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Terry Pfeufer serves as coach at Naval Academy Prep School |
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Written by Publisher
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Saturday, 23 January 2010 |
 Naval Academy Prep School head basketball coach Terry Pfeufer reviews a play with some of his players in this photo.
By JIM MULCAHY
Staff Writer
St. Marys native Terry Pfeufer currently serves as the head basketball coach at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I., where he began in November of 2007.
This year he became head baseball coach as well.
Pfeufer, son of Tom and Pat Pfeufer of St. Marys, is a 1985 graduate of Elk County Catholic High School.
According to Pfeufer, each year about 300 students are selected to attend Navy Prep in hopes of moving on to the United States Naval Academy. Their day begins with reveille at 6 a.m. and ends after evening study until 10 p.m. and one-hour of personal time before taps. Competition for a spot in Annapolis is stiff, though. This year for example, the Academy declares 17,000 applications to fill 1,200 slots.
NAPSters, as they are called, are unique. Among other things they are expected to ask permission to enter and exit classrooms and offices. Although they share the same goal of reaching the academy, Terry stresses how divers they are.
“I have coached Midshipman Candidates from a wide range of social-economic backgrounds. I had one young man who drove a Range Rover and another who still lives in a home with dirt floors.”
Pfeufer gives a lot of credit to the programs and people of his Pennsylvania youth.
“The people of St. Marys are very fortunate to have programs like Little League, Knothole when I played, and Cavalier basketball,” said Pfeufer.
Several coaches were particularly influential to Pfeufer.
“Legion baseball coach Denny Haberberger was extremely passionate, intense and loved the game of baseball,” noted Pfeufer. “Coach Aaron Straub was extremely dedicated, very innovative and just made it all look effortless.”
While working toward his undergraduate degree at Robert Morris University, Terry earned a spot on the varsity basketball team as a walk-on. He later accepted a position for $100 a month as assistant coach for the Robert Morris women’s basketball team coaching peers, including several with whom he had entered school.
Counting his current military prep position, Terry has coached in practically all levels of the game of basketball: Division I - SUNY at Buffalo, Division II - UMass Lowell, Division III - United States Merchant Marine Academy, junior college - Genesee Community College and high school at Elk County Catholic.
At one of his stops, Pfeufer assisted and later replaced Billy Van Gundy, father of NBA coaches Stan and Jeff, as head coach. Terry felt coach Van Gundy was instinctively good at creating a family atmosphere.
“One of the neat things about working with him is that he treated you like a son. We may have been having a tactical discussion on something like ‘defending ball screens.’ The Godfather (as Pfeufer often refers to him) would call everyone who ever assisted him. Since we shared the same office, I would hear him call another coach. The phone call started off like this, ‘Hey, Cliff, how do you defend a ball screen at the top of the key? Because Stanley, Terry (not Terry Pfeufer) and Steven (not Steven Hayn) would do this . . . But Jeffery, Andrew (not Andrew Greer) and Michael (not Michael Longabardi) would do it this way.’ I was always impressed, touched because it was on a first name basis and some of the names were men who assisted him 10 or 20 years ago,” said Pfeufer.
Terry cautions that such coaching opportunities, although gratifying, also often come at a price. Throughout his coaching career he held second jobs including everything from loading cargo at Buffalo International Airport in the evening to tending bar for weddings and banquets. At times he would volunteer to mentor study halls for a free meal at the school’s cafeteria.
Pfeufer’s summers were spent traveling from camp to camp throughout the northeast with the intentions of meeting new people, learning new drills and recruiting new players. He also managed to find time to complete his Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration from The University of Buffalo.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 29 March 2010 )
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