Travnik — played in high school at Lourdes. She was, as she put it, a “Title IX baby,” becoming the first woman to receive a basketball scholarship at Illinois.
After a stellar career at Illinois, she was drafted in the eighth round by the Chicago Hustle, coached by current DePaul legend Doug Bruno. She played two seasons in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, also known as the WBL.
Along with Hustle teammates and other WBL players, Connolly was inducted in June 2018 into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is in two Illinois Basketball Coaches Association halls of fame and in Marist’s hall of fame.
Connolly’s first coaching job was as an assistant at Maria. She also coached on the college level at Moraine Valley and Illinois-Chicago. She was an assistant boys basketball coach at Marian Catholic.
In 2001-02, Connolly was the head girls basketball coach at Sandburg before starting the Marist program in the fall 2002.
In 20 seasons at Marist, she posted a 454-157 record. Her teams won 14 regional titles and two sectional titles while finishing fourth in Class 4A in 2007-08.
The RedHawks won more than 30 games twice. They won more than 20 in 15 seasons.
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Bruno knows her from all basketball aspects. He likes them all.
“As a player, she was a lower-round draft pick we were never expecting to make the team,” he said. “She came in and basically blue-collared her way on to getting a spot.
“As a coach, she embraced it and has done a great job at Marist. She’s just a pro. She advocates for her kids, but she tells the truth to both her players and we college coaches. She’s what you’re supposed to be as a high school coach.”
That’s her legacy. But it’s not her coaching stats that she’s been looking over in recent days. Her real sense of pride lies in the rosters.
“I’m going over 20 years of stuff, so the new coach will have an accurate history,” Connolly said. “I’m trying to get things like people who scored 1,000 points or more and how that pecking order goes.
“It’s been really nice looking at the names and the coaches who helped me start the program out. Revisiting the senior classes and then noting all the players who have come back to coach, that is the most inspiring and rewarding thing.”
You’ll notice I didn’t mention when Connolly announced her retirement. It’s because she really didn’t.
She said she told Marist president Larry Tucker before the season it would likely be her last. And after it ended at the Bolingbrook Sectional, she finalized it.
Then she told her family. Then she told her players.
But there was no grand pronouncement.
“I didn’t say anything before the season because I didn’t want it to turn into a farewell tour,” Connolly said. “I wanted to just say goodbye and kind of slip away.”
Those you inspired, Mary Pat, could never let that happen.
Take a bow. You deserve it.