A background in industrial engineering may not be the key to success in basketball, but it sure helped Lansdale Catholic Hall of Famer Paul Jefferis.
You see, such a discipline can require optimizing an organization by developing and improving an integrated system of people or knowledge. Jefferis’ organization was the LC boys’ basketball team and the system of people were the players and students he influenced from 1965 to 1994 as head basketball coach and athletic director.
Now, by the end of September, Lansdale Catholic aims to honor their legendary coach by dedicating his old stomping ground (polished floor?) as the Paul Jefferis Court at Lansdale Catholic, the school announced last week on Facebook.
A crusade to raise about $120,000 in funds for the dedication is going on now. According to Lansdale Catholic, the generosity will enable the Archdiocese of Philadelphia school to fulfill its mission of being “a learning community teaching values for life through a formative Catholic education.” Checks can be made payable to Lansdale Catholic High School, with a note for “Paul Jefferis Court,” and mailed to Lansdale Catholic Institutional Advancement Office, 700 Lansdale Ave., Lansdale, PA 19446.
Donate toward the dedication online at this link.
“This gym dedication wouldn’t be possible without the Walsh family. They had six boys who played for my dad from 1971 to 1986,” said Paul’s son, Joe Jefferis, of Lansdale. “Peter Walsh and Tom Walsh started the whole process and got my siblings involved.”
Joe Jefferis said the entire LC community has been great.
“Jen Huber, new President Megan Lister Callen, and outgoing President Jim Casey, and Pete Benerack, and the rest of the LC board members have been excellent,” he said. “The LC students will benefit from the proceeds raised for tuition.”
Thus far, in six months, about $30,000 has been raised from community and corporate donations, like from Merck, Joe said.
A Sept. 30 inaugural Lansdale Catholic Sports Banquet and Silent Auction at Indian Valley Country Club is planned to raise more money for the school and its athletic laurels.
By the time Principal Msgr. William J.J. O’Donnell hired Jefferis as head basketball coach and athletic director in 1964, the 1952 Allentown Central High School grad and Lehigh University-educated Jefferis had numerous basketball successes to his credit.
Jefferis not only played college basketball, baseball, and served four years in the United States Army, but he had already served as head basketball coach for St. John’s High School for two years until 1959.
Even a marriage to Pat Heckman in 1959 – they celebrate 64 years in August – and a move to Pittsburgh did not hiccup Jefferis’s love of the game, as he soon took a coaching job at St. Mark’s High School and even worked as a MAC Truck engineer.
By 1961, Jefferis had a calling for education, and took a job teaching math at St. Matt’s aka Archbishop Kennedy in Conshohocken until 1964. Of course, he coached basketball the whole time too.
Jefferis would continue to coach and teach at LC from 1965 until 2002, even heading up the math department for about nine years beginning in 1978. He eventually landed the role of LC Director of Pupil Personnel from 1973 to 1980.
Surprisingly, he did not stop with basketball coaching at LC: Jefferis coached cross country from 1967 to 1972, and coached baseball from 1965 to 1968.
All four of Jefferis’s children – Patty, Ed, Dave, and Joe – are LC graduates. And, yes, all three sons played basketball for him at LC, with Joe coaching alongside his dad from 1990 to 1994.
“My father always wanted to coach, teach and be a role model for students,” Joe said. “He did accomplish that by the responses I am getting from colleagues, and former players and students.”
The Walsh family also sponsors The Matthew Walsh ‘77 Scholarship at LC, in honor of their sibling, which funds scholarships to four LC students in each grade. The scholarship fund is based on merit and need, and candidates are selected and interviewed by the Walsh family. Furthermore, the scholarship fund also aids school families experiencing hardship or tragedy.
The Lansdale Catholic High School boys’ varsity basketball team is currently coached by Joe Corbett.
See also:
Archdiocese Announces New President for Lansdale Catholic High School
Lansdale Catholic Girls Basketball Wins First-Ever PIAA-4A Championship
New Lansdale Catholic Athletic Director to Take Reins Sept. 1
Lansdale Catholic Grad Killed in Alaskan Plane Crash
Newly Released Novel Profiles the Life and Legacy of Former Lansdale Catholic Football Coach
