St. Joseph’s coach McDevitt resigns Women’s basketball boss held job 16 years; decision was ‘difficult’

Hopefully, the folks at Saint Joseph’s College haven’t disbanded their coaching search committee yet.

Only four days after hiring Andy Bedard to replace 23-year head men’s basketball coach Rick Simonds, Saint Joseph’s must begin a search to replace 16-year women’s hoop coach Mike McDevitt, who announced his resignation on Tuesday.

McDevitt, a 1983 graduate of Saint Joseph’s, won 73.6 percent of his games while compiling a 326-117 record with the Monks. He cited a need to be closer to his family as the main reason for his resignation.

“It was a very difficult decision to leave behind a program I care so much about,” McDevitt said. “I’ve had a lot of great moments, but there have been some frustrating things that have cropped up recently … I think it ultimately came down the time commitment. At this time I want to spend more quality time with my family and I felt I was not able to make that kind of commitment.”

McDevitt and wife Margaret live in Cumberland with their three childen: Megan (age 12), Michael (7) and Matthew (31/2).

Under McDevitt, the Monks qualified for the postseason nine times and made seven appearances in the NAIA Division II National Championship tournament. He led the Monks to seven conference titles and 12 20-win seasons.

McDevitt currently ranks 20th among all-time most-winning active coaches in the NCAA Division III ranks and Saint Joseph’s ranks 15th among NCAA Division III all-time winning women’s basketball teams.

The Monks have had 28 all-conference players, 27 all-state honorees, 17 all-district selections, seven Maine Athletic Conference players of the year, six All-American scholar-athletes, five All-Americans, and one NCAA Woman of the Year during McDevitt’s tenure.

The most successful coach in the program’s history was named coach of the year seven times, District 5 Coach of the Year in 1994, and State of Maine Coach of the Year in 1999.

The Monks’ most successful season under McDevitt was 1992, when they went 23-8, won the New England championship, and recorded the first win by a New England team in the NAIA National Tournament, 94-78 over Concordia College (Nebraska).

McDevitt, a four-year starter for the Monks, was named 1982-83 Western Maine Athletic Conference player of the year.

“This will be the first time since 1979 I haven’t been involved as a player or coach in basketball,” McDevitt said.

On Friday, Saint Joseph’s named Rumford native Bedard, a former University of Maine star player and a UMaine assistant coach for two seasons, to succeed Simonds, who resigned his position last month for philosophical differences with the school.

Simonds and McDevitt have been friends since Simonds was his varsity basketball coach at Ellsworth (1976-78). McDevitt followed Simonds to Standish and was a men’s assistant for two seasons before taking the women’s job. In effect, McDevitt is to women’s hoop what Simonds has been for the men.

“I think the comparison is a good one because a lot of the success of the women’s program was because of the men’s success,” McDevitt said. “We wanted to do well to keep up with the Jones’.”