Flynn Does Whatever It Takes For Mary’s
Jay Mumford

It’s not Shannon Flynn’s fault that she can put the ball in the hole. After all, if the St. Mary’s Lady Gaels want to win, someone has to do it on a regular basis.

“Shannon definitely gets her points, but (at St. Mary’s) we don’t have a lot of (scoring) options, so we have to drop her down to the two guard sometimes”, said Tom Flynn, the Gaels’ head coach and Shannon’s father. “But she’s actually a better pure point guard than she is a scorer. She‘d rather pass the ball.”

The veteran playmaker is the Lady Gaels' leading scorer not only this season, but in hoops history as of January 15th. If not for her 22 points per game, there’s a chance that the Manhasset program would be going fishing early in the February cold, but doing whatever is necessary is common protocol for the cream of the crop on the high school level. The said point guard skills have also given her about 5 assists per game this season, and more importantly, the ability to play the ghost of her father on the floor.

“He knows he can yell at me more than he can other girls”, Shannon said with a laugh. “Then when it comes to executing on the court, I’m kind of like a coach out on the floor, a typical coaches daughter (laughs).”

So are there ever coaches quarrels in the locker room or at the dinner table?

“Not at all”, she continued. “Everyone thinks its hard, but its not.”

The elder Flynn agrees. “Shannon is a coachable kid, so there’s never any problems at all”, he said.

Over the course of her four year reign at St. Mary’s and her challenging summer collision courses with Long Island Extreme AAU, the well-rounded senior has honed her skills and prepped herself for wherever on the court her services are needed. The next level awaits the 5‘7 star, and there’s no shortage of college interest.

“Shannon has about 4 or 5 Division II offers”, Coach Flynn revealed. “She wants to play in the Northeast 10. Adelphi, AIC, Bridgeport, Southern Connecticut, Molloy, Dowling and CW Post are all in the picture, so she’ll have plenty to pick and choose from.” Shannon, however, wants to keep it local.

“Molloy, Post and Bridgeport have offered me full rides already”, she said. “I would rather stay closer to home than go away.” Speaking of home, St. Mary’s have a playoff bid coming up, and Flynn’s first order of business is helping the team get deep into the post-season in her final bid as a Lady Gael. A tough road awaits but make no mistake, she’ll do whatever it takes.