After 50 years and 820 wins as the head coach at Holy Angels, Sue Liddy is in her first season as an assistant coach at 13-2 Emerson..
EMERSON – Sue Liddy is too classy to engage and too humble to feel anything else but gratitude, so telling her story means doing so delicately because the last thing Liddy would want to do is come off as angry or unappreciative.
But the fact is that Holy Angels, where Liddy spent 50 years, yes 50 years, building a legacy as one of the greatest coaches in the history of Bergen County girls basketball, let her go just like that.
"They said they were going to go in a different direction," said Liddy.
A different direction? Liddy won 820 games as the Holy Angels head coach, second in state history to only Pascack Valley's Jeff Jasper, and four Bergen County Tournament championships.
Asked for her feelings about it, Liddy just raised a hand as if to say, "Don't go there." She would not engage, would not disparage anybody no matter the feelings that were visible below the surface. Sue Liddy: Too classy, too positive. It's the high road or no road at all.
She accepted her fate, she was retired.
"It all happened in the spring and then in June Brenda Canal, who used to coach softball at River Dell, called me to come over and work at Valley Brook Golf Club," said Liddy. "I applied, got the job and I was riding around on a golf cart in the fall."
But there is a silver lining in this whole thing. In the words of The Grateful Dead, "One man gathers what another man spills," and the beneficiary in this case is the Emerson girls basketball team for whom Sue Liddy is now an assistant coach to Colleen Malzahn.
There was a whole chain of events that led up to that outcome and had it not all come together this would have been the first girls basketball season without Sue Liddy since the 1970s.
First, Emerson needed an assistant coach. Taylor Wejnert, who played for Liddy and won a Bergen County championship with her, recently gave birth and needed to step away from the program. Then Mark Sterinsky, a teacher and coach at Northern Valley/Demarest and an Emerson resident, saw Liddy, who also resides in Emerson, while out on a walk. That was the sign.
"Taylor Wejnert was my JV coach, she just had a baby and she stepped away for a little bit. I had an opening and I talked to Mark Sterinsky, who ran into [Liddy] when he was out walking. He told me that she would definitely be interested," said Malzahn. "I got up the courage, I was so nervous, to call and ask. She said yes and I am so thankful every day and so lucky."
And this is no ceremonial appointment. In her 50 years at Holy Angels Liddy was one of the most well-prepared coaches around. Before the days of being able to scout via a streaming service, Liddy was always in the gym with her tripod and video camera getting an advanced look at every opponent. She was and still is a student of the game and a master teacher of it.
"It's incredible to have her on the bench, having a legend, but it is not just the name it is the knowledge that comes with it," said Malzahn. "The Xs and Os and especially the end-of-game situations is what she is so good at. She is making me a better coach every single day."
It's not like Liddy has lost her touch with the players, either. She still connects.
"I love Coach Liddy. She is the perfect fit, the missing piece that we needed for our team. She keeps me cool when I give in to some of the craziness," said Gabby Micucci, Emerson's senior point guard who is just four points away from 1,000 for her career heading into Tuesday's game against Mary Help of Christians. "She keeps us locked in, she is so smart and knowledgeable, she has taught me so much and I think it really shows on the court."
Emerson is 13-2 on the season and the No. 18 seed in the Bergen County Tournament. Safe to say, the Cavos are heading in the right direction.
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