STEPHANIE CLEARY MILLS

TAPPAN ZEE HIGH SCHOOL

CLASS OF 2001

Given the green light by her coaches to fire away, Stephanie Cleary embraced her role as Tappan Zee’s premier shooting guard. By her sophomore year, she had already toppled the 1,000-point benchmark, the first Rockland 10th-grader to do so. By the conclusion of her five-year varsity career, she had put all other Rockland girls’ basketball players in the rear-view mirror.

Shooting and scoring; scoring and shooting some more. The final magic number: 2,155 points. The previous Rockland County record was 1,611 points by Nyack’s Eva Koehler in 1995. Stephanie did not just break the record; she clobbered it. This was Cal Ripken overtaking Lou Gehrig, LeBron James sailing past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wayne Gretzky whizzing by Gordie Howe. In the 24 years since she set the standard, nobody has come within a country mile of approaching it.

Is she surprised the mark has lasted so long? “Yes,” says Stephanie, now Stephanie Mills. “The kids start [playing] younger. Every team has three or four good girls.” By the same token, she laments how the game has changed. “I was lucky. I had a coach who gave me free rein. Now coaches control the game more. There are more set plays.”

We may not see the likes of such a prolific scorer for many a decade. But lest you think Stephanie’s prowess was limited to the hoops hardwood, understand that Tappan Zee was the beneficiary of her superior athletic skills in soccer, lacrosse and softball, too. And let’s not forget the All-America credentials she racked up in a Hall of Fame career at Ithaca College.

Four-Sport Star

Stephanie’s sports résumé for TZ is peppered with a lot of “alls” – as in All-League, County, Section and State. In basketball, for four years she was All-New York State, All-County and All-Section 1, and five times All-League. In soccer she also earned four All-County and All-Section designations and five All-League citations. She led the Dutchies in scoring all five of her varsity seasons and served as team co-captain for the last three.

As an eighth- and ninth-grader Stephanie gained an All-League accolade as the starting shortstop in softball, then switched to lacrosse in the spring and garnered three more All-League honors.

Although she breached uncharted territory with her 2,000-plus points, Stephanie considers her 1,000th-point game the most meaningful. Why? Because Tappan Zee scored a major upset of league rival Nyack. Steph calmly sank two free throws with 10.7 seconds left to cap a 10-point comeback and clinch a 55-52 victory over the Erica Lawrence-led Nyack team, which suffered its first league loss. “It was a great program win, and it was fun for me, too,” recalls Stephanie, who also hauled down more than 800 rebounds and sank 194 three-point shots over her career.

Memorable Moments, Coaches, Teammates

Another highlight-reel moment in Stephanie’s athletic career was the 3-1 overtime triumph in soccer over archrival Pearl River in her junior year. Steph scored a goal by banging it home off her knee. “It wasn’t pretty but it counted,” she says. “We were happy for Coach Lynch. He was a great coach and a great person.” Bill Lynch coached Stephanie in soccer all four years. Her basketball coach for the first three years was Tom Parke (“tough but fair”), who also coached Eva Koehler at Nyack when she set the scoring record six years before Stephanie. Kristi Steingasser coached Steph in 11th grade and Lynch took over for her senior year. Jim Drivas coached Steph in lacrosse, while Rich Miller coached her in softball for two years and soccer in eighth grade.

Stephanie had many fine teammates in the four sports she played, but a few stand out as exceptional. Maggie Brauer played with Steph in three sports – “She always had my back.” Sarah Rooney was a senior who mentored young Steph as an eighth-grader – “She embraced me and took me under her wing.” Rebecca Vogel was a trusted teammate in soccer and lacrosse. Stephanie, Sarah (Kukla) and Rebecca (Zylber) are all Tappan Zee Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.

Stephanie did not have to look far for inspiration. Her brother Michael fit the bill of role model perfectly. “He was my hero growing up and he is still my best friend,” she says of Michael Cleary, a three-sport All-County and All-Section athlete who graduated two years before Steph. “We live a mile apart and he has two little girls who are like my own kids.”

Making More History at Ithaca

After graduating from Tappan Zee, Stephanie embarked on a second ultra-successful chapter in her athletic career, at Ithaca College. All she did was produce four more years of scoring magic, netting 1,866 points for a school record that remains untouched 20 years later. Twice she merited All-America honors, second team as a senior and third team as a junior – the first such recognition in program history.

Stephanie led all NCAA Div. I, II and III players in steals her junior year with 154 (“my claim to fame”), an average of 5.7 steals per game, and amassed 457 for her career. She was named Player of the Year in both the ECAC and Empire 8 her senior year, and the school’s female Athlete of the Year as well. Spearheaded by Steph’s heroics, Ithaca qualified for the NCAA Div. III tournament all four years and advanced to the Sweet 16 once. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2015. “I was lucky with the college I chose,” said Stephanie, who was coached by longtime mentor Dan Raymond. “Some people wondered if I should have tried to go Division II or Division I, but at Ithaca I got the full college experience and the full athletic experience.”

Teaching, Coaching, Family

Stephanie graduated from Ithaca with a bachelor’s degree in English, and a minor in coaching. She later obtained a master’s in special education from SUNY Manhattanville. Steph taught for 10 years in the New York City school system before accepting a position in 2016 at Dobbs Ferry High School, where she teaches special education as well as science and math.

Maintaining strong ties to the sport she loves, Stephanie served as JV girls’ basketball coach at Tappan Zee for three years, and as assistant to Pat Buckley at Albertus Magnus for two seasons. After coming to Dobbs Ferry, she held the position of varsity girls’ coach for four years. In her first season with the Eagles, she guided the team to the Section 1 semifinals and posted a victory over her alma mater.

Stephanie, who is 41, lives in Blauvelt with her husband of 14 years, fellow TZ graduate Mike Mills. They have three
children, all of whom attend school in South Orangetown: Danielle, 13, who made the JV basketball team as a seventh grader; Matthew, 11; and Madison, 9.

Take a bow for your Rockland Sports Hall of Fame honor, Stephanie (Cleary) Mills!