Lynn Tech boys basketball coach Stevie Patrick, who led the Tigers’ program for the past five seasons, has stepped down from his position.
Patrick, who played basketball at Tech for two seasons before enrolling at Tabor Academy and later served as an assistant coach at Tech, informed Tech Director of Athletics Adolph Graciale of his decision on March 13. Tech did not have a boys basketball season this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Stevie told me he wants to spend more time with his family and his son,” Graciale told the Lynn Journal. “He definitely loves coaching here at Tech. He just wanted to put quality time in with his family and I understood that totally. It takes a lot of work being a head coach of any team. I thank Stevie for his excellent leadership as our coach.”
Patrick, a former college basketball player at Quinnipiac and UMass Dartmouth, took over the Tech program in 2016, succeeding David Leary, who is now the Revere High boys basketball coach.
Patrick helped his teams achieve great success during his basketball-playing career. In his sophomore year at Tech, Patrick starred on a 16-5 team. At Tabor, Patrick excelled for two New England Prep School championship teams. During his freshman year at Division 1 Quinnipiac, the Bobcats had a 21-8 record. At UMass Dartmouth, Patrick helped lead the Corsairs to an ECAC title.
At the head coach, Patrick was building a successful program in the Commonwealth Athletic Conference, trying to return the Tigers to the heights they had reached under former Coach Marvin Avery, who is now coaching at Lynn Classical.
Patrick is highly regarded as an outstanding teacher of the game and his players benefited greatly from the knowledge and experience he brought to the Tech bench.
Graciale has posted the position and a large number of candidates have expressed their interest in the Tech job.
“We have received a ton of applications,” said Graciale. “It seemed like it was an NBA job by the number of candidates that have inquired or applied for the position.”
The significant interest in a Lynn basketball coaching position is understandable. The city has been the center of the basketball universe for decades, notably when the great Pancho Bingham and Stu Primus played for an undefeated state championship Classical team. Tom Grassa led the Rams to back-to-back state championships (1993-94). The incomparable Marvin Avery guided the Tech Tigers to a state title in 2002. More recently, Antonio Anderson (English) led his team to back-to-back state titles and an undefeated season this year while David Brown (St. Mary’s) brought a state championship home to Lynn after winning a title in Winthrop.
The Lynn girls basketball scene is also home to extraordinary coaches. At St. Mary’s, Jeff Newhall has three state championship on his resume and this year’s team was poised to bring home another title after winning 20 games in the regular season (The State Tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). At Classical, Tom Sawyer has built a winning program that has consistently qualifies for the State Tournament and sends players on to compete at the next level. Mackenzie Charles led English to an undefeated regular season in the GBL and he has restored the program to Freddie Hogan-era basketball prominence.
So Adolph Graciale and the selection committee will have interviews with several well-qualified candidates before making its recommendation to Tech Principal Carissa Karakaedos.
Graciale will lead the selection committee that includes Tech Assistant Athletic Director Joe Conlon, Vice Principal Fred Gallo, Tech girls basketball head coach Kaitlyn Wechsler, Tech department administrator Claire Price, and Tech media coordinator Noubertson Rateau.
“We’ll begin setting up our interviews for the last week in April and the first week in May,” said Graciale.