After 46 seasons, demanding and record-setting Rockland coach announces retirement

When Adrienne (McCollough) Hogan drives by Blue Hill Road in Pearl River, old memories rekindle.

It doesn’t matter that they're four-plus decades old.

“I’m still scared. I have flashbacks of Sunday-morning runs. Fifteen-mile runs,” she said, laughing about a time that, while often not appreciated then, helped create the person she is today.

It’s funny how much impact good coaches can have.

And how those coaches can be a jumble of so many things.

Relentless. Demanding. Feared. Sometimes maybe even momentarily hated.

But also loved.

Dan Doherty, who has retired as Pearl River High School’s girls cross-country coach after 46 seasons, was all of the above – maybe all of the above written in caps in indelible ink.

A 1974 Pearl River High School graduate, Doherty was a student-teacher and fifth-year senior at Montclair State University when he was recruited to coach a season of Pearl River girls cross-country in 1978. That season morphed into the 46 seasons, plus more than 30 seasons of indoor and outdoor track and field.

Doherty's 2023 cross-country team contributed to his incredible 341-5 dual-meet record. He never lost a dual meet at Pearl River.

His early and most recent teams share many similarities, although veterans of some of his early teams − including girls who grew up to be mothers of future Pearl River runners − are adamant they had it rougher. Those girls survived thrown clipboards and harsh words. Doherty mellowed out a bit over the years.

But some things remained the same. Starting in 1979, Doherty implemented 6 a.m. before-school workouts, sometimes a few days a week. Most involved runs of about three miles.

There were also annual August preseason camps up until this year, when his team was small in number and the cost had skyrocketed,

Initially briefly on Long Island, where, running sand dunes was "horrible," according to Hogan, it moved for decades to Vermont, where the hilly terrain prepared Pearl River's runners for virtually any mountain goat-type of running experience.

Those trips were as much about team bonding as about improving running times.

But, of course, full effort was expected. Even demanded.

Especially in his younger years, when Doherty’s now-white hair was red, he often sported a red cap and had a temper that was known to similarly climb into the red zone.

“I’d be going up Bear Mountain. I’d be so tired. But I’d be so scared. I’d see (that red hat) and take off and run,” Hogan said.

“Back in the day, we all complained about Dan," Mary Beth (then-Mahoney) Clinton said. "Probably no man in Pearl River was talked about as much as Dan. But we knew he had our best interests at heart."

And probably few ever got more from his athletes than Doherty.

In 1980, Hogan and Clinton ran on Doherty’s first of eight state-champion cross-country teams.

Pearl River’s girls team and its boys team, coached by Dan’s brother, Tom, who’d go on to become the school’s athletic director, both won a state title that fall. That marked the first time in state history a school produced two state-champion teams in the same sport in the same season.

But that was only the tip of a very large iceberg.

Doherty, who’ll be inducted next month into The Armory Coaches Hall of Fame, has a resume that’s simply unrivaled.

The records

The short version of Dan Doherty's list of records include:

• New York’s all-time cross-country wins leader with 639

• Eight public-school cross-country state championships, plus 15 times as runner-up

• Two state Federation (all sizes of public and private schools) championships and 30 top-10 finishes

• 52 consecutive Section 1 titles across cross-country, winter track and spring track from 1986-2002, part of 85 sectional championships overall

• 37 Rockland County cross-country, winter track and spring track combined championships

• 41-time Rockland Coach of the Year

Those are chest-beating numbers. But people who know Doherty best call him humble.

"He doesn't seek the spotlight. He likes to be behind the scenes," current Pearl River athletic director Artie McCormack said. "He wants to make sure the notoriety, the attention, goes (to the kids) for how hard (they) work."

Whether he liked it or not, Doherty became a big name in New York. But he passed on becoming a potentially bigger name, turning down at least a couple of college offers.

His best explanation is Pearl River is where he grew up, went to school and had early coaching success.

“He lives and breathes this stuff,” McCormack said. “He’s incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the sport and he loves to compete. He loves to win.”

Tim Fulton knows and admires that.

A former Somers High runner who started and runs Fulton Accurate Timing and is The Armory Track and Field Center's meet director, Fulton was a young Harrison High coach in the late '90s when he first got to know Doherty.

But it was several years later, in 2004 at Somers, that his girls indoor track team ended Pearl River's "absurd" − Fulton's word − streak of 52 consecutive sectional championships.

From the outset of his coaching career, Fulton said he started taking mental notes about what Doherty and other coaches he respected were doing.

"As a guy trying to be the best coach I could be, I watched the guys who were the best," Fulton said. "To me, he was the epitome of a complete track coach. He had these well-rounded teams."

Hogan, who graduated in 1981, recalled that she and a classmate worked summers in the Catskills. Not only would Doherty regularly contact them to make sure they were following his offseason training plan, but one time he made the trip to check in person.

"I think it was a love-hate relationship. I hated the screaming and throwing clipboards around but I lived on it. I thrived on it," she said. "Cross-country is why I am who I am. He gave me resilience in life. I knew how to reach success. He gave me all the tools.

Hogan, who went on to run on scholarship at Wagner College, was clearly talented. But Doherty also focused on those less so, including kids who would never score a point in a meet and kids who would never even compete on a varsity level.

Longtime assistant Liam McGuirk, who calls Doherty compassionate and a man with a heart of gold, said, "Every competition mattered. Every small dual meet, he'd give kids a chance to try new things. He'd give kids with not much talent a sense of importance. Every athlete had a role to play. He'd spend time with lesser kids, so they'd feel valued and he had expectations for every kid."

Doherty has had so many kids go on to compete in college, he has no idea of a number. But he recalls kids who gave their all for him but never got good enough to earn a spot in a varsity competition.

He describes the best cross-country runner as, "Just someone who's dedicated and not giving up if they're tired and who wants to get better and stays with it and pushes on."

"Those who never ran a varsity race but pushed and pushed so they could get their best time or place, they mean as much (as anyone)," he said.

Best memories

That kind of effort without glory stands tall in Doherty's memories.

But, as might be expected after four-plus decades, many things stand out.

Doherty talks about 1980 and the double Pearl River state championships as a highlight.

There was the 1987 state Federation win, the meet run in blizzard conditions with six inches of snow already on the ground and the wind chill at minus-20.

"It was brutal," he recalled, noting that individual championships were run after the team championships as opposed to within the same race back then, but the individual races were canceled because things got so bad.

That snowy, frozen win was made more special because, a week earlier, his squad lost the state championship by a single point.

"It was good redemption," Doherty said.

There was also 1999, when Pearl River did something unprecedented at the Rockland County girls cross-country championship. The race's first six finishers were all Doherty's runners.

"That was something else," Doherty recalled.

He also cherishes memories of preseason camp in Vermont, a yearly excursion through 2022, except when nixed by a 2011 hurricane and in 2020 due to COVID.

"The times up there were legendary," Doherty said.

Despite the hills, hundreds of kids went over the years.

"I don't know any kid who went home and didn't think it was the greatest thing they ever did," he said.

Indeed, current senior Mady Moroney, who concluded her five-year cross-country season Saturday by medaling at the state championships, said of Vermont: "It helped the team become close as we were getting better. .. One of the best memories I have from cross-country is that trip."

Saving the 2020 season

Not going in 2020 was a big loss, but the entire local high school cross-country season could have been lost if not for Doherty.

With public parks closed and schools not allowing races to be run on their campuses, cross-country appeared dead in the water for Section 1 athletes until Doherty approached the owner of the Hudson Valley Sportsdome in the Orange County town of Milton about using a cross-country course that's carved on multiple acres surrounding the dome.

After getting the OK, he put together a series of races, often with a handful of teams racing, then leaving, and another handful of teams coming in to limit any possible exposure.

Coaches and kids alike hailed the opportunity to compete.

"It's not just about the team, but he (also) respects the sport," Tappan Zee coach Pat Driscoll said. "He put in a tremendous amount of work (to make that happen)."

And Doherty, who's reticent to take credit for much of anything, is clearly proud of launching the Milton races.

His own team was so good it almost certainly would have won the state Class B championship that year. But there were no states. Instead, it had to settle for winning a regional title at Milton. But it made Doherty proud that, with team practices banned, his runners took it upon themselves to train throughout the summer.

Beyond that was the fact that Milton was a taste of near-normalcy for high school runners, regardless of the uniform they wore.

"Putting the whole series of races together, it gave me a really good feeling," Doherty said. "Watching kid after kid after kid get the chance to run, whether it was a Pearl River kid or not, were great memories for me."

Memories from his runners

With his retirement announcement, many others are also sharing memories of Doherty and what he has meant to cross-country and track.

Doherty figures he had about 10 mother-daughter sets among his many athletes. He estimates he coached nearly 500 athletes in cross-country alone.

Mary Beth Clinton had two daughters, Erin and Tara, run for him.

Erin Clinton (Class of 2018) said her mom told her, "If you work hard, he will be fair and give you all the best opportunities, but you're going to have to earn them."

She said her mom also said, "You're lucky to get the easy Dan." But Erin countered, "I don't think I'd ever call Dan easy."

But for all his demands, Erin said Doherty put together teams whose members were far closer than her college running teams.

"He coached us like we were boys," Mary Beth said of his tough approach in a time when coaches weren't always tough on girls.

His first year, Doherty inherited a so-so team. He was running cross-country for Montclair while student-teaching. But he didn't miss practice. In fact, he ran with his Pearl River girls many times.

"We dreaded it," Mary Beth recalled, noting he'd also give personal workouts to kids who occasionally were forced to miss practice.

"Everyone knows him as a rough and tough guy and he really is," Tara Clinton said. "But he pulls potential out of every single person. ... He really cares. Deep down, all he cared about is that we reached our potential."

And there were constant life lessons.

"Every year, somebody cried. Someone was always going to be disappointed. It's heartbreaking," Mary Beth said. "But this was a chance to pull yourself up."

Mary Borkoski , a 2019 Pearl River grad, who ran for Doherty for five years before running at Pitt, was part of Pearl River's mother/daughter tandems. Her mom, Cathy Roberts, was on Doherty's winning 1985 and '87 state Federation cross-country championship teams. The younger Borkoski said she appreciated Doherty's "tough love and his honesty."

"If he sensed our performance fell short of our potential, he didn't hesitate to communicate it," she said. When we gave our utmost effort, he made sure to acknowledge and commend it. I was constantly motivated to excel because I always aspired to earn his approval."

A brother's take

Tom Doherty, who's eight years older than Dan, is his longtime fan, although as a brother and his former boss in his role as AD, he feels okay in saying his brother sometimes lacked "diplomacy" and his demand for "absolute commitment" was not always well received.

But the fan side is the overwhelming side.

On a personal level, Tom talks about his kid brother staying home for more than 10 years to care for their mother, Mary, as her health declined. She died 15 years ago and Tom considers Dan's commitment to her as his "greatest legacy."

But he also fully appreciates all the things that fill his coaching resume.

Tom, whose boys teams won two state cross-country boys titles, deems his brother's coaching record "extraordinary."

"The fact he was almost was always ranked in the state is unbelievable," Tom said. "It's an unbelievable accomplishment."

Dan is planning some trips with his wife of nine years, Leontine Trazo, but plans to keep officiating track and field. But while he has won acclaim for his officiating, it's his coaching that most people will remember.

"He has built a dynasty," McCormack said. "I look at Pearl River as the Yankees of cross-country. There's an expectation and understanding of what is good."

Of his departure, Doherty, who mentioned unspecified changes in coaching and an increasing difficulty in attracting athletes to his beloved sport, said simply, "It's time."

He credited his success to the cooperation he received from both parents and kids.

"I've been very, very lucky," he said, noting he developed a plan that worked in part because kids did what he wanted them to do and parents didn't interfere.

It will be hard saying goodbye to the competition, his athletes and to rival coaches, many of whom have become some of his best friends.

"It's a really, really fantastic fraternity of people to work with," he said.

Mary Beth Clinton thinks he'll return to coaching some day because it's so much in his blood.

Doherty seems set on leaving but doesn't pretend it will be easy.

"I'm going to miss it so much, it's unbelievable," he said.

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Dan Doherty, longtime Pearl River cross-country coach, retires