Margaret Carey has returned to her college alma mater.

Carey, who played the first three years of her high school basketball career for Chris Lentz at Ocean City and later became an assistant to Joe Fussner at Richard Stockton College, resigned from her position as head coach at Catholic University to become an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary’s. In three seasons at Catholic, Carey’s teams were 44-35.

“I knew that I eventually wanted to be a coach in Division I,” Carey said, “and it is great to get the chance to take the first step at my alma mater.” Mount St. Mary’s is an NCAA Division I school and Catholic University plays in Division III.

“Having played Division I basketball here at Mount St. Mary’s it makes sense that I would make my coaching debut at that level here, as well,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for (Mount head coach) Bryan (Whitten) and I’ve learned a lot from him already. There are big differences in recruiting and almost everything else in Division I from what I was used to in Division III.”

Carey was a three-year letter winner at Mount St. Mary’s from 1997 through 2000, during which time The Mount had a pair of 20-win seasons and won one Northeast Conference championship. Among the other teams in the conference is Monmouth, which will be coached next season by another former OCHS player, Stephanie Vanderslice Gaitley. The conference also includes Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island University and Robert Morris, among others. Two former Cape-Atlantic League players – senior Shanda Anderson of Egg Harbor Township and sophomore Lauren Howell from Sacred Heart – will also be part of the 2008-09 Mount St. Mary’s team.

“Being a head coach really opens your eyes to things,” Carey said. “It is like a roller coaster ride. I’d be faced with a decision and I’d remember how Joe Fussner handled a similar decision and it suddenly made more sense to me. You see things differently when you are a head coach and losses hurt much more deeply. But I think the experience of being a head coach, at any level, makes you a better assistant because you understand better what the head coach is going through. It is my makeup to be impulsive and to make decisions quickly. But being a head coach forced me to become more patient.

“I also owe an awful lot to Joe Fussner. He helped me become a better coach and he helped me get the job at Catholic. Without his help and guidance I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

After three successful years at OCHS, Carey moved with her family to Pennsylvania and played for Penncrest High School her senior year. She then walked on at Mount St. Mary’s and earned her playing time. At OCHS, Carey scored 541 points in three basketball seasons under Lentz, ranking her among the top 25 in school history. In her junior year, she and her older brother, Joe, became the only brother-sister combination to both play at No. 1 singles in tennis for the Raiders during the same school year.

“With my history in South Jersey, both at Ocean City and Stockton, I hope to help recruit more players from the area,” Carey said. “There is so much talent in South Jersey.”