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Catherine Dadey had the flu the first week of practice in her senior year with Westhill Senior High School’s varsity basketball team. She still needed to have a meeting with then-Warriors’ head coach, Sue Ludwig.

Ludwig had coached Dadey in some capacity since second grade, but in that meeting, she knew Dadey felt differently about the game.

“I just told her, ‘I don’t really think I can do it. I played basketball all my life. I think I want to give other things a try,’” Dadey said.

For both Dadey and Ludwig, this was it. During the season, Ludwig made it known the 2021-22 season would be her last at Westhill. The Warriors finished with a 15-4 record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class B Sectional Championships. Dadey also became a 1,000-point scorer in that final season.

Ludwig, who was not made available for this story, jumped from the local high school level to Syracuse women’s basketball this season after coaching at Westhill for 31 years. Her 585 victories at Westhill stand as the New York State Section III record among female high school coaches. Ludwig led the Warriors to 22 Onondaga League Championships, 11 Section III Championships and five New York State Regional Championships. She applied her detailed-oriented mindset to both the players and fellow coaches of Westhill, and now has brought that to Syracuse.

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“It’s like a perfect storm,” Felisha Legette-Jack said. “She brings her winning ways…I know I’m an emotional, passionate person, and she’s really calm and cool and collected.”

Ludwig and Legette-Jack first came to Syracuse in 1984. Legette-Jack graduated as the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in program history at that point and Ludwig became the first player in program history with 500 career assists.

“We’re like a yin and a yang,” Legette-Jack said. “We both know how to win and we do it in a different way.”

Legette-Jack began her coaching career at Westhill in 1989, before Ludwig reigned over the Warriors for over three decades. Legette-Jack moved to the collegiate level as an assistant at Boston College in 1991, opening the door for Ludwig.

Zachary Kiggins, the former head coach for the girls’ junior varsity basketball team at Westhill and the current varsity head coach for the Warriors, returned in 2018 to get advice from Ludwig. She went “above and beyond” to help Kiggins adjust to his new role, he said.

“Once I got here she just took me under her wing and really helped me out with anything that I needed,” Kiggins said.

Kiggins and Ludwig still talk “probably once a week,” going over how things are at Westhill and Syracuse. He will send her pictures of how a certain defensive formation is set up and ask for her thoughts.

Ludwig had a play for every situation, Kiggins said. If a defense changed its schemes, her ability to think “on the fly” meant she had an adjustment ready to go. Kiggins said Ludwig could draw up a “perfect” out-of-bounds play.

At Syracuse, Ludwig’s attention to detail and studying her opponents persists. Georgia Woolley has gotten help from Ludwig as the two analyze film together.

“She brings a different aspect, a different view than some other coaches at different times,” Woolley said. “So it’s good to just have like different coaches with different things that they bring to the table.”

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Similarly, as a point guard, Dadey received in-depth analysis from Ludwig constantly on her passing. Ludwig played at the point as well and always advised against “silly passes” from Dadey. Ludwig would tell Dadey the same phrase four or five times a week, Dadey said: “You’re trying to shove a softball in a golf hole.”

“Instead of chucking it one-handed down the court, she was big on the art of a good bounce pass and chest pass,” Dadey said.

Along with breaking down film, Ludwig applied her teachings practically. During scrimmages, Ludwig got on the court and played against her players. Even though they were significantly younger, Ludwig was just as fast, or faster, always knowing what would happen in every play.

“She would scrimmage with us and you could tell her energy was just radiating,” Dadey said.

When Dadey first met Ludwig at one of her summer camps, she immediately noticed Ludwig’s passion and tendency to push her, advising Dadey to play with boys’ teams. But Ludwig had a lot of trust in Dadey. In a game against Homer on Dec. 16, 2021, Westhill only had eight players available as some of the players were out with illness. So, Ludwig asked Dadey what to do — allowing her floor general to provide helpful insight. It gave Dadey a confidence boost, she said, resulting in her 33 points and a 20-point victory.

A few months after the season concluded, Legette-Jack tapped Ludwig to join her at Syracuse.

“My first big-time recruit to SU is signing my college point guard to join me on this journey to pursue championships through our CAB (character, academics, basketball) approach in the classroom and on the court,” Legette-Jack said back in April when the Orange hired Ludwig.

As Ludwig returned to the Orange, doing what she always did at Westhill, she obviously doesn’t get to see Dadey as often anymore. But Dadey still sees Ludwig occasionally. The two ran into each other when Syracuse football faced Notre Dame at JMA Wireless Dome on Oct. 29.

“So once (the Orange’s) season is over and things kind of wind down for her, I’m sure that text will come soon about getting together again,” Dadey said.

Published on January 24, 2023 at 12:10 am

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com