'A Poughkeepsie legend': Brian Giorgis built basketball dynasties at Lourdes and Marist

Sarah Mesuch remembers it so well, maybe in part because what was said might still be echoing.

“There were times my name would get screamed so loud, I thought people on the other side of the world could hear it,” she said of being chided by her high school coach.

It’s why Kendall Krick, a graduate student on the Marist College women’s basketball team, laughed when Brian Giorgis promised this week to give up yelling for Lent.

“But the thought of talking back never occurred,” Mesuch recalled. “Even with the raised voice, what he said was gospel.”

Marist hosts the final home game of Giorgis’ career at 2 p.m. Saturday in what figures to be a celebratory and emotional event.

Giorgis already was a basketball deity in Mesuch's eyes some 30 years ago.

Mesuch, then Sarah Hoyt, was part of the dynastic girls basketball run that Our Lady of Lourdes High School enjoyed in the early 1990s that included winning four consecutive state championships.

Giorgis, the architect of that program, often was hailed a genius for his mastery of X’s and O’s and an ability to quickly learn and teach something he previously knew little about. He was the first coach in New York scholastic history to lead four teams in different sports to at least the state semifinals, including softball and volleyball, which he never played.

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That success, several former players have said, wasn’t coincidental. Nor was it based entirely on his knowledge.

There also was an ability to connect well with youngsters, fostering relationships despite being ever demanding. Many of his high school athletes chose to spend their lunch periods with the coach.

“Lunch with Mr. G was always fun, and it never felt awkward,” Mesuch said, referring to Giorgis by what she still affectionately calls him. “I think that’s what made it so special on the court, knowing you had such a great bond with the coach and he cared about us as people.”

That sometimes-gruff exterior veiled a wry sense of humor and an affectionate personality some former players playfully called “soft.” Giorgis “was as much of a teacher as he was a guidance counselor,” former Lourdes boys basketball coach Paul Latino said.

Many of those relationships have endured distance and decades, with some considering Giorgis “family.” In some cases, it’s a bit more than a consideration, as he is godfather to Mesuch’s daughter Zoe.

Erin Fox regularly attended Marist games and participated in their youth camps, as did many children locally. It was then the Millbrook native fell in love with basketball, awestruck and inspired by the success of the women’s team.

“Growing up here, especially as a girl, you knew about Marist and Giorgis,” said Fox, who now plays for the Red Foxes. “What he’s accomplished here created a culture and elevated the expectations of female athletes in this area.”

After leading Millbrook High School to a state championship in 2018, Fox was informed that hers was the first Dutchess County girls basketball team to accomplish that since Lourdes in 2004, then under Mesuch’s stewardship.

“That program set the bar locally at the high school level,” she said, “and it’s incredible that Giorgis did the same thing at the college level.”

The reflection and kind words are a work eulogy or sorts, as the venerated coach nears the finish line, having announced his impending retirement last year.

Giorgis crafted a sterling career that even he sometimes finds hard to believe, one that spanned 46 years and included his ushering two small Poughkeepsie schools on to the grand stage.

He accrued 450 wins with nine state titles and .a 911 winning percentage at Lourdes before making the quantum leap to Division I college basketball. He helped put Marist on the map, racking up more than 460 victories and 11 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championships since 2002.

“This program is his baby and he took it to heights that no one imagined,” said longtime protégé Erin Doughty, a former player who will succeed him as coach next fall.

For as much as Giorgis wants to focus on planning for rival Niagara on Saturday, circumstances will undoubtedly make the game secondary as McCann Arena will be filled with old friends, former players and coaching colleagues.

“The sentimentality comes in when I go into the different gyms and I’m there for the last time, and when I see people I hadn’t seen in a while,” said Giorgis, who was greeted earlier this season by four of his high school basketball teammates. “That stuff is really cool, but it reminds you that it’s almost over.”

The 67-year-old had planned for some time to step down and spent recent years preparing Doughty to replace him. It will be her job to carry the torch, he said, “and my job to walk off into the sunset.”

“He’s given so much of his life to sports and young people,” said Holy Cross women’s basketball coach Maureen Magarity, who played for Giorgis at Lourdes and Marist and also coached under him there. “The wins were awesome, but it’s incredible to think about how many people he’s shaped, going back to his teaching days. He's a legend.”

‘At least get a year of experience’

Even during Syracuse’s bitter winters, trudging through snow, Giorgis loved playing tackle football with friends. Picnic tables often were flipped over so the legs could be used as goalposts.

There were wiffle ball games in the backyard with the willow tree next door representing “The Green Monster” of Fenway Park. Couch cushions were strapped on as pads to help block tennis balls during games of makeshift lacrosse.

His was a generation whose childhood came before computers and video games, when play time more often required imagination.

“I just always loved sports and anything related to sports never felt like work,” said Giorgis, who was a multi-sport athlete along with his older brother Dave at Cicero High School. “It’s something that was always a passion and I always wanted to know more about it.”

Giorgis didn’t excel as an athlete, earning no more than all-league honors in his best baseball and basketball seasons. But with an insatiable quest for knowledge, a knack for ingenuity and a love of schematics, the seeds that would blossom into a splendid coaching career already were planted.

“He’d be telling me stories from years ago, pointing out the smallest details,” Krick said of her conversations with Giorgis while being recruited. “Right away, you realize how much he studies and retains information, and how crazy his recall is. That’s a level of genius.”

Brilliance met fortune in 1977 when, after graduating SUNY Cortland with a health education degree, he interviewed for a job at Lourdes. There was some apprehension, Giorgis said, as he was asked to teach health and biology, a subject he wasn’t well versed in. But a call from the principal to the family home was answered by John Giorgis who, before passing the phone to his son said, “If he offers you the job, take it! At least get a year of experience.”

A year became a quarter-century.

Giorgis began coaching the following spring, first taking on the junior varsity baseball team, then JV girls basketball. By 1981, he led the varsity baseball team to the state final four. There also was volleyball, tennis, softball and golf, Giorgis helming any team with a coaching vacancy that wasn’t easily filled.

“He took over volleyball out of necessity and knew nothing about it, but he did what Brian does,” said Latino, his closest friend. “He consulted with experts, people who were experienced, and totally dedicated himself to learning. He has great coaching instincts and combined that with the knowledge he acquired.”

That he so fully immersed himself in several sports, and willingly worked long days, “is probably why I never got married,” Giorgis quipped.

His legend began to build as he guided that volleyball team to the state tournament. And softball to a state title.

So, when then-athletic director Cathy Kelly stepped down as varsity girls basketball coach, the successor seemed obvious.

The Warriors won their first state title in 1987 and became a perennial contender. Their reputation was such that, Mesuch and her friend April Sullivan wore their AAU jerseys to volleyball tryouts as freshmen, hoping Giorgis would notice they also played basketball.

“There was no greater experience,” Mesuch said, than being part of the team that won the first three of Lourdes’ four consecutive state championships during a run that began in 1992.

Despite that success, Giorgis was open to an acquaintance, Mark Ward, introducing to him to the motion offense that later became his signature.

It eventually was incorporated into his strategy at Lourdes, presenting opponents a scheme that was difficult to prepare for. It helped them on another four-peat from 1999-2002, before Giorgis accepted an offer to take his talents seven miles north on Route 9.

A ‘legend’ twice over

Through what Giorgis called “a huge learning curve,” Marist went 13-16 in his first year, a two-win improvement from the previous season. But, Magarity joked, “he might’ve lost more games that year than in total at Lourdes.”

A bit of serendipity for him was having Lourdes grads Kristin Keller, Kristen Vilardi and Magarity on the roster along with Kerry Sullivan, a former AAU pupil. Those players, he said, smoothed the transition and were intermediaries for their teammates, helping explain the schematics and deliver his message in softer tones.

Marist stunned observers the following year, winning the MAAC and earning entry to the NCAA tournament for the first time.

The legend, again, began to build. So did the Red Foxes’ standing, as the program later went on to win nine straight conference titles and reached as far as the Sweet 16 round in 2007.

“I was very lucky,” Giorgis said, deflective of praise. “The key to my success has been good players and assistant coaches.”

Several of them went on to become successful head coaches elsewhere. Doughty, he hopes, will be another right here.

Giorgis, meanwhile, will attempt to enjoy extended leisure for the first time in adulthood. There are sports memorabilia conventions and golf outings he plans to attend, hangouts and catch-ups with old pals, visits to MLB ballparks, and an Alaskan cruise.

That’ll keep him occupied for a year. Beyond that, Giorgis acknowledged, he doesn’t know what’s next. Those who know him well wonder how long it will be before a clipboard again becomes alluring. That, Latino said, “is the million-dollar question.”

“He’ll be in a gym somewhere helping someone out, doing what he does best,” Mesuch said. “It’s just a hunch, but he’s Mr. G. He can’t just not coach.”

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Giorgis, friends reflect as retirement looms for iconic Marist coach