Podcast: Dan Sullivan on coaching NEPSAC girls and boys basketball

Dan Sullivan has won two NEBJ NEPSAC Class AA Coach of the Year awards. (Ethan Fuller/NEBJ)

Through two years, Dan Sullivan has become a rising star on the sidelines in NEPSAC girls basketball.

The Worcester Academy head coach guided the Hilltoppers to the Class AA championship two seasons ago and a return trip to the final this past March. Sullivan has won our Class AA Coach of the Year award twice in a row — and that’s after an 11-year run as an assistant on the prominent Worcester Academy boys teams.

How has Sullivan made the transition to head coach and girls basketball so easy? How has he helped the Hilltoppers overcome early adversity in two seasons so far to rally for playoff runs?

Sullivan joined the HoopWise podcast to discuss. He also talked about Worcester Academy’s new role as hosts for all three NEPSAC boys and girls scholastic showcase weekends.

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Highlights

Having been successful in both realms, how different is it to coach girls and boys basketball?

Sullivan: “I think it’s interesting because through coaching two years (on the girls side), I think about that most when other people ask me. It’s not something that I go home thinking about necessarily. Basketball is basketball. Both boys and girls want to play at a high level, going to a place like Worcester Academy and then playing at a high level after that. They want to get in the gym and get shots up. They want to get in the weight room. They want structure that a program like ours can provide. They want to be pushed. They want to be challenged. So I think from a girls and boys standpoint, that part is pretty similar.”

This is the first time Worcester Academy hosts the NEPSAC showcases. How excited are you feeling going into those weekends?

Sullivan: “… Worcester really is the center of New England in a lot of ways geographically. Second-biggest city in New England — plenty of hotels, plenty of food spots, plenty of logistical things that I think are gonna make everything really smooth and easy for media coming in, for college coaches coming in, for other NEPSAC teams coming in. I think having all three courts — we’re gonna have three full-size hardwood courts that we’re gonna be playing on, and having them all in one building, I think, is gonna be really beneficial. … It reminds me of the way Avon Old Farms is set up in a lot of ways where, if a game is really intense, coaches can kind of migrate over and maybe check out the end of that game.”

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