Ciara McCullagh: Born to Be a Hall of Famer

senior and girls basketball center Ciara McCullagh started playing basketball in an organized way at five-years-old. With her mom Rosie McCullagh (nee Downing) being a hall of famer -- she was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame when she was eight months pregnant with Ciara -- McCullagh grew up watching and enjoying the game.

During the basketball season, McCullagh practices six days a week; she’s part of travel leagues that usually practice two times during the week and have four games on the weekends.

Of having all of these elements to juggle, McCullagh said, “I’m more organized when I’m on a schedule.”

McCullagh’s been on the since her freshman year and was on the junior varsity team in eighth grade.

Looking back on this season, McCullagh described it as exciting and said that it was a season that the team “made a name for ourselves.” She noted that the previous year, the team lost seven seniors, four of whom were starters, so it was more of a rebuilding and getting comfortable kind of year.

McCullagh enjoys basketball because she “likes the fast-paced game that evolves around teamwork.” This teamwork involves working with many girls who McCullagh noted have been been friends of her all through high school. She said fellow seniors Maria Katsoulis and Lexi Peveraro are among some of her best friends.

Head Coach Hugh Flaherty noted that McCullagh’s a team player who “thinks of the other kids more than herself.”

McCullagh plans on playing basketball in college, although she’s not sure where yet. She also hopes to take part in leagues as an adult and to coach her kids’ teams just like her mom coached McCullagh’s CYO teams.

So how does a player of McCullagh’s skill become who she is?

“If you dedicate your time and energy at the level Ciara did, you will continue to improve and be the best that you can be,” Rosie McCullagh said. “Ciara has played in extremely tough physical games and she proved she was able to handle it and in doing so her game continued to improve. Experience and the drive to want to do well will allow you to continue to improve your game.”

Her mom noted that McCullagh also maintains a rigorous academic schedule. 

“I am most proud of Ciara for not only being so dedicated to basketball but most importantly her academics,” she said. “She has always taken a tough course load and being a three sport athlete and on 11 varsity teams since freshmen year, she never had it easy.”

Some of McCullagh's favorite memories from this season were during some downtime that the team had. McCullagh said that a few times they’ve been allowed to play music and dance during practice.

“That was a treat we took advantage of,” she said.

A fun family memory involving basketball was when McCullagh and her older sister Meaghan, who also played for New Hyde Park, were playing AAU basketball together in 2008.

“When Ciara and her sister Meaghan played AAU basketball in Chicago together , they were both forwards up against ESPN’s 2008 number one player, six-foot-eight Brittany Griner from Texas," Rosie McCullagh said. "Although they lost by 10 points, Griner dunked twice in that game and they laugh thinking all we could do was watch. When we watch college games now, Griner is a stand out and my girls had the opportunity to be on the court with her.”

Flaherty described McCullagh, who he’s coached in as many as 100 games a year between AAU and high school, as someone who “works real hard” and “remembers everything you tell her.”

"She soaks it in like a sponge," Flaherty said.

Flaherty said he’s “really going to miss her.”