Vayianos, Cathy

Cathy Vayianos

Induction Year: 2007

Category: Tennis, Basketball, Softball, Volleyball

Location: Half Hollow Hills

Cathy Vayianos coached girls’ varsity tennis, basketball, softball and volleyball and boys’ JV tennis at Half Hollow Hills East High School from 1965 to 1995, when she retired from teaching. However, she stayed on to coach the girls’ varsity tennis team.

With school records only available from 1974 on, her overall career record, as of 2003, was 417 wins and 66 losses. Her teams earned 21 League titles and 12 County titles. From 1990 through 2000, her teams won 11 consecutive League titles, 10 consecutive county titles and had a winning streak of 175 matches.

With her girls’ basketball, softball and volleyball teams she won three league championships in each sport in the 1980’s.

Cathy was selected 14 times as coach of the Section XI tennis team representing them at the State Championship and has won many coaching awards. She was also an accomplished athlete in both basketball and softball while attending Montclair State College, where she is also in their hall of fame.

Rose Battaglia, one of the most respected collegiate coaches in the nation, ranked her with Anne Donovan, the dominant center from Old Dominion during the 1980s. Playing for Montclair State and a number of outstanding women’s amateur teams, Vayianos demonstrated tremendous basketball talent. One of the first big wins turned in by Montclair State in women’s basketball came over East Stroudsburg State during Vayianos’ undergraduate days. In softball, as a pitcher and infielder, Vayianos developed into a top-flight player hitting well over .450. As was the practice in those days, she also played a good deal of softball with leading amateur teams in the area.

In later years, she was a gold medalist in the National Women’s Basketball Senior Olympic Games in 1995 as well as a gold medalist at the Long Island Senior Games Tennis Tournament in 2001.

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