Local basketball community mourns loss of former OCHS standout

Posted: January 16th 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

One of John Bruno’s most vivid recent memories of coaching the boys basketball team at Ocean City High School centered around a game late one season against Cedar Creek and Connor Laverty’s involvement in the situation.

“We had a special needs manager and Cedar Creek agreed to let us start him and allow him to score to start the game,” Bruno recalled, his voice beaming at the memory. “It took him a while to score and every time he missed the shot Connor was one of the guys running after the ball making sure he got it back so he could try to score again. When he finally scored, I’ll never forget the look on Connor’s face. He was so happy for him. And he was the first one to high-five him.”

Those are the kind of heart-warming stories we’ve been hearing about Connor Laverty in recent days in the wake of some very heart-breaking news about the former Ocean City High School basketball star.

Laverty, one of the best basketball players in recent OCHS history, passed away late last week, stunning the Ocean City, Upper Township and South Jersey basketball communities.

One of only 14 boys basketball players in the long history of OCHS basketball to score more than 1,000 career points, Laverty lost a short but grueling battle with cancer and a rare condition known as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) late last week. He was just 25 years old at the time of his death. He would have turned 26 earlier this week.

Laverty scored 1,164 points in a prolific career with the Raiders before graduating in 2016. He averaged 16.5 points and 6.9 rebounds and nearly three assists per game as a senior, leading Ocean City to an 18-8 record. As a junior, Laverty put up averages of 18.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.

Connor Laverty hugs his mother, Trish, shortly after scoring the 1,000th point of his high school career during his senior season in 2016.

“He didn’t start out that way,” Bruno said. “But it’s a testament to how hard he worked every day to get better at something, whether it was shooting or his ball handling or whatever. Each year he just got progressively better.”

Bruno said Laverty is his only player to receive four varsity letters, due to participating in enough varsity games as a freshman.

“What really caught my eye about him was how hard he worked at what he couldn’t do so well,” Bruno said. “A lot of young players have a hard time grasping that. A lot of them will work on things they’re already good at and not at their deficiencies. Connor was the opposite, to the point that when he left high school he really had no deficiencies in his game. That’s a tribute to how hard he worked in the offseason and during the season.”

But as much as Laverty was respected for his basketball skills, he was adored for his personality.

“I can’t say enough of what a conscientious and thoughtful kid that he was,” Bruno said. “It’s really a reflection of his mom and dad (Trish and Tim). They were the consummate parents. … Connor was without a doubt a reflection of his mom and dad.

“I’ve had so many people tell me stories about Connor outside basketball and they’re all great. I think that tells you the kind person he was. He was a far better person than a basketball player and he was a tremendous basketball player.”

Laverty went on to enjoy a wonderful career at Division III Widener University, where he was named the Mid Atlantic Conference Commonwealth Player of the Year as a senior for the 2019-2020 season after averaging 14.1 points per game and ranking third in the conference in three-point percentage at 45.4. He helped the Pride to a 19-6 record and the regular-season MAC Commonwealth title.

“Connor was the best. He really was,” said Pat Holden, Laverty’s teammate for two seasons at Widener and the all-time leading scorer at Lower Cape May. “On the floor, he was a great leader and a great teammate. For him it was always about the team rather than himself, for sure.

“As an underclassman coming in, I knew he was from Ocean City and I had a lot of respect for his game. He knew who I was before I even got to Widener and he took me under his wing when I got there.”

Holden said he and Laverty quickly became friends.

“We shared a lot in common,” he said. “We both loved sports, especially basketball, and as two guys both from the Jersey Shore it was just kind of natural for us to be friends. Overall, he was just a really good guy. He was an awesome guy to hang out with.”

A two-time all-conference selection and MAC Academic Honor Roll selection, Laverty was also named the Widener University Male Athlete of the Year in 2020. He scored more than 1,000 career points for the Pride as well.

“Connor was not just a talented athlete,” Widener men’s basketball coach Chris Carideo, a native of Ocean City, said in a tribute to Laverty on the Widener University athletics website. “He was a beloved teammate, coach and, above all, an amazing person. His positivity and warm heart touched the lives of all who knew him. 

“I thought for a second (the other day) I felt Connor at our practice, just standing there beside me with his arms crossed as he observed, as he typically would, then he kind of leaned toward me when he liked a sequence saying, 'You know, Coach, I think we could be pretty good.’ My response to him in my mind was, ‘Well, if they are built anything like you, Connor, we got a damn good shot!’ 

“I'll miss you! 'Till we meet again #21!”

Connor Laverty as a graduate assistant coach at Seton Hill University

Laverty forged a career in basketball upon graduating from Widener. He served as an assistant coach at Widener under Ocean City native Chris Carideo in the season after he graduated while also coaching AAU basketball with the East Coast Power. He also worked an internship as an assistant site director for Zero Gravity Basketball, helping to handle the logistics of organizing hundreds of youth basketball tournaments across the country.

Laverty was most recently in his second season as a graduate assistant coach at Division II Seton Hill University just outside Pittsburgh at the time of his passing.

Bruno was not surprised to see Laverty go into coaching.

“I knew Connor was going to be a coach,” he said. “His senior year, he could almost see things before we did because he had that kind of a feel for the game. He took to things very quickly. You’d show him a play once and he could remember it like he had studied it for an hour and memorized it.

“One of his best qualities is that he made other players better. Very rarely anymore do we see that. There are a lot of great players who are very successful but a lot of times it doesn’t relate to them getting other players better. But that’s what Connor did. As a coach, until you experience having someone like that you might have a hard time grasping that. But we definitely had it with Connor and we realized what kind of positive influence he had with his teammates.”

As per his obituary, Laverty’s funeral is set to be held Thursday morning.

Laverty is survived by his parents, Trish and Tim; his older brother Ryan, with whom he played basketball for a season at Ocean City; his sister, Brenna; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, including his aunt Helen, the longtime athletics secretary at OCHS. He is also survived by Victoria McHugh, described in his obituary as his “loved and cherished high school sweetheart and soulmate.”

The people in Laverty’s circle knew he had been hospitalized just before his passing. It didn’t make the news of his death any less jolting, however.

“It was very upsetting. When I heard it, it was very shocking and I know I cried that whole day,” Holden said. “There are no words to describe how I felt when I heard the news. The first thing I thought of was his family. Then I thought of all the great moments I had with him. That’s what I’m going to try to remember best.”

Connor Laverty (second from left), with (from left) Ocean City teammate Noah Gillian and Widener teammates Peter Gard and Pat Holden.