A new basketball tournament called the Scholarship Basketball Festival will be held at St. Peter’s College’s Yanitelli Center on Jan. 4, 2004. It will feature perennial state power St. Anthony and Hudson Catholic, as well as parochial state powers Seton Hall Prep, Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft and defending NJSIAA Tournament of Champions winner St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth.
The tripleheader will feature six of New Jersey’s top schools in an effort to raise funds to assist low-income families to pay tuition at parochial schools in Essex, Hudson, Union and Bergen Counties.
Legendary St. Anthony basketball coach Bob Hurley is pleased to be part of the tourney.
“I am personally excited that the inaugural Scholarship Basketball Festival will take place in Jersey City at St. Peter’s College, which has been the venue for many terrific basketball games over the years,” he said. “The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children is a very worthy cause which has helped hundreds of Jersey City children over the last two decades.”
The tripleheader will feature St. Anthony against CBA. St. Anthony will begin the season as the No. 5-ranked team in the nation, according to The Sporting News. Those two teams have locked horns in some of the most memorable contests in New Jersey high school basketball over the last decade.
Seton Hall Prep will face St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth in the second game of the tripleheader, with Hudson Catholic facing St. Benedict’s Prep, coached by Danny Hurley, the son of Bob Hurley, in the final game. It will mark the first time that a Danny Hurley-coached team has played in the coach’s old stomping grounds.
Event Director Bill Fitzpatrick announced that the tickets for the tripleheader, priced at $25, $12 and $8, are currently on sale through the event’s website at www.rcan.org and through the Scholarship Fund’s office at (973) 497-4279.
Tickets purchased prior to Dec. 15 are discounted at $9 for adults and $5 for students.
“We are extremely pleased with the response so far and anticipate the games will be played before a packed house to support this worthy cause,” Fitzpatrick said.
SFIC President Ronald J. Mount added, “The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children is very pleased to be sponsoring this benefit basketball event as one of our efforts to expand assistance to inner-city children in obtaining a quality, value-based education.”
The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children provides scholarships for needy children who attend parochial schools. The partial scholarships are given to students attending parochial elementary and secondary schools in New Jersey’s Essex, Hudson, Bergen and Union Counties. Since the first year of operation in 1983, the organization has funded more than 35,000 scholarships and distributed more than $19 million….
The HCIAA Coviello Division boys’ soccer semifinals are set for Sunday at Don Ahern Veterans Stadium in Bayonne, beginning at 5 p.m., with prohibitive favorite and undefeated Emerson (17-0) taking on Bayonne and North Bergen facing Ferris at 7 p.m.
For Emerson, it’s like old times, having won or shared the league title in four of the last six years. For schools like North Bergen and Ferris, it’s treading on unfamiliar territory, because it marks the first time North Bergen is appearing in the semifinals since 1998 and it’s the first time ever for Ferris.
Considering that North Bergen defeated Ferris twice in the regular season, look for a continuation of that trend and an Emerson-North Bergen shootout for the title next Sunday.
North Bergen really stands a decent chance, as long as Walter Soto continues his solid play. Soto was moved from sweeper to the forward line seven games ago and he has now scored eight goals in the last five games, including all three goals in a 3-1 win over Memorial in the first round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV tournament last week… — Jim Hague