Hegarty Builds Winner
by Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Press-Telegram
February 14, 2005
When you spend a few moments around Mary Hegarty, as I did at lunch recently, you quickly feel the passion of her competitive nature that has been a part of her persona throughout her 42 years of life.
No wonder the Long Beach State women's basketball team suddenly has become a serious Big West contender with its 10-3 league record and its 15-6 overall mark that includes a stirring win over a ranked Houston squad and a bitter overtime loss to arch nemesis UC Santa Barbara.
Indeed, as I listened to her discuss her 49er team, for which she serves as head coach, I felt inclined to lace on a pair of sneakers and see if I still can drain a jump shot and still engage in a pick-up game without doing serious damage to my aging anatomy.
"You can do anything if you put your mind to it," she counseled.
Mary Hegarty herself seems to have lived by such a credo.
There are those whose lives unravel when they lose their dear mothers at a young age as Mary did at 14 when hers, Barbara Hegarty, died after a long struggle with cancer but Mary Hegarty channeled all her energies into playing athletics and became an extraordinary performer in both volleyball and basketball at Tustin High.
She went on to UCLA where she established her legacy as a slick-passing, ball-hawking point guard she still holds the Bruins' single-season assist record (240) set when she was a freshman during the 1980-81 season who has been named among the top 15 greatest women players in the school's history.
"I guess I learned early in life that things aren't always fair and that you're going to face adversity at times," she says. "You just have to keep fighting and not give up. The worst thing you can do in life is feel sorry for yourself. Everyone faces challenges one time or another. It's those who are able to handle them who are successful."
Mary Hegarty also suffered another tragic family development in 1990 when her 29-year-old married brother John Hegarty, father of two daughters and a person Mary was quite close to, was killed in a construction site accident.
The close-knit Hegartys banded together, grieved at their loss and, in his memory, came up with the idea of the John J. Hegarty Memorial Golf Tournament that is held every May at Willowick Golf Course in Santa Ana.
"Pretty wild affair," says Mary Hegarty, with a fond smile.
Mary Hegarty's signature blue-green eyes glow when she talks about her family, and her seven nieces and nephews and her brother Patrick Hegarty and her sister, Catherine Rawlings, and her father, John Hegarty, who loyally attends all her games.
"Dad, obviously, is our biggest fan," she says.
And John Hegarty has had a lot to cheer about during a season when the 49ers have been performing at a level not seen at the school since Joan Bonvicini departed it after the 1990-91 season when the team went 24-8.
The 49ers did go 22-11 and 12-3 in the Big West under Dallas Bolla in 1999-2000 and did win a couple of NIT matches, but they also dropped three games that season to UCSB, which wasn't exactly an unusual occurrence.
Bolla never was able to beat the Gauchos, and this was one of the reasons the Long Beach State athletic director, Bill Shumard, decided to make a change in 2003 and bring in Hegarty, who built a sound reputation during her 10 years of success at Chapman.
The 49ers have lost 27 consecutive times to the Gauchos Hegarty has now been victimized three times herself but you get the idea listening to Hegarty that this streak soon will come to an end.
Not that Mary Hegarty made any bold proclamations.
She's too smart for that.
Indeed, she offered nothing but praise for the Santa Barbara program and the job its coach, Mark French, has done with it.
But those blue-green eyes of Mary Hegarty bristle with fire when she talks about her team's goals and when she's reminded that UCSB always looms as a roadblock for the 49ers.
"We expect to win when we go out there on the floor, and we expect to keep getting better," says Hegarty, whose team will have a rematch with the Gauchos in Santa Barbara on March 5 in a game that could wind up deciding the Big West title.
The 49ers' top player this season has been the USC transfer, Aisha Hollans, a feisty, resourceful 5-foot-10 guard who scores, rebounds, passes she had 23 points, 15 rebounds and five assists Saturday night against Cal State Fullerton and plays defense with uncommon exuberance.
"Aisha is one of the fiercest competitors I've ever been around," says Hegarty.
Crystal McCutcheon, a 5-9 junior from Antelope Valley, also has been a vital contributor.
"Crystal is a great scorer and our best 3-point shooter," says Hegarty.
Hegarty also has received stout work from her other starters, the two post players, 6-6 Petra Glaeser and 6-3 Jayme Connors, and the point guard, 5-6 Candice Wilson.
The future looks bright for Hegarty's 49ers, as she's already lined up commitments from four high school stars, including forward Sheila Ho-Chin of Wilson High, forward Amanda Foster of Marshall High, guard Mary Has of Millikan High and Karina Figueroa of Rosary High in Corona.
Mary Hegarty is enough of a realist to understand those days of Long Beach State getting into the Final Four as it did a couple of times under Joan Bonvicini might be too difficult a chore with the ascendancy of so many top-flight women's basketball programs on the major college scene in recent years.
Still, she is building a solid foundation, and her team plays with a relentless aggressiveness, much like she did during those four seasons at UCLA when she had 528 assists and 215 steals.
"I definitely think we can have a Top 25 team here," she says.
Mary Hegarty doesn't hide the fondness she has developed for Long Beach and for her job.
"I absolutely love it here in Long Beach and love coaching," says Hegarty, a Belmont Shore resident and fitness fanatic who rises early each morning for a two-hour gym workout. "I guess you can call me a basketball junkie. I just can't get enough of the sport. What I enjoy most about coaching is being able to help people realize their potential and to see them mature into productive adults."
Of course, she will enjoy coaching the 49ers even more when they finally exorcise the demon that has become UCSB.
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