Mount's Fraher wants Gilvary back on Holy Cross bench

Mount's Fraher wants Gilvary back on Holy Cross bench

New York Daily News

Mount St. Michael coach Tom Fraher is glad Paul Gilvary has been cleared by the Queens DA, but he thinks the Holy Cross coach should get his job back, too.

At least one of Paul Gilvary’s fellow CHSAA basketball coaches believes he should get his jobs back at Holy Cross now that he has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Queens DA’s office, which had been investigating accusations of ‘potential improprieties’ against the longtime Knights coach. 

Mount St. Michael boys basketball coach Tom Fraher â€" who spoke out in support of Gilvary after Gilvary was stripped of his duties in November -  believes Gilvary should be allowed to return to the Knights’ bench and to his role as director of admissions at Holy Cross.

“I’m glad it worked out for him, and I’m glad the investigation proved what the findings were,” Fraher said. “Now Holy Cross should sit down with Paul, close the door, discuss it and give him his jobs back.”

Fraher thinks the school should wait until next season to put Gilvary back on the bench since league playoffs are set to begin on Sunday. Through his attorney, Joseph Tock, Gilvary made it clear that he would prefer to resume coaching next season. 

“He was put on leave because of the investigation,” Fraher said. “Well, now the investigation hasn’t come up with any wrongdoings, so hopefully Paul and Holy Cross can work out a situation that’s good for both of them.”

Fraher, who told The News in November that he felt Gilvary’s once stellar reputation had been “ruined” by the investigation, didn’t see Gilvary for much of the season, running into him during a Fordham men’s basketball game on Jan.9 in the Bronx. Fraher next saw Gilvary at a CHSAA playoff meeting on Monday, which Gilvary ran after being “kind of away from it a little bit” over the past three months. 

Fraher said Gilvary has been more active in his responsibilities as the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens chairman over the past three weeks and that he’s also been open about what it’s been like to be away from work for so long.

“His life was taken away from him for about three months,” Fraher said. “That’s natural for anyone to go through days where you get up and you don’t know what you’re doing. 'I’m not going to work - I’m not dealing with my side job [with the league].’ So what do you do? You get up, take a shower, have breakfast, read the paper and then you say, ‘Now what?’ He had some days there, he told me, where you’re kind of watching the clock a little bit, just getting through.”

Mabramson@nydailynews.com