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Erin McHugh keeps getting lured back to basketball. Although the time commitment is challenging, the top girls scorer in Stamford High School basketball history just can't step away from the game.
"It takes a lot of time to coach,'' says Erin, who coaches the Darien YMCA seventh-grade girls basketball team. "I wake up in the middle of the night and I think about these girls. Every year it keeps pulling me back."
McHugh has been coaching in the Darien YMCA program almost since the day she graduated from Long Island University. She stopped for five years, then came back three years ago. She's certainly been successful at it, too. Her Darien YMCA girls are 9-3 this year, and enter weekend play tied with Newtown with just one loss in the A Division of the Fairfield County Basketball League.
Last year, McHugh's seventh-grade girls team won the FCBL regular season championship and New Canaan Tournament. Her eighth-grade team in 2008-2009 won the FCBL tournament championship. Some of the players on the current Darien High School team were also coached by Erin.
The Darien girls learning from McHugh never had the privilege of watching her play at Stamford High. The 1995 graduate is still the school's leading scorer with 1,156 points. Only 13 girls in the history of the city of Stamford scored more, most of them after she graduated. She was a first-team selection in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference as a junior and helped the Black Knights to some of their most successful seasons ever.
McHugh went on to a standout volleyball career at Long Island University, where her name still pops up on the school's record book. She left as the school's career leader in kills and blocks. She still remains active in volleyball, too, running a Darien YMCA class for girls in grades 6-8.
Her focus now, however, is preparing her team for the stretch run in the FCBL. Like any good coach, she knows there are things to improve. "We have a little more work ahead for us,'' Erin says.
Know a coach who has an interesting background? Let us know! Contact trenner@mainstreetconnect.us or egendron@mainstreetconnect.us
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