“I’m excited to take over the program,” McCarthy said. “I’ve already been a part of this program, so to be handed the reins here is amazing. There’s not a job that I want more than this one. I’m humbled, honored, and I can’t wait to get started.”
McCarthy, 30, takes over for Holweger, who recently became the girls basketball coach at Springboro.
Kreke coached the Falcons for 30 years from the 1989-90 to 2018-19. Moss replaced Kreke and led the program for two years before heading to Middletown, which opened the door for Holweger to step in the last two seasons. Moss is now at Lakota West.
McCarthy said he looks forward to continuing a program that’s been kept in competitive shape throughout the last couple of years.
“With the guys I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, I feel as though I’ve been around a bunch of different programs at a high level,” McCarthy said. “I want to incorporate what I learned from them as much as I can.
“You won’t hear me say a bad word about how the state of the program was given to me.”
The Falcons went 16-9 and lost to Hughes 51-49 in the second round of the Division II tournament this past season.
“The administration at Fenwick is very excited to have Andy McCarthy lead our boys’ basketball program,” Fenwick assistant athletic director Jacob Rossi said. “His familiarity with our staff, students, traditions, and more as well as being a coach in our program makes him the perfect fit for our kids.
“He’s incredibly excited to lead his alma mater into the future and lead our students on and off the court.”
Landing his first head coach position, McCarthy said he wants to put an emphasis on maintaining stability at the program’s youth level.
“You have to start at the roots and get the younger levels involved,” he said. “I want to dip my toe into the younger levels and see if we can get someting going there. It will be nice to be able to use the same terminology so we don’t have to spend time at the freshmen level trying to get everyone on the same page.”
McCarthy said the Falcons’ playing schemes will determine what personnel is on the court. The 6-foot-10 Bailey Temming, who is finishing up his junior year, could play a key role in that, according to McCarthy.
“We’re going to take individual pride in defense, guarding our man and using ball pressure,” McCarthy said. “Then we will hope to pick up full court and be conditioned by communicating on offense while attacking different weaknesses. We want to be great in transition on both ends.
“At the end of the day, we want to be a team that has a couple of things that we will do well at both ends,” McCarthy added. “We will want to be able to adjust during tournament time by making the complicated things sound simple. Our staple is going to be transition defense — taking pride in it and pushing it ahead on offense for easy looks.”
McCarthy said he’s always had a lot of respect for the Greater Catholic League and is looking forward to going up against “some of the best coaches in the state of Ohio.”
In terms of his coaching staff, McCarthy said he’s still solidifying it.
“Plenty of phone calls have been made, and a lot have yet to be made.”
McCarthy is a data analyst at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and resides in Franklin with his wife Ally and his daughter. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in aerospace engineering and received a master’s degree in applied statistics from Ohio State.
About the Author