April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
SIENA COLLEGE
Coach McCaffery leads team and more
In a bold move, it put its trust into the hands of a little-known coach from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro by the name of Fran McCaffery.
Though he was a stranger to the Siena community, the Loudonville team and its history was quite familiar to the new head coach.
"I knew a lot about it, going all the way back to the mid-70s," Coach McCaffery told The Evangelist, rattling off names from former head coach John Griffin to former players such as Matt Brady. He even interviewed with Siena for the head coaching job in 1997, which later went to Paul Hewitt.
It did not take long for Siena fans to know that Fran McCaffery was an excellent find. Since the former Notre Dame assistant and UNC-Greensboro head coach took over the reins at Siena, the team has gone 85-44.
They are coming off two consecutive MAAC Championships and two consecutive first-round wins in the NCAA Tournament.
But basketball is only part of what makes Fran McCaffery a Siena saint.
Campus presence
"Siena has a tremendous family atmosphere and that is very important to us," Coach McCaffery said. He and his wife, Margaret, have four children who, he added, " have all grown up on this campus."
The McCaffery children, Connor (10), Patrick (9), Marit (6) and Jack (2) are known across the Siena campus, and even at the Times Union Center in Albany where Siena plays its home games. Connor and Patrick, students at St. Gregory's, a private Catholic elementary school in Loudonville, can be found shooting hoops on the court before games.
Their dad hopes that he will one day be coaching them from the sidelines at a Siena game.
"I think that would be great," he said. "I would be very comfortable sending my children to Siena."
To the college community, the McCaffery family is part of a package both personal and professional.
"He really brings the gift of himself," said Rev. Kevin Mullenm OFM, president of Siena College. "He has a great passion for the sport of basketball, but before all of that he's an outstanding person."
Steady hand
Father Mullen pointed out Coach McCaffery's strong family values and faith, and noted his involvement in Catholic activities on campus and at St. Gregory's: "He accepts the values of our school and passes on those values to our student athletes."
Since Coach McCaffery began his tenure as head coach in 2005, 100 percent of senior players have graduated, and this year's crop is on track to all receive diplomas in May.
"The basketball team has done an excellent job under Fran's leadership," Father Mullen said.
Of course, the success of the team has made Siena College a bigger name nationally.
Since Siena's upset victory of Vanderbilt in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, applications are at a record high and Father Mullen pointed out that a few have even said they first heard of Siena through basketball.
Just recently, Sports Illustrated magazine sent a reporter to stay with the team for four days to learn more about the basketball program and the school as a whole.
Given his success, Siena recently awarded Coach McCaffery a new, eight-year contract that would keep him through the 2016-'17 season.
"It isn't just wins and losses," said Father Mullen. "It's about the integrity of the program, and Fran has done a remarkable job with that."
For Fran McCaffery, it is a dream come true.
"I think everyone has aspirations of taking a program to that level," he said. "We've been working diligently to get the program to that point to be able to see that come to fruition is a tremendous feeling."[[In-content Ad]]
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