Former WP High Girls Hoops Coach Sue Adams Dies at 62
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Susan Adams, a legendary coach who led the White Plains High School girls’ basketball team to four consecutive Section 1 championships from 2004 to 2008, died Aug. 24 at White Plains Hospital surrounded by family following a yearlong battle with ovarian cancer. She was 62.
Born in Mount Vernon, Adams was the first female student-athlete from White Plains High School to earn an athletic scholarship. She graduated from William & Mary University in Virginia in 1982.
In 1997, she began her 25-year teaching career in the White Plains School District and soon after reinvigorated her high school alma mater’s girls’ basketball program. Her teams appeared in two consecutive New York State championship games and Adams was twice named the New York State Basketball Coach of the Year. Many of Sue’s players continued on to play college basketball, and some became the first members of their families to earn college degrees.
In 2018, Adams, who also coached tennis, was enshrined in the White Plains High School Athletics Hall of Fame for her accomplishments and dedication as both an athlete and a coach.
Before retiring in June 2022, Adams worked as a physical education teacher at White Plains Highlands Middle School. She is credited with inspiring thousands of community members, co-workers, players and students throughout her decades-long coaching and teaching career.
“I will always be a Tiger at heart,” she wrote in a retirement post.
However according to her obituary, Adams’ proudest accomplishments may have been those as a dedicated and loving mother and wife. She met her husband Robert (Bob) in the mid-1980s when he was a law student at Pace Law School in White Plains and they were married for 36 years.
The couple had three children – Kimberly, Ryan and Kyle – who all passed through the White Plains School District and became college student-athletes like both of their parents. After deciding to step down as basketball coach, Adams enjoyed attending the high school and college games of her children. She was also a regular in the stands to support “The Big Whistle” (Bob) during his 25-year run as an NCAA Division I men’s basketball official.
“In her daily life, Sue was known as a bright and positive light to all. A one-in-a-million type of person,” her obituary read. “A friend you could count on for anything. She lived each day with adventure, laughter, joy and passion. She mastered the balance of hard work and enjoyment. She fought her battle with cancer much like she coached her teams to championships – courageously, fearlessly, gracefully and without complaint. In all of our eyes – Sue won this one.”
Adams is survived by her mother Elizabeth (Betty), her husband, her daughter Kim, her son Ryan and his wife Megan, her son Kyle and his wife Haley, her siblings Betsy, Ted, Tom and Chris, and her grandchildren Elizabeth (Libby) and Ryan. Her father Edward died in 2016.
A visitation will be held at Beecher Flooks Funeral Home in Pleasantville on Sunday, Aug. 27 from 3 to 8 p.m. A funeral mass to celebrate and honor Adams will be held at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains on Monday, Aug. 28 at 11 a.m.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
