Georgia McCarthy Named to Section XI & State Committees
Georgia D. McCarthy has been named to several Section XI and New York State Public High School Athletic Association committees for the 2016/17 school year. The appointments are effective July 1.
Huntington’s district director of health, physical education and athletics since 2002, Ms. McCarthy began her career in the district in 1992 as a physical education teacher at Flower Hill and later worked at Huntington Intermediate and the high school.
Ms. McCarthy has been named Section XI’s female Athletic Council representative for Conference II and she will also serves as the Conference II secretary. The longtime Huntington faculty members will be Section XI’s representative on the NYSPHSAA’s modified (middle school/junior high school) committee.
An appointed member of Section XI’s official’s negotiations, finance, sportsmanship and eligibility committees, Ms. McCarthy is a Section XI Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) trainer for those seeking coaching certification. She is the Suffolk County Athletic Directors’ Association secretary.
A member of Huntington High School’s Class of 1982, Ms. McCarthy was an outstanding athlete and earned a full NCAA Division I basketball scholarship to James Madison University, graduating in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications.
Ms. McCarthy was employed by ABC Television in Virginia, handling sports logging and writing duties and later held a similar position with NBC in New York before ultimately deciding to pursue a career in education.
Adelphi University awarded Ms. McCarthy a master’s degree in physical education in 1990. Her first teaching job was at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, where she also coached varsity girls’ basketball and soccer and junior varsity softball.
At Huntington, Ms. McCarthy coached the Blue Devil JV girls’ basketball team for five seasons and won four Coach of the Year Awards. She also coached the boys’ JV team, volunteered with the boys’ varsity squad, served as JV softball coach and coached boys’ varsity volleyball. She has been active on the college level, too, first as Adelphi’s head women’s tennis coach and then as a graduate assistant in the women’s basketball program.
After teaching for 12 years, Ms. McCarthy earned her state administrative certification through Dowling College in 2002. In addition to her other duties, she is Huntington’s coordinator of driver education and chairperson of the district’s Comprehensive Health Advisory Council.
Ms. McCarthy takes pride in personally knowing almost all of the students participating in the district’s athletic program. She is a frequent visitor to Huntington’s gyms and fields and is a constant presence at meets and games.
Incoming Huntington High School senior Anna Gulizio will be interning with Ms. McCarthy during the 2016/17 school year. The teenager is a top member of the Class of 2017, earning stellar grades and playing on the varsity soccer, basketball and spring track and field teams.
A love for sports led Ms. McCarthy to develop a summer lacrosse and basketball camp, which she directed for nine years and which grew to become one of the premier programs in the northeast. She was an AAU basketball coach for many years.
Ms. McCarthy’s father, Ray Deren once held the same position in Huntington that she now does and she regularly credits him for a lengthy list of innovations and accomplishments on behalf of the physical education and athletic programs, as well as for her own success. She started an annual scholarship in his name and presents it each year at the Blue Devil senior athletic awards dinner.
Ms. McCarthy has two sons who are Huntington High School graduates; John, a graduate of James Madison University and Kenny, a JMU sophomore.