Men’s basketball Head Coach Remy McCarthy will have his hands full this season, as he has also taken on the women’s head coaching spot.

With the exit of former women’s basketball Head Coach Lindsay Goldblatt, who was hired as the head coach at Cal Lutheran University, the Raiders will look to McCarthy’s experience to lead them to what they hope will be their fourth consecutive playoff berth. This series of events began when coach Goldblatt informed the athletic department that she would not be returning for this season.

“[Goldblatt] accepted that position on Aug. 8 and school started on Aug. 19. So we had to have a coach in place by then…It was very abrupt and we had to move very quickly,” athletic director Howard Davis said.

Coach McCarthy was regarded as the natural replacement by many of the persons involved in the matter, such as the Athletic Department, and was hired promptly on Aug. 13.

“He is eminently qualified,” Davis said. “I actually met with the leaders of the women’s basketball team and… they were all for having coach McCarthy.”

However, this will not be coach McCarthy’s first stint filling in as the women’s coach at Moorpark, as he ran the team for the latter half of the 1996 season. When describing his first experience as the women’s coach, McCarthy summed it up with one word, “Spontaneous.”

“It was a case where there was a change made in the middle of the year and I ended up enjoying it very much,” McCarthy said.

Presently, McCarthy attributes the easy transition and the current positive state of the women’s team to the program’s former leader.

“This program has a great foundation, and the reason it does is because Lindsay Goldblatt created a culture where they not only won, but these women also acted like ladies and performed in the classroom, the way we want student athletes to perform,” McCarthy said.

Part of that established program just so happens to be sophomore Sam McCarthy, coach Remy McCarthy’s daughter.

“I was excited because, I know what he is capable of as a coach,” shooting guard Sam McCarthy said. “[McCarthy] is familiar with the leaders of the team, so we figured it would be a good opportunity to get someone that we knew, instead of someone new who didn’t know [the team].”

According to Sam McCarthy, the players have already taken to their new coach as the team works to develop it’s chemistry for the season.

“I think it’s going well. It is always an adjustment going from one coach to another, even for me. Even though I know him the best out of anyone,” McCarthy said.

For now though, Coach McCarthy is keeping himself busy. Preparing for the season and the double-dose of games he will face this year. However, he has the support of the athletic department, both teams, and the entire administration.

“It is going to be difficult, it is going to be physically grueling for him,” Davis said. “It is going to be mentally and emotionally grueling for him, and that is a concern…but I think he is capable of handling it, and succeeding with both teams.”