Karen Connell played on Bob Daggett’s first St. Peter’s team. She sat in the stands Thursday night, cheering wildly for Daggett’s final St. Peter’s team.
Things have come full circle for the legendary coach. Twenty-three years have gone by. There was just one last division championship to be had, a chance to go down in history with a 16th straight CHSAA Staten Island title before the doors to the New Brighton school close for the final time in June.
Connell wasn’t part of that streak. But she knows why there was one: Daggett.
“He has very good insight,” Connell said. “He can see strengths in people that most others can’t see.”
She was speaking from personal experience. Connell had no knowledge of what happened last week, when Daggett rolled the dice, calling up JV leading scorer Kristen Olsen. The risk, of course, paid off in spades. Olsen, in just her third varsity game, had 10 points, a big 3-pointer, a bigger baseline layup and two clutch free throws. Without her, St. Peter’s doesn’t win a 61-54 overtime thriller against Moore Catholic.
It was perhaps the final masterstroke in a career of them at St. Peter’s.
“Obviously Bob saw something special in her and she was able to come up and give us what we needed,” St. Peter’s junior Jamie O’Hare said. “We needed her a lot. She knocked down big 3s. She made big plays. She played great defense on [Moore’s Jessica] Coscia.”
Daggett shrugged when asked about bringing up Olsen. She was playing great on JV, he said. He needed a guard off the bench, he said. He credited his players for being accepting of her presence. There are few coaches who have the nerve to make a move like that, but Daggett is one of them.
Anyone who questioned him would be crazy and he has earned that immunity. His track record speaks for itself.
“You can’t say anything to Bob,” O’Hare said. “He’s untouchable.”
In an era where parents are having players boycott games and banding together to get coaches fired, Daggett is a throwback. He believes in his players; his players believe in him. It’s why O’Hare says she’s waiting to see if Daggett will take another coaching job before she decides on a school for next year. It’s why players like Connell come back 20 years later to see him and the team.
“He’s a tremendous human being,” Connell said. “His caring and his work ethic are just indescribable. He’s very patient and very tolerant.”
Pat Daggett, his wife and assistant coach, says players come back from college and say their practices aren’t as enjoyable as the ones they had at St. Peter’s.
“To me, it’s the way he is with just the kids themselves,” Pat Daggett said. “He’s a great basketball coach, he loves the game and he knows what he’s doing. But the way he is with his players, he gets them to do things they wouldn’t typically do.”
The curtain is closing on him now at St. Peter’s. There’s the Archdiocesan tournament starting this weekend and the CHSAA Class AA state tournament in March. All of that is gravy. The Eagles’ place in history was always secure, but now it’s immortal with a little help from a sophomore up from the JV.
One last stroke of genius. One last title.
“If we’re not gonna be around anymore, it’s nice to know that we finished with a championship,” Daggett said. “It’s better than the alternative.”
