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Sports

Lower Merion Has Something Special In Pellicane

The eight-year coach has her team on the brink of another league championship.

The look really hasn’t changed. It’s pretty much the same eyebrows down, squinting gunslinger look Lauren Pellicane wore during summer AAU games, at St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, New York and at Villanova University. It’s the determined look cultivated through time from her coaching father, Joe, and those one-on-one battles she’d have in the family driveway with her older brother that always ended in a screaming match.

Lauren never backed off.

She didn’t then. She doesn’t now—as the head coach of the girls’ basketball team. Want a reason why the Aces are 16-3 overall and 12-0 and about to win their second Central League title in three years—look at the coach that can throw daggers with her eyes and through force of will make a whole team believe in themselves.

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Pellicane figures the coaching bug bit her early. The youngest of three, she’d tag around with her father when he was coaching the men’s team at Division II Dowling College, in Oakdale, New York. After watching dad’s games, she’d take advantage of the open court, shooting around while waiting for her father, always the last to leave.

Through time, she developed into an exceptional player at St. Dominic, enough to gain the attention of Villanova women’s coach Harry Perretta. A torn ACL her junior year limited what her college career could have been, but more importantly, Pellicane graduated with an undergrad degree in communications, film and media and earned her master’s from Villanova in counseling, when he served as a graduate assistant on Perretta’s staff.

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It’s then that the position at Lower Merion opened—and it’s then that she decided to make the jump into the family profession.

“You can say I always thought about coaching, back when I was playing in high school, and after graduating college, I saw it as more of a possibility,” said Pellicane, who works at Haverford High School as a guidance counselor. “I saw first hand what coaching was all about through my father. There was the time and commitment he put into it, and the dedication he gave to his players. Both my parents made sure my brother, sister and me followed what we were passionate about. I was passionate about basketball.”

In eight years, she’s energized a Lower Merion program that two years ago set a single-season school record for victories in a season, when the Aces went 26-4 overall, won the Central League with a 16-0 mark and reached the state quarterfinals, graduating a class that was the most successful in Lower Merion history.

Her only regret is a 34-33 overtime loss to Cheltenham in the PIAA District 1 Class AAAA championship. Pellicane still remembers almost everything about that game.

“Some games you always carry with you, and that game will always be one of them, because those girls on that 2009 team deserved to win,” Pellicane said.

As for her current players, they all point to Pellicane for her timeless commitment as to why they could challenge that 26-victory season record. And as to why their futures appear much brighter than they might have been.

It’s hard to believe that Lila Jones was once laughed at when she was in grade school about the mere mention of possibly playing basketball in high school. Now the 5-foot-8 senior guard is one of the most prolific scorers in the area, averaging 18 points a game—but that wasn’t always the case.

“I was that bad—no, I was terrible,” said Jones, laughing. “I’m serious. People used to literally laugh at me when I would tell them I wanted to play in high school. Coach Pellicane believed in me when a lot of people didn’t. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy. I didn’t realize how much hard work went into becoming a good player. I was a little resistant at first. If she didn’t have patience with me, I wouldn’t be half the player that I am now.

“I think the fact that Coach Pellicane gives everyone a chance, that’s what makes her a good coach.”

Pellicane is also an acquired taste. She’s demanding. She expects commitment. You have to peel through a few layers to find her.

“I remember being really scared of her my freshman year,” said Lower Merion point guard Sheba Hall, arguably the MVP of the Central League this season, who’s headed to Manhattan on a basketball scholarship. “Coach Pellicane can be very intimidating if you don’t know her. When she opens her mouth—you better listen. She took some getting used to at first. But after you get to know her, she’s a really sweet person.

“We still have a lot to play for and Coach Pellicane sees something in us that we’re still learning about ourselves. She’s always telling us we can be a very good team. We just have to see it.”

Pellicane coaches because she loves it. But she may be doing it for a little more than that, for something deeper, like passing down what was taught to her.

“The coaches I played for taught me the right way to play, and I want my players to play the right way, and feel when they walk away filled with a sense of accomplishment,” Pellicane said. “To me, it is about giving because of how fortunate I was to have so many giving people around me, starting with my parents, Coach Perretta, my AAU summer coaches. The most important thing to me is that these kids leave as better people and better themselves as student-athletes.”

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