NEWS

‘Special’ to so many

Posted 12/22/21

By ALEX SPONSELLER By Last week, legendary Pilgrim athlete, Cranston East coach and Cranston School administrator Meg McGonagle passed away due to complications from COVID-19. She was 41 years old. McGonagle graduated from Pilgrim in 1998 and is the

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NEWS

‘Special’ to so many

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McGonagle graduated from Pilgrim in 1998 and is the program’s all-time leading basketball scorer. Her jersey still hangs in the Pilgrim gymnasium to this day. She finished her high school career as an All-Stater for both basketball and volleyball and took home a state championship in the former.

She would go on to play college basketball for Division I Siena, where she would be the team’s captain for both her junior and senior seasons prior to starting her career in education.

“Right from the beginning she was an utstanding sportsman. She knew how to play and have fun doing it. Anyone who played with her could catch her passion for a game and the love of being on a team. Meg was a natural-born athlete, leader, coach, and teacher. I was privileged to watch Meg really blossom into the All-Star that I already knew that she was. She had a reputation for being the best and we were all really proud to know her and be a part of it,” said lifelong friend Pam Lowell, who grew up with McGonagle in Warwick and would eventually teach alongside her at East.

McGonagle served as a business teacher at East and dove into coaching the girls volleyball team. In 2016, she would guide the Lady Bolts to an undefeated season, which culminated in the team’s first ever state title. She turned around in the spring to accomplish the same feat with the boys side, which was only the fourth time in state history that one school saw both teams win titles in the same academic year. It was only the second time in which those teams went unbeaten in doing so.

“I have the utmost respect for her as a teacher, as a coach, but mostly, as a person. She was a dynamic individual that had an impact on boys and girls alike that I haven’t seen in a while,” said Cranston Athletic Director Mike Traficante, who was especially impressed in her ability to connect with the boys team. “There are plenty of great female coaches in the state, but I have never seen a female coach have the control and respect of their male players the way that she did. She had their respect and they always gave her 1000 percent.”

Although McGonagle and her family are rooted in Pilgrim, she always embraced East and loved her time coaching a similar demographic.

“Her family is embedded in the Pilgrim community. Everyone knew who she was, she never really left. She loved East though, she loved the type of players they are, the guts-over-gifts type of players. She liked the fact that East was so much like Pilgrim with its players, parents. She really enjoyed her time coaching at East,” said Pilgrim Athletic Director Scott Bayha, who was also a close family friend of McGonagle.

Perhaps her best player was Lauren Milani, who was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2020-21 to go along with her All-State honors. She is currently playing for Division I Central Connecticut.

Milani appreciated her time working with McGonagle and still feels her influence at the next level.

“I’m just so grateful to have had the opportunity to be coached by her. She genuinely cared so much about her players and she took the time to get to know each one of us. Our personalities, abilities. That made us respect her as a person. We all really respected her which made us listen and gain as much as we could from her,” said Milani. “My senior year, I really understood what she was doing for us and appreciated it even more. The biggest thing is mental toughness. That’s something that I struggled with early on, but now I’m much tougher mentally because of her.”

Traficante will also remember how deeply she cared for her student-athletes, beyond just their performance on the court.

“Meg never looked at the dark side of things, she always saw the good in everything. She would be totally satisfied as long as the athlete progressed as a player and a person. She had teams that would go 12-4 but would have no business doing so talent-wise. The diligence, work ethic, and ability to handle adversity was something that she instilled in her teams. She saw the positive in everybody,” said Traficante.

Bayha added: “She had this way of being stern and respected, but you knew she cared. When watching those interactions with her kids, she would push them, but she would do it the right way and she knew which buttons to press at all times. The kids knew that what they were doing was in their own best interest.”

East PA announcer Kenneth Simone also developed a friendship with McGonagle over the years. As much as she loved athletics, she loved being a mother even more, according to Simone in a Facebook post to McGonagle’s daughter, Amelia Holmes.

“Whatever it is we talked about, her smile and laugh is what always stood out. It’s what I’m going to miss the most. But nothing made her eyes light up the way they did when she was telling me about you and your brother (Liam). She was a lot of things to a lot of people, but being your mom was what she took most pride in,” said Simone.

The school held a vigil for McGonagle on Sunday evening which was attended by hundreds in the East community.

East principal Sean Kelly made a statement honoring her memory.

“She was more than just a teacher and colleague. She was a tremendous coach, role model, mentor, and most of all, mother. She loved her family, her children, her parents. She loved them dearly. You left us too soon, but the effects that your life has had on us all will be felt for years to come,” said Kelly. “The sudden and shocking news of Meg’s passing effected us in different ways and has had a devastating effect on our faculty and students. However, the outpouring of support from our community has been heartwarming.”

Milani was also thrilled to see her former coach – and friend – get the recognition that she deserved.

“It’s so special to see people care about her so much because she deserves it,” Milani said. “She really was so special.”

McGonagle, teacher

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