Girls: Legendary Coach Hired by Molloy
Just prior to the 2014-2015 high school season legendary Murry Bergtraum head coach Ed Grezinsky announced his resignation, with most believing it would ultimately be his retirement. He had won 15 straight PSAL titles with the Lady Blazers and was among the most respected and revered coaches in New York City history.
For the past 4 years not many have heard from Grezinsky as he had stayed out of the limelight, but that is all about to change as one of the best to ever coach girls basketball will be back on the sidelines for the start of the 2018-2019 season with NYCHoops.net being the first to report that he has been hired as the new head coach at Archbishop Molloy.
After the resignation of Scott Lagas who left the Stanners in early April to take the head coaching position at Division 2 Mercy College many wondered who would take the helm at the Briarwood, Queens school. Lots of names had been rumored but Grezinsky was one that not many thought of.
Archbishop Molloy athletic director Mike McCleary admitted even he was a bit taken aback when Grezinsky reached out to him about the open coaching position, but he said he was extremely happy someone of his ilk was interested.
"Ed applied for the job and I have to say I was a little surprised that he was interested, but we were certainly happy that he was," McCleary said to NYCHoops.net on Monday evening.
Grezinsky, who admitted that even though he applied for the job wasn't 100% sure if he wanted it, said he thought about it and even though he said he was comfortable with his routine in retirement, decided that the time was right for him to make the move back into coaching the game he says he still loves.
"I enjoyed retirement and I like what I do but I saw the job was available and it seemed interesting," Grezinsky admitted. "The school is a very good school academically and it just seemed interesting to me."
While McCleary said he was thrilled to know that Grezinsky was interested he said that the school didn't immediately make the hire saying that with other open positions throughout the school that they went in the order that the principal wanted in terms of the hiring process for each open job.
It wasn't until early last week that things really started to heat up according to McCleary, but when they did it came together quickly.
"When the time came we reached back out to Ed and made an offer to him and he graciously accepted," McCleary stated.
Grezinsky was officially hired on Thursday of last week and made his first official appearance on behalf of Archbishop Molloy at the CHSAA girls basketball scheduling meeting on Monday.
Noting that he won't have to do any babysitting at Archbishop Molloy or run after them with grades, Grezinsky says that having a group that will be able to fully concentrate on basketball and getting each of his players better is something that has him excited for next year's basketball season.
He may have been out of the game for a while now but Grezinsky hasn't lost his passion for the game at all, and he says he is without a doubt ready to get back into the game he loves and help get Archbishop Molloy back among the best in the CHSAA.
"You always have the urge to coach again when you have been doing it for so long, so we will see what the future holds, but hopefully we can bring some excitement to the court again for Molloy basketball,” Grezinsky said.
