The Megan Dellegrotti show was canceled before it even started for Bethlehem Catholic's girls basketball program. Dellegrotti, who was hired last April, abruptly resigned on Nov. 24, just twelve days before the Hawks season opener against Scranton Prep this Saturday.

The resignation was a complete shock to Becahi athletic director Chris Domyan.

"I was very surprised," said Domyan. "Megan has to make her own choices and I was hoping she wouldn't resign this way. We were really happy with what she was doing. It's really an unfortunate circumstance."

Dellegrotti came to Becahi after five seasons at the helm of Southern Lehigh, where her teams compiled a 104-28 mark. She replaced Bill Lanscek, who was 161-97 in 10 years as head coach of the Hawks. Becahi won their second straight Lehigh Valley Conference and District 11 3A championships last winter, but Lanscek was not rehired.

Dellegrotti was hired 11 days after Lanscek's departure last March and ran out of the program after one week of official practices.

Domyan declined to discuss the reasons for Dellegrotti's resignation, citing "it had nothing to do with the basketball or our relationship. It was something outside."

Sources close to the situation have indicated that there was a conflict with one of Dellegrotti's assistants being on the staff, which led her to the abrupt resignation.

Dellegrotti came out with her own statement last week below.

"On Monday, November 24th, I resigned as the head coach of the girl's basketball team at Bethlehem Catholic. "Coaching is a tough profession and without support in all aspects of the position, it becomes impossible to achieve the goals I had hoped to accomplish.

"Anyone who knows me, knows I would never leave 12 days before the start of the season without just cause. The players and parents were supportive throughout my short time at Beca and I am grateful I had the opportunity to coach each one of them during the spring, summer and fall. I wish all the players and their parents a successful season moving forward."

Domyan wasted little time in filling the position, as he named Jose Medina head coach the following afternoon.

Medina has nine-years experience coaching on the girls scene as a varsity assistant at Emmaus and Liberty, his alumni, as well as being the head coach of Freedom's freshman team.

"Jose applied for the position last spring when it was open and he brings quality experience to the program," Domyan said. "He was ready to take the next step to become a head coach. He was ready and available and it worked out for us."

For Medina, being thrust into the position is a challenge, but all his years of coaching have helped him deal with the transitional period of being hired so close to the regular season."

"We know this is a resilient group of girls," said Medina, "but one thing we're focusing on is having them reset, regroup and refocus. "They've done a great job with that to this point and from a coaching perspective, all I'm trying to do is work with their strengths and try to mesh everything together."

Medina knows plenty about Becahi, since he had to game plan for the Hawks over the past several years as an assistant at Emmaus, but his trek to the 2009 state semifinals with Liberty has many similarities that may pay dividends this season.

"That season I saw what great senior leadership can do," he said about that Liberty team. "I think we have a great group of seniors here as well. They've been working hard in practice and we're looking forward to starting this weekend."