Holy Family

With no place to grow on its Northeast Philadelphia campus, Holy Family College is staking its future on a cornfield in the suburbs. The private college in Torresdale - which Money magazine recently ranked among the 20 best commuter schools in the nation - has purchased 154 acres for a branch campus in Bucks County, only minutes from Interstate 95. Until recently the SPS Technologies corporate office compound, the site in Newtown Township includes...

Before taking over as the head women's basketball coach at Northeast Philadelphia's Holy Family College, Mike McLaughlin was one of the biggest losers in all of sports. As a member of the sad-sack Washington Generals, the laughable, lovable opponents of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, McLaughlin played three years and more than 500 games without ever winning. Once. The Generals have since changed their name to the New York Nationals, but not their fortunes. McLaughlin, meanwhile, now in his seventh season with the Tigers, has a team that loses, seemingly, about as often as the Globetrotters.

The Holy Family men's basketball team, in its third season, has moved out of its infancy and into its formative years. If the early part of this season is any indication, the Tigers will not have an awkward adolescence. With a starting lineup of three sophomores, a freshman and just one senior, Holy Family won its first four games of the 1988-89 season by an average of 26.7 points. The biggest of those victories, according to head coach Dan Williams, came against Rutgers-Newark, which fell 80-65 in the final of Holy Family's tip-off tournament.

Jen Jakubowicz wasn't sure what to expect from the Holy Family women's basketball team this season. The Tigers, after all, had six new faces on their roster who would have to grow accustomed not only to one another, but to the other returning players. How that mix would come together, senior guard Jakubowicz said, "I had no idea. " Jakubowicz, a quick 5-foot-10 guard, smiled during a lull in practice last week when she recalled how long ago that seems. Holy Family - 31-3 and seeded fifth among 32 teams - opens the NAIA Division II national tournament in Sioux City, Iowa, today when it faces St. Joseph's College (22-4)

IT HAD BECOME relatively clear in recent days that the Holy Family basketball saga was not going to end with a happily ever after. So, suspended coach John O'Connor met off-campus with his players last night and told them he was resigning. The resignation, which O'Connor said was agreed to by him and the university, stemmed from an early-morning practice incident on Jan. 25. Holy Family sophomore Matt Kravchuk was injured during a rebounding drill when the coach grabbed a ball out of his hands.

HOW MANY OF US would want our lives to be judged on a few seconds of video? That is where John O'Connor, a basketball coaching lifer, finds himself today. That he grew up in the Northeast, went to Archbishop Wood and then Penn State, coached at Bishop McDevitt, Germantown Academy, Villanova, Drexel, Lafayette and Georgia Tech, is all a footnote in his world at the moment. The first-year Holy Family coach has been suspended by the school, pending an investigation. There was an incident at practice last month.

Holy Family women's basketball coach Mike McLaughlin knew the No. 1 seed in the NAIA Division II women's basketball tournament was a bit of an albatross. McLaughlin, however, thought the Tigers could - and would - handle the pressure. Yesterday, however, the highly regarded Tigers struggled in the role of favorite, escaping unheralded Green Mountain, Vt., 60-56, at Sioux City Auditorium on the first day of the six-day, 32-team tournament. Holy Family, which also is the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, battled back after trailing, 49-40, with 7 minutes, 3 seconds remaining.

As long as the Holy Family women's basketball team is traveling to Sioux City, Iowa, for the NAIA Division II national championship tournament, guard Stephanie Daniels says the Tigers might as well go ahead and win it. After all, the Tigers weren't far from accomplishing that feat a year ago. "It's like our coach was telling us," Daniels said. "We're capable of beating any team there if we play our best. "But he also said any team is capable of beating us if we don't.

Every time Holy Family women's basketball coach Mike McLaughlin appears ready to advance to the next level, circumstances intervene. So he remains with his Division II alma mater in Northeast Philadelphia, and keeps the Tigers among the best teams in the region. Several years ago, it appeared that La Salle was going to offer McLaughlin its head coaching position. But officials stayed in-house and promoted veteran assistant coach Tom Lochner. Late last summer, McLaughlin, a graduate of Father Judge High School, was actually gone, having accepted the head coaching job at Mount St. Mary's in the Northeast Conference.

In his own little corner of the city, away from the spotlight that falls on Philadelphia's six Division I teams, point guard Joe Sinni of Holy Family has quietly made a name for himself on the NAIA level. The senior nursing student, a 5-foot-11 graduate of Archbishop Ryan, is the major reason the Greyhounds are 21-8 and chasing Philadelphia Pharmacy for the top seeding in next month's Northeast Regional Independent Conference tournament. The Blue Devils are 17-5. The tournament winner gains a berth in the NAIA Division II national tournament.