Neumann-Goretti Coach Andrea Peterson Is A Driving Force Behind Nation's No. 1 Team
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — She won't say anything about herself. Never has. Andrea Peterson won't mention the countless times she's gotten up at 5 a.m. to run her family-owned day-care center in Norwood, playing den mother to infants and preschoolers for eight hours.
Then after that, somehow summon the energy to coach a Neumann-Goretti girls' basketball team that carries the burden of being No. 1 in the nation.
Peterson, a former all-Catholic League guard at Archbishop Carroll and Drexel standout, won't talk about the balancing beam she's been forced to walk, either, serving as both protector and human shield for a group of teenaged girls who have been thrust into a controversy that they've had nothing to do with.
When coach Letty Santarelli resigned for personal reasons on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, just prior to the season, Peterson stepped in and picked up an emotionally distraught team.
Yet she won't talk about being a savior. She won't take any credit for the Saints' 22-0 season so far or the fact that they stand on the brink of repeating as Catholic League champions.
Peterson just coaches, without ever mentioning anything good she's done.
But her players will.
"I don't think we would be where we are without 'Coach Petey,'" said Christina Aborowa, the Saints' 6-4 senior forward who's headed to Texas on a basketball scholarship. "We might have fallen apart without her; I do know we wouldn't be No. 1. I don't really believe in heroes, but she's close to it I would say. We're playing this season for Coach Letty, but if we didn't have Coach Petey, we wouldn't have trusted anyone else."
C.C. Cryor, the Saints' gifted senior point guard who's going to Georgia Tech, feels the season was almost taken away from the Saints before it started.
"If it wasn't for Coach P coming up, we wouldn't be undefeated," Cryor said. "Coach Petey has been there for me since last year, and it's a reason why I took a technical foul [in a game against Carroll] this season, because no ref was going to talk to her the way that one ref did. I told him, 'You don't talk to my coach like that!'
"I look at Coach Petey like I look at my mom, and no one is going to show any disrespect to her. I think we have the talent on this team to be good, but without Coach Petey, we wouldn't be undefeated. She's kept us together. Another coach couldn't have come in here and do what she's done. She knows us and has been a mother figure to us. I'm territorial. Anyone new wouldn't have been Coach Letty and Coach Petey. We wouldn't have trusted anyone new coming in."
Sianna Martin had a tough time, as all the Neumann-Goretti players did, when Santarelli resigned. But Peterson has maintained continuity and much of the same approach as her predecessor.
"We know everyone is out to get us," said Martin, who's headed to Towson on a basketball scholarship. "Everyone thought we were going to fold when Coach Letty left. I think there are a lot of people who were hoping we would come apart. But Coach Peterson kept us all together. It was tough losing Coach Letty. She's meant so much to us, especially me. I wouldn't have gone to Neumann-Goretti if it wasn't for her.
"Coach Peterson has been like a superhero. She really has. She's like another Coach Letty, in terms of being like a mom and big sister to us. We know we can depend on her for anything. A new coach coming in wouldn't have been good for us, because we're so attached to Coach Letty and Coach Petey. We're going to do it. We have an attitude that nothing will stop us. That comes from ourselves, but we also know it comes from all of the good people that have supported us. Without them we would be nowhere. With them, we're No. 1 in the country."