Paddy McNamara is named boys' basketball coach at Haddon Township
He says he is a disciple of former coach Ron Wister
Paddy McNamara calls himself a "disciple" of former Haddon Township boys' basketball coach Ron Wister.
"He's like a second father to me," McNamara said of Wister.
But McNamara is his own man and wants to build his own basketball program.
So while the new coach at Haddon Township will incorporate many aspects of the old coach's approach, he'll have his own style as well.
"It's exciting to build something new, something maybe a little bit different," said McNamara, who has been named Haddon Township's new coach.
A 2005 Haddon Township graduate, McNamara knows the Hawks program. He played under Wister as a high school athlete and served as an assistant for nine years, starting with his sophomore year in college.
Wister "has had such a great influence on me," McNamara said of the coach who retired earlier this month after 27 seasons as Haddon Township's head coach. "He's been so good to me."
McNamara, a special-education teacher in the Cinnaminson district, spent the last two seasons as a assistant coach under Mike Fries at Cinnaminson.
"Burlington County basketball is great. So many good teams and players," said McNamara, who plans to remain as a teacher at Cinnaminson. "But I'm a Colonial Conference guy. I'm so excited to get back to my alma mater, back to the Colonial Conference, back to playing Audubon and Haddonfield and Haddon Heights and all those teams."
McNamara said he hoped to develop an "up-tempo" style of play.
"With a Group 1 school, a lot of times you have to base things on the players you have," McNamara said. "But I want to focus on building strong, tough players who run a motion offense and give teams fits on defense, maybe a lot more up-tempo than we have been in the past."
@PhilAnastasia