Humble Irvington Coach Honored for Record, Career-Long Support of Women's Sports

It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that IHS basketball coach Gina Maher—who led her team to a victory this Spring—is being inducted into the New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association's (PHSAA)  Hall of Fame in August.

But some of the work she's done throughout her 37-year career may come as a surprise. 

During her first years in Irvington, Title IX was in its nascent stages, Maher said. "We were very lucky to have a great program that gave equal attention to girls and boys sports; but that was not the case in many of the districts we played against," she said.

She said some of the other coaches' teams could only use their gyms late at night, after the boys were finished practicing—and many were still lagging in their ratios of boys to girls varsity teams. 

Passed in 1972, Title IX is a law that requires gender equality for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding—which mainly translated to sports.

Maher said she was known as one of the women on the front line making sure schools upheld the law.

"During my early years, there was a whole revolution in women's sports," she said.

Besides coaching girls to State and Federation Championships in basketball, she's also coached successful tennis players and runners.

"It's really not because of me," she said. "These victories are a result of the talented and passionate girls we have in Irvington." 

Maher said she was lucky to have been married to a man who backed her and put up with the late nights and early-morning practices.

Her two sons—now in their 40's—both went to the Irvington schools and participated in the athletic program. One son even followed in her footsteps coaching basketball for Brown University and football for Dartmouth. Her other son teaches environmental history.

"He has such discipline to be able to read and write with such intensity," she said. "I have respect for that because I couldn't do it."

Though being inducted into the PHSAA Hall of Fame came as a surprise to Maher–and it's something she's proud of—Maher said there's nothing like actually winning a championship.

"That's a feeling you can't compare to anything else," she said.

Maher refuses to accept full—barely even partial—responsibility for her teams' consistent successes. 

"I really owe it to the talented kids who come through Irvington, a great Athletic Director and a supportive administration," she said. "There are a lot of great coaches out there who have not had the same pool of kids to coach."

If she had to say there was one thing that made her caching stand out from others' philosophies, it's making her teams like cohesive families.

"We put a great emphasis on team bonding," she said. "And I make sure that, even though the girls work hard, they have fun. They never stop loving the sport."

In the end, though, Maher emphasized, "I have to be like a friend and a mother to these girls—but first and foremost, I'm a coach."

Mahr will be inducted into the PHSAA Hall of Fame on August 1.

According to NYSPHSAA, Maher will be inducted based on her record of: A basketball team with a 561-182 record, 10 Section-1 crowns and four NYSPHSAA championships, tennis teams that won seven league titles and track teams that earned 11 league crowns. In 2007, the Irvington School District named the high school gym in her honor.

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