Cassidy brothers honor mom's memory

Josh Cassidy always looked up to his older brother, Eric, as a basketball player and as a basketball coach.

But when their mother, Deborah, got breast cancer, Josh developed a deeper appreciation for the oldest of the family's four siblings.

"He didn't show much because he knew he had to be strong for us," Josh Cassidy said of Eric Cassidy. "He was the rock. He was the one we all could count on."

The brothers are young adults who have dedicated their lives to teaching and coaching. They found another calling when their mother died of the disease in October 2011.

Eric Cassidy, the sixth-year head coach at Schalick, started a Jimmy V Foundation showcase that begins every boys' basketball season. Now in its third year, the increasingly popular event featured 11 games over two days in the Cougars' gymnasium in December.

In his first year as the head coach at Gloucester County Institute of Technology, Josh Cassidy held the program's first Breast Cancer Awareness game on Saturday. He came up with the perfect opponent for the Cheetahs, too: his brother's team.

"I never thought I would ever get to coach against him," Josh Cassidy said after Schalick's 80-24 victory. "The way he built his program, that's what I want to try to do here."

The game was special for the brothers not only because they were directing opposing teams, but also because of the cause at the root of the event.

Eric Cassidy said their mother's illness and death added meaning to their lives.

"I made her a promise that I would do everything I could to help find a cure," Eric Cassidy, 30, said. "It's everywhere. It touches everyone. You look at [late ESPN anchor] Stuart Scott and his speech.

"Everybody you talk to has a story about it."

Josh Cassidy, 27, adorned GCIT's gymnasium and lobby with posters with facts about breast cancer. And when he arrived on Saturday morning, his players had a surprise for him.

Without the coach's knowledge, the team had ordered pink T-shirts that read, "In Loving Memory of Mrs. Cassidy."

The Cheetahs wore them in warm-ups and on the bench. Josh Cassidy and his assistants wore them during the game. And the GCIT players made sure Eric Cassidy got one, too.

"Words can't describe how I felt when I saw that," Josh Cassidy said. "I was overwhelmed. I've really only been with these kids for about a month, and for them to do that, it meant so much."

Eric Cassidy said the brothers are "best friends." They have a younger sister, Brianne, 21, and a younger brother Sean, 19.

"We know we're all we have," said Josh Cassidy, who was the best man at Eric's wedding. "I know I always can count on him."

From a competitive standpoint, it wasn't much of a game as Schalick broke to leads of 28-4 after one quarter and 52-12 at halftime.

But Eric Cassidy still was impressed with his little brother's team, and his coaching.

"They played hard all the way," Eric Cassidy said of GCIT. "He [Josh] was down 40 and he still was teaching, still was coaching. A lot of guys would have been sitting down, sulking.

"He's young, he's energetic. He's going to do a great job here."

The brothers grew up in Gloucester. They both played at Gloucester High School.

Josh Cassidy always wanted to emulate his brother as a player and as a coach.

He has done that. But he is determined to follow his example as a man as well, and that's way more important.