For what seems like forever, the town of West New York has produced its fair share of great baseball teams. This year’s West New York Senior American Legion team is no exception.
Head coach Jack Nagurka, who was a standout pitcher during his days at Memorial High School and still currently serves as the school’s pitching coach, has assembled a quality team that is participating in the Bergen County American Legion league.
For many years, West New York was a mainstay in the Hudson-Bergen Connie Mack League, as part of the Amateur American Baseball Congress (AABC), but two years ago, West New York withdrew from the league.
Seeking somewhere else to play for the town’s high school age (16 through 18) players, Nagurka joined the 12-team Bergen County American Legion last year. While then West New York team held its own last year, making the Legion District playoffs as a wild card, Nagurka’s team is doing much better this summer, having already clinched the Southern Division championship of the league.
West New York owns a 14-2 record, having bested their division featuring Lyndhurst, Fairview, Passaic, Jersey City and Clifton Post 8. West New York will face Wayne, the Northern Division champion, in a best-of-three championship series.
Because West New York won the divisional title already, they’ve clinched a berth in the upcoming district playoffs at Breslin Stadium in Lyndhurst, with the right to play for the state championship in West Windsor next month.
In order to compete for a league title this season, Nagurka knew that he needed to expand the roster. So he reached out to other local high schools, besides the talented kids he knew from the HCIAA Coviello champion Memorial Tigers, to fill out the roster.
“Our recreation director, Dennis DeSocio, didn’t want to have the use of out-of-towners,” Nagurka said. “So last year, we went into the season with strictly Memorial and St. Joseph players. We fielded a respectable team, but we didn’t have enough to compete.” So this year, Nagurka reached out and secured players from other local schools as well, including several members of the 2003 Hudson Reporter All-Area baseball team and the last two Hudson Reporter Players of the Year.
Of course, the team features its share of Memorial standouts, including 2003 Reporter Player of the Year Luis Fernandez, as well as All-Area honoree Steve Schlitzer, Andy Luna, Wilson Giraldo, Kiki Del Valle and David Montero, as well as the Acosta twins, Adel and Ariel, who graduated from Memorial in 2002 and currently play for Global Institute, a two-year college in New York.
The team also has the 2002 Hudson Reporter Player of the Year, namely Gil Zayas of St. Joseph of the Palisades, along with high school teammates Frank Prieto, Jr. and Joe Light.
Nagurka also approached the talented program at Weehawken High School and got All-Area outfielder Danny Lopez and promising slugger Kevin Kallert.
North Bergen High School has also contributed to the team’s success, providing two All-Area performers in pitcher/slugger Emil Fuda and fleet-footed outfielder Rob Mateo.
Vicente Padilla, a fine player for Paramus Catholic who lives in North Bergen, is also on the roster.
“We have a good mix of kids,” Nagurka said. “Fernandez and Lopez compliment each other well at the top of the order.” Fernandez, who bats leadoff, is hitting .460 this summer, while Lopez, the No. 2 hitter, is batting .480. Both players were Second Team All-State selections in the spring for their respective teams.
Nagurka said he has very few rules with his talented team of All-Stars.
“I just ask them to show up on time and play hard,” Nagurka said. “We can relax a little in the summer. It’s not high school baseball. It’s supposed to be fun. Even if I am a yeller, they can give me two and a half hours of their time.”
Nagurka said that he was a little surprised that this team has performed so well thus far.
“I didn’t know these kids too well before this season started,” Nagurka said. “But I’m glad I got to know them. They are all such good kids, every single one of them. I don’t say that about a lot of kids, but this team is special. It’s only our second year in the league and we’re in first place in our division. And there are no easy teams. I think it’s pretty impressive.”
It just seems commonplace, a winning team in West New York. It’s like a ritual of summer, like ice cream cones and open fire hydrants….
One of the nicest surprises of the summer has been the play of Weehawken’s David LaRocco for the Bergen County team in the Bergen Senior Babe Ruth (16-to-18) League.
According to his coach, Weehawken High School assistant Jim Panepinto, LaRocco, a standout football player at Weehawken, came out to play baseball for the first time this summer and has enjoyed instant success.
LaRocco has played a multitude of positions for the Bergen County team, seeing action at third base, centerfield and right field, as well as limited action on the mound. At the plate, LaRocco is hitting .386 with four homers and 12 RBI and an on-base percentage of .521. He’s also thrown three innings as a relief pitcher and struck out four.
“David’s done such a fine job this summer and he’s enjoyed it so much that he’s talking about coming out for the baseball team next season,” Panepinto said.
That’s good news for a team that will feature returnees like the aforementioned Lopez and Kallert, along with returning All-Area performer Chris Jodice… — Jim Hague