The Snyder High School boys’ basketball team will have a very familiar face on its sidelines this season when former Syracuse All-American and National Basketball Association veteran Rafael Addison takes over the reins as head coach, replacing Artie Rubin.
Addison, who played in the NBA for 10 years with the Nets, Charlotte, Phoenix among his teams, was a standout player for Snyder in the late 1970s, before moving on to Syracuse. He’s returning back to his roots and it will definitely be a challenge to get the Snyder program back to its glory days, but how many chances do Jersey City kids get to play for a former NBA player?
Even though this is his first attempt at coaching, considering his background and vast basketball talent, Addison should be a breath of fresh air in the coaching ranks who can point to his own success as a guiding light for the inner-city youngsters to follow…
Although the Jersey City Board of Education has been keeping a tight lip about it, Lincoln High School has a new football coach in former Marist standout Adonis Blue, who takes over for the departed Tom Ferreiro. Blue also faces a gigantic challenge in getting kids interested and focused in playing football at Lincoln.
It’s been said time and time again that Lincoln traditionally has the best pure athletes in Hudson County, but the challenge comes in trying to bridle that talent and getting the kids on an even keel, wanting to play.
That is the challenge that Blue will have to address from the outset. His youthful exuberance should be able to get him through the tough transitional phases, like the beginning of training camp. Whether that will translate to victories in September and October remains to be seen…
Congrats to former Lincoln baseball coach Rich Nesbit on being named as the new athletic director at Dickinson High School. Nesbit has been a dutiful servant at every level he has coached at and should do a fine job as an administrator.
But here are two questions: Does he lose his rah-rah cheerleader persona about St. Peter’s Prep now that he’s the AD of a rival school? And does he lose the chaw of chewing tobacco that has followed him for years? Just wondering…
It would have been nice to report on the results of the Section 2 Little League championships – you know, the one that featured District 7 champion Pershing Field – that were held in Secaucus last weekend, but the games were played in such secrecy that not even the local daily had a sniff of the scores.
Incredible, one week, they’re featured as the darlings of these sports pages, the lead item in the section, and the next, they’re nowhere to be found, simply because no one bothered to call in with results – to any local news service -specially not this one, even after calls were made to other administrators to pass a word on to the Pershing Field coaches to call in the results.
No such luck.
Here’s what we can gather. Pershing Field faced Nutley in the semifinals of the sectional last Sunday night. That’s about all.
What happened next is a complete rumor. Final score? Who knows? If anyone would like to inform the media as to what transpired at the Section 2 tournament, inquiring minds would love to know.
It’s almost too bizarre for words, not knowing what happened.
It’s a shame, because the kids are the ones who deserve the once-in-a-lifetime chance for recognition and they’re the ones who are getting shortchanged here… — Jim Hague