It’s always nice to reminisce about one’s athletic glory days. While it has been almost 30 years since Joe Forenza played basketball at North Bergen High School, the current vice principal at Guttenberg’s Anna L. Klein School was recently given a chance to relive the past when he was inducted into the North Bergen Basketball Wall of Fame.
“When you’re playing, you really don’t get a chance to look at it and think you did something great,” Forenza said. “But now, I can look back and realize that the accomplishments were truly special.”
Forenza, who graduated in 1974, averaged 23.5 points for every game during his senior season, missing out on the Hudson County scoring championship by one-tenth of a point to the immortal Jackie Gilloon of Memorial.
Forenza, who earned First Team All-County and Second Team All-Group IV state honors that season, also scored 51 points in a single game against Hoboken, which remains as the third-highest single scoring game in the history of Hudson County basketball.
Only Dan Callandrillo’s 64-point game while playing for North Bergen in 1978, and Randy Chave’s total of 56 while playing for Emerson in the 1950s, eclipse the 51-point total Forenza had that fateful evening in an 80-56 North Bergen victory.
Ironically, both Callandrillo, as a player, and Chave, as a coach, are also members of the North Bergen Basketball Wall of Fame. Forenza is the ninth member of the elite group.
Last year, the North Bergen team that won the NJSIAA Group IV State championship in 1977 earned induction as a group.
Forenza remembers the great game against Hoboken, a game where he shot 23 of 33 from the floor and five of five from the free-throw line, as if it happened yesterday, particularly because Chave was on the bench as an assistant coach to the legendary Matty Sabello.
“Although I was coming close to his record, Randy Chave put me back into the game to try to get it,” Forenza said. “We had a comfortable lead, but it was his unselfishness that enabled me to get close. It was a great personal achievement for me.”
Forenza said that he learned a lot from playing for Sabello, who is also a member of the wall of fame, and Chave – so much so that it encouraged him to pursue a career in coaching as well.
“I really enjoyed my playing days in North Bergen,” Forenza said. “Matty and Randy were great people to learn from. They taught me about basketball and they taught me about life. I respected them both tremendously. Coach Sabello gave me a chance to play varsity as a sophomore and that helped me a lot. He was a great person and coach.”
Current North Bergen Head Basketball Coach John Barone started the wall of fame nine years ago as a way of preserving the history and tradition of North Bergen basketball. The school has similar walls of fame for football and wrestling.
“Joe is well deserving of the honor,” said Barone, who was on the committee to select the latest wall of fame honoree. “He had a great high school career and he had to be in there. He had some unbelievable numbers, including that 51-point game. Joe is also a great guy.”
After his high school playing days were completed, Forenza went on to try to play at Montclair State, but injuries and illness ended his collegiate career after one year. He became a physical education teacher in his hometown of Guttenberg and was a basketball coach at Klein School for 11 years, and then he served as an assistant coach at Marist High School for eight years and Union Hill for three.
“Although I went to coach at other schools, I was always a Bruin in my heart,” Forenza said. “Once a Bruin, always a Bruin. North Bergen is in my blood. I always remember being a freshman and my hero was Dennis Taibl [another member of the wall of fame]. He came over to me and talked to me and showed me something about the game. I was so impressed. That stayed with me my whole life.”
Forenza said that he was really impressed that many of his family and friends were on hand to see him receive his award. “It really is a humbling experience,” Forenza said. “I was very impressed that Mayor Delle Donna and his wife were also there, as well as some of my former Klein School players. Hearing from my former players and seeing them again made me feel almost as good as getting the award. As time goes on, you appreciate things like this more and more.”