SAUGUS — One game into the new high school basketball season, Paul Moran has stepped down as the boys coach in Saugus, citing health concerns.
Saugus High athletic director James Bunnell confirmed Saturday that Moran, who was in his 10th season as coach, had resigned. Mark Bertrand, an assistant under Moran, will assume head coaching duties. Former Gloucester coach Bill Cahill is also on the staff.
Moran said Sunday that his decision was 100 percent due to health concerns.
“We did not want to cause too much of an interruption,” said Bunnell.
Bertrand’s sons, Joe and Dan, both played for Moran at Saugus and are both on the roster at Norwich University in Vermont.
“I’ve loved my time here at Saugus and have no bad things to say,” said Moran, who, as a Swampscott High basketball star, scored 2,045 points during his career. Moran also coached girls basketball at Danvers High and the boys at Swampscott prior to joining the Saugus staff.
However, Moran had a heart attack in October and found the demands of the job too much under the circumstances.
“I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “It was too much. To do a job like this, you have to be all in, and I couldn’t be. I probably should have just walked away in October.”
“It’s not just coaching varsity basketball,” he said. “That’s the easy part. It’s all the Saturday mornings you spend in the gym watching the middle school kids play, all the scouting … I just didn’t have the energy.
“I have to get healthy,” he said. “Maybe someday I’ll be back. I’ll turn up somewhere else.”
