Tom Lecorchick is bringing more than just his coaching experience with him to South as he prepares for his first season as the head coach of the girls’ basketball team.
Lecorchick’s passion for basketball has him continually studying and learning, and researching many strategies of the game. He hopes to pass on the lessons he has learned over the years to the veteran squad.
“I’ve been studying and learning what I can from college coaches, NBA coaches, men and women, and both sides of the gender bar, and doing what I can to get better at the craft,” he said.
Lecorchick grew up in Spotswood as one of five children. His father owns a construction business, where two of his brothers and one sister work. His mother was a stay-at-home mom for years until she got into retail management.
“I grew up on a dead-end street with a lot of kids,” said Lecorchick. “I grew up during the Michael Jordan era. That is an automatic lock,” he said of his passion.
Lecorchick played basketball for all four years at Spotswood High School, but was more of a dominant soccer player, despite his love for basketball. He earned his associate’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He then earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Rutgers and his teaching certification through the College of New Jersey.
He currently teaches eighth grade history in the Spotswood school district. He and his wife, Keri, have a young son and daughter.
He got into coaching 10 years ago, when someone he knew from playing in a men’s league needed an extra coach for a CYO League. He spent one season as a volunteer 6-8 grade boys’ basketball coach, after which he became the assistant coach at Spotswood High School.
School officials there asked him to make the switch to fill in a hole at coaching for the girls’ team. “I haven’t looked back,” he said.
He coached the middle school and freshman levels of girls’ teams in Spotswood for four years before moving to Old Bridge, where he served as the freshman coach for two years.
A position opened up for the varsity assistant at the school, and he served his last two years there before being hired at WW-P.
In addition to coaching basketball, he has also coached boys’ soccer for the last eight years. But it is basketball that holds his heart.
“It’s one of the most difficult sports because of the playing field,” he said. “The size of the playing field is much smaller than most playing fields, especially given the number of players in that dimensional space.”
Although the high skill level of the individual players is important, teamwork is still needed, he said.
“What I hope to instill in the girls is that same passion, that same desire to have that success and compete at the highest level possible, to put in the time needed to be a successful player,” said Lecorchick.
Looking ahead to the season, Lecorchick said he hopes to pick up where the girls left off last year, where they finished with an 11-11 record.
He has already aligned his new coaching staff. Don Hutchinson will become the freshman coach, and the junior varsity/assistant coach will be Erin Walton, who was a 1,000-point scorer in Northern Burlington and at Elizabethtown College.
“We have a very good coaching staff in place right now to pick up where they left off and bring them to the next level,” he said. “A goal is to better our record.”
Other goals include doing well in the tournaments and building a solid, fundamental base of skill and knowledge.
The team is returning some players with varsity experience, including five seniors: Shanice Barnes, Kendal Borup, Sharell Lowe, Kim Meersma, and Laura McCormick. Juniors include Erica Aduya, Megan Fitzpatrick, and Cai-Cai Hahn.
Also returning for the Pirates this year is junior Gabi Hahn, who scored over 150 points last season as a sophomore, and who will be one of South’s key weapons.
Sophomores Skylar DeLemos and Sankavi Rajaram will round out the team for the Pirates.
“We’re competing in what could arguably be called the toughest conference in the state,” he said. ‘That’s something that excited me about coming to WW-P.”
