Tierney Enjoying Foray into Family Business as She Takes Helm of Pennington Girls’ Hoops

Bill Alden

The sight of Princeton University men’s lacrosse coach Bill Tierney prowling the sidelines with his jaw clenched and his raspy voice pumped to a holler has sent chills down the spine of many a referee.

Tierney’s sideline histrionics have been a constant in his Hall of Fame career which has seen him lead the Tigers to six national titles.

With her furrowed brow and a high-pitched voice piercing the din at the Hun School gym last week, Pennington School girls’ basketball coach Courtney Tierney seemed very much a chip off the block of her famous father.

In the wake of her team’s 70-44 loss to Hun, the younger Tierney said that her father approved her move into the family business.

“He was happy; he knows how competitive I am and that I am going to do my thing,” said Tierney, who was an assistant coach at Rutgers Prep two seasons ago before being the head coach last season at the now-defunct Mercer Christian Academy.

“His advice to me was to stay positive. He always taught me to work hard and I’m going to pass that on to my girls.”

Tierney acknowledged that her dad has passed on some of his sideline demeanor to her.

“We both have problems with the referees,” said Tierney with a grin. “I need to get that under control.”

Tierney kept her emotions under control as she returned to Hun where she starred for the girls’ hoops program, scoring more than 1,300 points to end her career as the program’s all-time leading scorer.

“It was fun, I hadn’t seen the new gym,” said Tierney, a 2000 Hun graduate who ended up playing college basketball at Franklin and Marshall.

“It was great to coach against my old coach Bill Holup. He still runs some of the same stuff but they have much better players than we did when I was here.”

Tierney’s Hun experience helped steer her in the direction of coaching. “My playing career at Hun was one of the best times of my life,” said Tierney, whose younger sister Brianne is an assistant lacrosse coach at Monmouth.

“I think high school coaching is a great thing. High school was a great time in my life and I want to help my players have a great time.

Tierney’s charges didn’t have a great time in the loss to Hun although they showed plenty of intensity in overcoming an early 10-0 deficit to briefly forge ahead 26-24 in the second quarter.

“We made a good effort,” said Tierney. “A couple of our stars stepped up for us, they gave us intensity on defense and they pushed the ball on the fast break.”

In Tierney’s view, her club will be better for the experience of battling the Raiders.

“It was great for us to play a team like Hun so we could see what a great team plays like,” said Tierney, whose team dropped to 2-2 with a 58-54 loss to Hill last Saturday. “You see how they play together and it will only help us get better.”

With a Tierney stalking the sideline, things should get better and better for Pennington this winter.

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