Donnie Carr back at La Salle as assistant coach

From the moment he played his final game at La Salle against Saint Joseph's on March 8, 2000, in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals, Donnie Carr has dreamed about coming back to his alma mater. His journey has taken him from playing professionally to working at his high school, Roman Catholic, for AAU teams, at Holy Family and most recently as the director of player development at Hartford. With La Salle assistant Matt Brady leaving to become director of player personnel at Maryland, there was an opening at La Salle. And Carr is going to take his place.

"It's a surreal feeling,'' Carr said. "It was an unbelievable journey back to La Salle. I'll never forget walking off (after that St. Joe's game), just saying one day I want to come back here and be part of a special staff that gets us back to the glory days of the early '90s, which is why I came to La Salle.''

Carr easily reeled off the names of the stars of those La Salle teams. "That's the La Salle basketball I grew up watching,'' he said.

During his journey, Carr applied to be an assistant at La Salle a few times. It didn't work out then. Now, it has.

Carr was named head coach at Girard College in early June. His first official day was June 26, Two days later, he got a call from La Salle head coach John Giannini to meet for lunch.

"By the way, I have an opening on my staff,'' Giannini told him during lunch. "I know you just took that Girard job. Would you still be interested in the La Salle job?''

The answer came fast.

"Of course.''

This was his dream, after all.

"You've done an unbelievable job of recruiting me,'' Giannini told Carr. "Every time I had an opening, you applied. Unlike other guys when it didn't work out, when I went in another direction, you handled it first-class.''

Carr is one of six La Salle players to have scored more than 2,000 points. He is the only player on the list to also be in his school's top 10 assist list, ninth overall with 404 dimes. Now, Donnie Carr is home.

"Donnie is a La Salle and Big 5 Hall of Famer who has paid his dues in coaching while getting valuable experience and making great contacts," Giannini said in a university statement. "He has assisted at the small college level, the Division I level and the highest level of AAU competition. Our relationship has grown over the years and he is the perfect person for our staff at this time. Whether it is in mentoring, skill development or recruiting, he will make our players and program better."

So the long wait is over.

"That's been a dream of mine for the last 17 years,'' Carr said. "For Coach G to give me this opportunity, it's humbling, it's rewarding and it's priceless.''