The long-awaited HCIAA Seglio Division soccer championship match between High Tech High School and Hoboken was originally scheduled to be played last Friday night, but the wicked nor’easter that blew its way through the area postponed the game first to Sunday, then to Monday.
However, the heavy rains made Ahern Veterans Stadium in Bayonne unplayable, so the game was postponed again Monday, along with the HCIAA girls’ soccer finale between St. Dominic Academy and Bayonne.
Because of the soggy field in Bayonne, The Hoboken – High Tech game was first rescheduled to Wednesday afternoon, to be played at Union City’s Roosevelt Stadium. Field conditions couldn’t be a concern there, because Roosevelt Stadium has artificial turf.
However, for some reason, the game was postponed for the fourth time and it was moved to DeBaun Field on the campus of Stevens Tech in Hoboken, with the game slated for a 4 p.m. start on Thursday.
So, if you were keeping track there, the game, which was supposed to be played last Friday, was postponed a total of four times and the game’s venue was changed three times.
That’s enough to drive any coach completely batty.
Which made the scenario even more bizarre is that no one from either school knew about the changes until perhaps an hour or two before the scheduled time. So the coaches and the players involved in the game had no idea when or where they were going to play.
And that’s a championship game?
It’s understandable that the weather conditions were brutal over the weekend. But there should have been some sort of concrete contingency plan made in case of foul weather. This sad state of bouncing the day of the game and the venue all over the place was unfair to the teams who worked so hard to get to that championship level…
Speaking of bizarre, it appears as if former Hudson Catholic standout football player Brad Cunningham, who has spent this fall as a freshman football coach at his alma mater, is headed back to Rutgers, where he played last year.
Cunningham left Rutgers over the summer, telling people that he was not happy there and had lost some of the desire to play. He then expressed some interest in transferring to St. Peter’s College and playing there for his former coach, Rob Stern, but he didn’t enroll in classes full-time at SPC and didn’t play at all anywhere.
Cunningham apparently had an impromptu meeting with Mark D’Onofrio, the former North Bergen, Penn State and Green Bay Packers linebacker who is now the linebackers coach at Rutgers and the two patched up difficulties.
Cunningham will reapply for admission to Rutgers for the second semester in January with the hope of returning to school and playing for the Knights again, possibly by next fall if he can catch up academically.
"As I thought about things, I realized you don’t get many second chances in life," Cunningham told the Newark Star-Ledger. "The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was the right decision to go back."
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said that he was happy to welcome back Cunningham, who had worked his way into the lineup, starting as a true freshman last year.
"I think Brad realized after some time away how much he missed it and how fortunate you are to have certain opportunities," Schiano told the Star-Ledger.
If Cunningham is accepted again at Rutgers and can make up the work academically, he will have three years of eligibility remaining. Schiano said that Cunningham would have his scholarship back if he qualified academically.
Certainly, an amazing twist to that story. – Jim Hague