By Stephen Tobey — Correspondent
As a young assistant boys basketball coach at Concord-Carlisle in 2001, David Cohen watched the C-C girls hoops squad win the state championship in that program’s most successful season ever.
“I’d watch them practice,” said Cohen, a 1992 C-C graduate. “I enjoyed watching [former coach] Dick DiMare and that group of athletes. I saw the way the whole community got behind them. I’d like a chance to shine a spotlight on girls basketball.”
He’s about to get that chance.
Two years after a 15-year stint as C-C’s boys basketball program’s head coach, including two state final appearances in three years, he’ll again be courtside in the James Hayes Gymnasium, this time coaching the C-C girls team.
In late June, C-C athletic director Aaron Joncas (who was an assistant coach on Cohen’s C-C boys basketball coaching staff) announced Cohen’s hiring to lead the girls program.
He takes over for Amy Davagian, who had been coaching since 2020 and resigned in March, effective at the end of the school year. Davagian led the Patriots to the title in the 2021 Dual County League tournament when COVID-19 scuttled the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) tournament.
The road ahead
The team Cohen inherits finished 11-10 in the regular season last winter and lost to Plymouth North by five points in the opening round of the MIAA Division 1 tournament. It has eight players returning.
“It’s a team that has talent and cares about basketball,” Cohen said. “These are athletes who can compete. The DCL is very competitive, and you have to show up for every game. They’re already starting to play together and working to get ready for the season.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Cohen back to Concord-Carlisle to lead the girls basketball program,” Joncas said in a statement announcing the hiring. He said he’s confident Cohen “will bring the same enthusiasm and dedication” Davagian demonstrated.
Cohen stepped away from the boys program after the 2021-2022 season for family reasons. He is the girls basketball program’s sixth head coach since 2001, when DiMare, a C-C Hall of Famer, retired after winning the MIAA Division 2 title.
That team included seven athletes who played Division I college sports. Among them, two C-C Hall of Famers: all-time scoring leader Lisa Andrews (basketball, Holy Cross) and Katie Wayland (soccer, Stanford). Erin Flynn, a 1,000-point scorer, and her twin sister Courtney played lacrosse at Northwestern University, with Courtney playing on the Wildcats’ first national championship team as a senior.
The backstory
After graduating in 1999 from Boston University, where he played baseball, Cohen joined coach John McNamara’s staff at C-C. Also on the staff was another C-C alumnus, Sam Presti, now general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In 2007, Cohen became C-C’s head coach taking over for Tom Sullivan, who left to coach at Woburn High. In 15 years leading the boys basketball program, he guided it to two state finals, (2014 and 2016) and a Division 2 Central final (2015). He coached three 1,000-point scorers, Eric Sellew — the 2016 Gatorade Massachusetts state player of the year — Spencer Patenaude and Tyler Jameau.
“I first met Coach Cohen when I was in elementary school at the Patriot Basketball Camps,” said Sellew, the boys program’s all-time leading scorer, who went on to play for Amherst College. “I always looked forward to those two weeks every summer.”
Sellew said Cohen challenged his players in practice and left no stone unturned in preparing for each game; that left an impression on him.
“We competed at every single drill,” Sellew said. “We’d have points for how we did in each drill, and at the end of practice, there was a winner. The scouting on every team was very thorough, right down to what the eighth man did. You’d need a staple to hold together his scouting reports.”
