Boston College Athletics
Porcha Bringing Unique Perspective, Experience to BC Hoops
September 22, 2019 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Sometimes life changes things for the better.
Nothing in life ever turns out the way it's planned. There's always some factor or variable capable of forever altering the future. There's usually no warning, and there's even less way of knowing that plans officially changed.
For George Porcha, that moment came during his teaching career. He was a former Division II football safety at the University of New Haven and was settling into a career as an educator and high school football coach. That's when his athletic director came to him with a simple request and asked Porcha if he would consider coaching freshman girls' basketball.
"I didn't want to coach it, but long story short, he finagled me into taking over the freshman team," Porcha said. "I had no idea I would eventually make a career out of it."
Such is how the long, distinguished coaching career began for one of Boston College's women's basketball assistant coaches. A start in the basketball hotbed in the Washington, D.C. area led him to the AAU circuit, bound for the college ranks. Now a basketball veteran, his tenure spanned five power conference basketball stops as a trusted recruiter and developer.
"Players are very coachable in college, and they perform at a high level," Porcha said. "Being able to steer them and be a part of achieving their dreams - going pro, being the best basketball player at a Power Five team, even just being in college basketball - being a part of it drives me. There are 13-15 kids on a roster who depend on you, and you play a big part in helping them to which direction they're going to go in."
Porcha's rise is one of the most unique stories in college basketball. He rose from the freshman coaching position to eventually become the head coach at Washington-Lee High school in Virginia, moving over to T.C. Williams in 2004. His success, which included a trip to the Virginia State Elite Eight as well as National District Coach of the Year honors, landed him on college radars, and Virginia Tech snapped him up in 2007.
Two years later, Porcha moved over to West Virginia, where he became the associate head coach and met fellow assistant, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. The duo played a major role in building the Mountaineers' success, and their collective fingerprints dotted WVU's run to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
By the middle of the decade, though, both made personal decisions to change their lives. Porcha went back to high school to coach the Woodbridge High School boys' program, and Bernabei-McNamee took a sabbatical from the sport to begin her family. Both returned in 2016, Porcha went to Ole Miss, while Bernabei-McNamee went to Pikesville and Albany before she received the offer to come to Boston College. One of Bernabei-McNamee's first calls was to Porcha.
"We were on staff at West Virginia working together as assistant coaches for a year," Porcha said. "She left after a year to begin her family, but we knew each other through our work together. She had also been an assistant coach at Maryland, and the DMV area is home to me. I was heavy into AAU basketball, so I was definitely aware of what she did (with the Terrapins). We had a history through when she recruited players from my AAU program. When she called me to ask if I wanted to come to Boston College, I was honored."
It brought Porcha north for the first time in his coaching career, but it gave him the perfect opportunity to combine his entire career. He grew up in New York and played football in Connecticut, but he was heavily invested and entrenched in the District-Maryland-Virginia area. He coached AAU basketball in that area and had approximately two dozen players receive Division I scholarships.Â
"Sometimes there's luck in where you're from," Porcha said. "I played high school basketball and football outside of New York City, and that's a hotbed for women's basketball. I spent my whole life in the DMV, which is another area notorious for putting out Division I players by the dozen every year. Growing up in one area, being a part of it in the other area, creates connections to people coaching these kids. Those connections don't go away (from job to job). Our staff has dynamic relationships with people who can really help us at Boston College. We have relationships with kids in the DMV or New York or wherever the footprint is. It gets them to Boston, and then BC sells itself.
"This is a beautiful campus and having Boston as a playground in your background, it's an easy sell," he said. "We have challenges, but we're ahead of the curve because we have relationships, with the DMV being one of them."
It's a big reason why Porcha is helping to change the game at BC. He brings a completely different mentality to the sport because of his extensive experience outside of college basketball. His AAU experience helps the entire staff learn how to evaluate talent, not just from a pure current measurable perspective. He knows how to find the right players for the right situations and how Boston College can offer that to a player.
"People look at the ACC and see how tough it is, but our coaching staff looks at this opportunity as a blessing," he said. "We can recruit kids who want to play at the highest level, and they know that every Thursday and Sunday is a game against the best women's basketball players in the country. They also know that we, as coaches, have to be at our best because we're coaching against the very best. It's a motivation, and it's why we took this job. We believe we can cut down nets here, but we have to go through the best. We're going to have to earn it, brick-by-brick, with no days off. That means all of us have to work when the rest of the ACC isn't."
It's a drive stemming from his approach to the sport as family-oriented. 20 years ago, George Porcha likely couldn't foresee coming to Boston as part of a women's basketball coaching staff, but life didn't work out how he thought it would. It builds an incredible appreciation for the job and how he wants to see it through, with a devotion to his athletes and to his fellow coaches to simply build something that nobody has ever seen before.
"We have a hard-working staff, right down to our support staff," he said. "Everyone's background and experiences brings something to the table. This is the best chemistry I've ever been around. Everyone is involved and brings something different. We can agree to disagree, and it's considered healthy. Everyone has a voice. We're goofy, and we have a great time. We can work nights or have a road trip and truly enjoy each other's company. It's respectful, and we are one family. Recruits can see that and feel that. That's a credit to Coach Mac to put it together, with this type of staff that she has the lead."
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For George Porcha, that moment came during his teaching career. He was a former Division II football safety at the University of New Haven and was settling into a career as an educator and high school football coach. That's when his athletic director came to him with a simple request and asked Porcha if he would consider coaching freshman girls' basketball.
"I didn't want to coach it, but long story short, he finagled me into taking over the freshman team," Porcha said. "I had no idea I would eventually make a career out of it."
Such is how the long, distinguished coaching career began for one of Boston College's women's basketball assistant coaches. A start in the basketball hotbed in the Washington, D.C. area led him to the AAU circuit, bound for the college ranks. Now a basketball veteran, his tenure spanned five power conference basketball stops as a trusted recruiter and developer.
"Players are very coachable in college, and they perform at a high level," Porcha said. "Being able to steer them and be a part of achieving their dreams - going pro, being the best basketball player at a Power Five team, even just being in college basketball - being a part of it drives me. There are 13-15 kids on a roster who depend on you, and you play a big part in helping them to which direction they're going to go in."
Porcha's rise is one of the most unique stories in college basketball. He rose from the freshman coaching position to eventually become the head coach at Washington-Lee High school in Virginia, moving over to T.C. Williams in 2004. His success, which included a trip to the Virginia State Elite Eight as well as National District Coach of the Year honors, landed him on college radars, and Virginia Tech snapped him up in 2007.
Two years later, Porcha moved over to West Virginia, where he became the associate head coach and met fellow assistant, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. The duo played a major role in building the Mountaineers' success, and their collective fingerprints dotted WVU's run to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
By the middle of the decade, though, both made personal decisions to change their lives. Porcha went back to high school to coach the Woodbridge High School boys' program, and Bernabei-McNamee took a sabbatical from the sport to begin her family. Both returned in 2016, Porcha went to Ole Miss, while Bernabei-McNamee went to Pikesville and Albany before she received the offer to come to Boston College. One of Bernabei-McNamee's first calls was to Porcha.
"We were on staff at West Virginia working together as assistant coaches for a year," Porcha said. "She left after a year to begin her family, but we knew each other through our work together. She had also been an assistant coach at Maryland, and the DMV area is home to me. I was heavy into AAU basketball, so I was definitely aware of what she did (with the Terrapins). We had a history through when she recruited players from my AAU program. When she called me to ask if I wanted to come to Boston College, I was honored."
It brought Porcha north for the first time in his coaching career, but it gave him the perfect opportunity to combine his entire career. He grew up in New York and played football in Connecticut, but he was heavily invested and entrenched in the District-Maryland-Virginia area. He coached AAU basketball in that area and had approximately two dozen players receive Division I scholarships.Â
"Sometimes there's luck in where you're from," Porcha said. "I played high school basketball and football outside of New York City, and that's a hotbed for women's basketball. I spent my whole life in the DMV, which is another area notorious for putting out Division I players by the dozen every year. Growing up in one area, being a part of it in the other area, creates connections to people coaching these kids. Those connections don't go away (from job to job). Our staff has dynamic relationships with people who can really help us at Boston College. We have relationships with kids in the DMV or New York or wherever the footprint is. It gets them to Boston, and then BC sells itself.
"This is a beautiful campus and having Boston as a playground in your background, it's an easy sell," he said. "We have challenges, but we're ahead of the curve because we have relationships, with the DMV being one of them."
It's a big reason why Porcha is helping to change the game at BC. He brings a completely different mentality to the sport because of his extensive experience outside of college basketball. His AAU experience helps the entire staff learn how to evaluate talent, not just from a pure current measurable perspective. He knows how to find the right players for the right situations and how Boston College can offer that to a player.
"People look at the ACC and see how tough it is, but our coaching staff looks at this opportunity as a blessing," he said. "We can recruit kids who want to play at the highest level, and they know that every Thursday and Sunday is a game against the best women's basketball players in the country. They also know that we, as coaches, have to be at our best because we're coaching against the very best. It's a motivation, and it's why we took this job. We believe we can cut down nets here, but we have to go through the best. We're going to have to earn it, brick-by-brick, with no days off. That means all of us have to work when the rest of the ACC isn't."
It's a drive stemming from his approach to the sport as family-oriented. 20 years ago, George Porcha likely couldn't foresee coming to Boston as part of a women's basketball coaching staff, but life didn't work out how he thought it would. It builds an incredible appreciation for the job and how he wants to see it through, with a devotion to his athletes and to his fellow coaches to simply build something that nobody has ever seen before.
"We have a hard-working staff, right down to our support staff," he said. "Everyone's background and experiences brings something to the table. This is the best chemistry I've ever been around. Everyone is involved and brings something different. We can agree to disagree, and it's considered healthy. Everyone has a voice. We're goofy, and we have a great time. We can work nights or have a road trip and truly enjoy each other's company. It's respectful, and we are one family. Recruits can see that and feel that. That's a credit to Coach Mac to put it together, with this type of staff that she has the lead."
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