Head Coach Bridget Orchard has announced the addition of Jim McGowan, a true softball legend, to the Fordham coaching staff for the upcoming season.
A retired social worker who put in 30 years of service at Bay Shore High School, McGowan’s coaching resume reads more like a Hall of Fame plaque. Serving as the head coach of Bay Shore High School’s varsity softball team from 1983-2011, McGowan led squads that perennially finished at the top of the standings.
In his 29 seasons at the helm of Bay Shore, McGowan compiled a career record of 661-89, good enough for an .881 winning percentage. Both of these marks are records in state of New York. During his time leading the Marauders, Bay Shore won an astounding 26 league titles, 13 Suffolk County Championships (Long Island record), 10 Long Island Championships (Long Island record) and seven New York State Large School Championships (New York record).
From 1991-2002, his teams rattled off 12 consecutive league titles (a Suffolk County record)and took home eight straight Suffolk County titles from 1994-2001, yet another county record. His teams won a state-record 54 straight games in 1994 and 1995 and were nationally ranked in 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, and 2011.
Believe it or not, there are some more state records that McGowan’s teams hold, including 21 consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins. McGowan reached that plateau in 26 out of his 29 seasons at Bay Shore.
In his time at Bay Shore, McGowan coached 50 High School All-Americans, eight New York State Players of the Year and 42 players who went on to compete at the Division I level.
McGowan was named the NYSSCOGS New York State Coach of the Year six times (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2005) and earned NYSSCOGS Coach of the Decade honors for the 1990’s. He won NFCA Regional Coach of the Year accolades in 1997, 1999, and 2005 and was named New York State Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association in 1999 and 2004. McGowan was also a National Coach of the Year finalist in 1999 and 2005, in addition to being named Newsday Long Island Coach of the Year in 2001, 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2011.
McGowan is a 1974 graduate of the New York Institute of Technology, where he excelled as a three-sport athlete. A member of the football, lacrosse and tennis squads, McGowan served as a three-year captain of the football team and MVP of the tennis team. In 2008, NYIT inducted McGowan into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
McGowan played modified major fastpitch softball from 1972-1986, competing on one of the premier teams in the country. They finished in the top ten in the nation eight times, including a national runner up performance in 1976. McGowan was inducted into the Metro-Long Island A.S.A. Hall of Fame as a catcher in 1992. He also competed for the Town of Brookhaven travel softball team for nearly 30 years and continues to play senior softball for the town today.
McGowan resides in Bay Shore, NY.
