Gaitley, former OCHS, Villanova standout, would take over girls basketball program
OCEAN CITY – An Ocean City native who coached college basketball teams to championships will be the next head coach of the Ocean City High School girls basketball team if she is approved by the Board of Education Wednesday, Aug. 24.
Stephanie (Vanderslice) Gaitley is a 1978 graduate of OCHS, where she was a standout basketball player for the Red Raiders. She just finished 11 years as head coach of the Fordham University women’s basketball team. The university and coach parted ways this summer.
In the agenda posted Monday afternoon for tonight’s Board of Education meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the high school library, Gaitley is listed under the pending appointments of coaches. If approved, she would be paid the $6,807 stipend, the same amount as offered to the new head coach for girls volleyball, Jillian Garza.
The school board declined to reappoint Michael Cappelletti in June. Cappelletti was the longtime assistant basketball coach under Paul Baruffi and took over as head coach of the program last season when Baruffi retired from the position. Nearly the entire team appeared before the board last winter to ask that he not be reappointed, citing his coaching style and treatment of players. For the next few months, parents of players, who supported the girls, and others who supported the coach, spoke out at school board meetings both against and in favor of his reappointment until the June meeting when a narrowly split board decided against renewing him as coach. That did not affect Cappelletti’s status as a teacher in the district and a coach of the boys tennis team.
Gaitley’s basketball resume is extensive.
The former Villanova University basketball player has been a college coach for 36 years, according to her biography at Fordham, including stints at Monmouth, LIU Brooklyn, Saint Joseph’s and Richmond. She has six conference titles, 19 20-win seasons, postseason berths 19 times and nine trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Her record at Fordham was 220-123 and her career record is 684-393.
Gaitley is a three-time Maggie Dixon Metropolitan Coach of the Year and in 2019 was the Basketball Coaches Association of N.Y. Coach of the Year.
While coaching at St. Joseph’s, her team had five 20-win seasons and two Atlantic 10 championships.
“There is no mistaking the ideology of her teams: defense, defense, defense,” her profile states.
At Villanova, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Gaitley was an Academic All-American in 1982, was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame and is in the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame.
She is also in the OCHS Hall of Fame and South Jersey Hall of Fame.
Under coach Pat Dougherty, she was on the girls basketball team that went 100-0 in league play from 1974 to 1978.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
