Girls Basketball: Hamlin is Ready for a Change

No one can dispute the success Don Hamlin had during his 16-year career coaching the girls basketball team at , especially the last five seasons, where the Bears went to the Section 1 Final Four at the Westchester County Center in White Plains each year.

While the highlight of that run was 2008, when the Bears won the Class B state and federation championships, Hamlin said that won’t be the memory that sticks out from his time in Briarcliff Manor.

“In '08, everything was great but my best coaching memories at Briarcliff have to do with my relationships I had with these kids,” Hamlin said. “I worked with some awesome, awesome kids. They were great kids and great basketball players. They were really neat people.”

Hamlin though feels it’s time to try something new and because of this, he will be coaching next season at Brewster. He replaces Doris Schukin, who is retiring after 20-plus years of coaching at Brewster.

“I have been at Briarcliff for a long time,” Hamlin said. “I just got to the point where maybe I could build a program somewhere else. I coached there 24 years, 16 for the varsity, eight years of being a JV coach. I just wanted to see if I could do this at another school.”

As for why he decided to pick Brewster, he said it was just the perfect fit for him.

“When I first went there I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Hamlin said. “I haven’t interviewed for a basketball job in a long time. But it was like going to college and you say wow, this just feels right. That’s what happened here. It just felt right, it’s where I want to coach.”

One of the things that made Brewster feel right to Hamlin was the commitment of everyone involved in the program from Athletic Director Lance Pliego to the players themselves.

Hamlin said the team has been able to have a few off-season workouts where they just opened the gym and whoever wanted to come, came. He said he was impressed with the players’ athleticism and eagerness to learn his system.

“Some of the girls are playing AAU at the Brewster Sports Center and the attendance has been awesome,” Hamlin said. “A lot of the kids come to every game, they are working hard and hopefully they continue to do that. I firmly believe if you work hard and you have a little bit of talent, you can be successful.”

He clearly was successful at Briarcliff and he said the reason why was the players.

“If you are going to be successful as a coach, you need players,” Hamlin said. “We had some very good players. They bought into the system and worked to do their best. Some of the kids worked year-round at becoming good basketball players. It takes all that and maybe a little bit of luck.”

As for what his goals and expectations are for Brewster, Hamlin said his philosophy isn’t to use wins and losses. Instead, his barometer for success will be effort.

“I have the same expectations for every team that I coach,” Hamlin said. “I don’t set any goals like winning the states or winning the section. It’s just about getting this team to be the best team that it can be and everything will take care of itself. We don’t really emphasis winning, we just emphasis being the best we possibly can be. If we can do that, we will be OK.”

That is something that one of Hamlin’s former players, 2011 Briarcliff graduate Liana Cornacchio, can attest to.

“He will make them better players,” Cornacchio said. “Not only is he a great coach, he’s also a great motivator. He helped solve our problems on and off the court.”

Being as close as he was with the players on Briarcliff is another reason why Hamlin, a special education teacher at Briarcliff, chose to coach at Brewster, since it will be in Class A next year and Briarcliff will be in Class B.

“That was huge,” Hamlin said. “I wasn’t offered a job in B but I don’t think I would’ve accepted one if offered. I see those kids every day and I want them to do well. It would feel weird coaching a basketball game against them.”