The thing is: Stephanie Gaitley really was happy. She really was at peace. Maybe it wasn’t in her blueprint, after 36 years as a Division I college head coach, to be back at Ocean City High School, the words to John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” serving as the unofficial soundtrack.
But there she was, a Red Raider again. Once, a lifetime ago, she’d been a star player who went 100-0 in league play before going on to play at Villanova and coach with distinction at Richmond, Saint Joseph’s, LIU, Monmouth and Fordham, winning close to 700 games.
It would’ve been ideal to ride out a Hall of Fame-worthy career at Rose Hill, where by 2022 she’d begun to assemble the core of a potentially special team. As often happens with Fordham, stupidity ruined a perfectly wonderful basketball story. She was cast out.
Ocean City was an unexpected landing zone, but it was paradise. The team went 23-6 that 2022-23 season and won the South Jersey Group 3 title. Winning just seems to follow some people around, no matter the team, no matter the level. Funny how that happens.
