Christian Gavina had no idea that he was going to be honored by his collegiate alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, when he received a phone call while vacationing in California last week.
The former St. Mary’s of Jersey City standout, who then went on to have a fine career at Stevens, was clueless when he was told that the school’s administration had decided to honor him by retiring his jersey, becoming the first Stevens player ever to have his uniform retired.
“One of my old teachers told me,” Gavina said. “I had to cut my vacation short and get home as soon as possible. I never thought that this was possible. I never thought I’d get anything hung here.”
Gavina, who graduated in 2001 as the school’s No. 2 all-time leading scorer with 1,210 career points, was presented with a banner that will proudly display Gavina’s No. 30 for everyone to see when they enter Canavan Arena on the campus of the Hoboken institute.
“It’s a great honor,” Gavina said. “It’s something I can show my kids someday. I came here with a chance to get a great education. I have nothing but great memories of my time at Stevens. The whole experience has been remarkable, to say the least. I guess all my hard work paid off for something.”
After graduating from Stevens with a degree in biomedical engineering, Gavina started looking for a job, but instead pursued another dream – the chance to be a professional basketball player in the Philippines, where his parents were born.
“I tried out for a few professional teams there,” Gavina said. “I was trying to play in some competitive leagues over there, but I guess I really wasn’t mentally ready for it yet. I’m not about to give up on my dream. If it fails, then I have what Stevens provided me, something to fall back on. But I’m going to give it another shot soon.”
In the meantime, Gavina will more than likely head back to school to pursue a master’s degree.
Gavina’s high school coach, Tom Lalicato, was on hand for the celebration, as were many of Gavina’s former teammates at both St. Mary’s and Stevens. Although he has been traveling to the Philippines to play basketball and to California for sun and fun, Gavina still calls Jersey City his home.
“There were a lot of good people here and I’m glad they could share it with me,” Gavina said.
Just weeks after Betty Mendieta of North Bergen and Marissa Carey of Hudson County Prep reached important milestones by scoring their 1,000th career point, there seems to be a run on Hudson County girls’ basketball players reaching the plateau…
Two weeks ago, Angela Fitzgerald of Marist accomplished the feat. Last week, it was Annie Cossolini of St. Dominic Academy and Denaya Hemingway of Ferris that turned the trick.
It’s not readily known whether there have been five players from the county to reach the 1,000-point plateau all in the same year before, but it is certainly quite an accomplishment…
Former St. Anthony and Seton Hall standout John Valentin has signed on with the Baltimore Orioles, which means that his high school coach, Mike Hogan, can go back to enjoying baseball again this season. It was painful for Hogan to watch the team he hates the most, the Mets, last season while his former pupil was playing for them…
The HCIAA will rule Thursday on whether to continue the Bayonne-Hudson Catholic boys’ basketball game that was halted because of two brawls, the second one involving at least 75 people who came down from the stands to participate in the melee.
Personally, the game should be ruled final, with Bayonne winning, by whatever score it was when the first brawl took place, after the intentional foul was whistled.
Enough with the finger pointing and trying to determine which school was to blame and how severe the penalties should be.
The bottom line is this: Both schools are to blame. It was a horrific fight with hideous injuries suffered. Hudson Catholic is wrong to foul a player viciously and intentionally and Bayonne is wrong for retaliating in a violent manner on two separate occasions…
–Jim Hague