Gerry McNamara achieved his first victory as the head coach of Syracuse on Monday evening, guiding the Orange to a 74-58 win over the New Haven Chargers. The win, however, was overshadowed by the recent passing of his father, Gerard McNamara, who died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.
"It’s been a tough week for our family, and the first person that would be here tonight would be my father," McNamara said in a post-game reflection. "Everybody that knows me knows that. I’m hurting a little bit this week. Obviously I’m going to be hurting for a little while, pretty much forever, so I just appreciate all the people that have reached out to us."
McNamara's father passed away on Saturday, just days before his son's coaching debut. The new Syracuse coach admitted that moments during the game, particularly the national anthem, brought his emotions to the surface.
"The national anthem got me a little bit thinking of him and his service," McNamara said, referencing his father's service in the Marines. "I’ve tried to compartmentalize it a little bit. It’s been when I’ve been around the team that I can just focus on the team. That’s kind of been the needed distraction. Having my mom here tonight, I think maybe it was a little bit of a distraction for her as well."
He added that he anticipates the coming days will be difficult but hopes to channel that emotion into his coaching. "Tomorrow is going to be really hard. Wednesday’s going to be really hard. The next 48 hours are going to be tough, but then I get to turn around and do this again on Thursday, and then I’ll get angry and forget about it for a minute."
The Syracuse team controlled the game early, building a 39-17 lead by halftime. While New Haven outscored them in the second half, the deficit proved too large to overcome. Syracuse finished the game shooting 39.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from beyond the arc.
McNamara, a prominent player on Syracuse's 2003 national championship team, was hired in March to lead the program. He previously served on the coaching staff before taking the head coaching position at Siena.