Gloucester High School varsity girls’ basketball coach Amy O’Neil is stepping down from coaching at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.
O’Neil became the head coach of the varsity team in 2013 after the basketball program had seen numerous coaches in a short period of time. She wanted to create a family environment for her players where everybody loves and supports each other, much like the one she experienced when she played basketball for Tabb High School in Yorktown.
She began to build the team by getting them to do competitive drills and teaching her players the fundamentals of the sport. She and the coaching staff also tried to build up the players’ confidence. This year, her team made the regional tournament for the first time in 17 years.
For O’Neil’s team, academics always come first and athletics second. O’Neil said that part of the reason she is so tough is because of her own experiences.
In 1986 she graduated from Tabb High School and was going to attend Clemson University on an athletic scholarship for track and field after attending Christopher Newport University for one year to get her grades up. She ended up on academic probation that year and did not get her degree until 2011.
She earned her bachelor of science degree in education from Liberty University in 2011 and her master’s in sports management administration, also from Liberty, in 2013. Her dream was to become a physical education teacher and basketball coach. She was hired as a health/P.E. teacher at Page Middle School in 2015.
O’Neil is stepping down so that she will be able to attend her daughter’s college basketball games. “I need to be a mom in the stands to support my daughter,” she said.
Her daughter is a freshman at Randolph College, Lynchburg, and O’Neil was only able to attend about half of her games this year.
O’Neil said she would like to thank Kristy Hunter, Athletic and Activities Director at Gloucester High School, for giving her a chance at her dream job. She would also like to thank her family, coaching staff, players and managers past and present and also the parents of her players.