Ravon Anderson admitted that he knew very little about softball when he took the job as the head softball coach at his alma mater, Hoboken High School, last year. After all, it was on the football field where Anderson excelled as a running back, earning Parade All-America status as a member of those great Red Wing teams of the 1990s, securing a scholarship to the University of North Carolina, then Rutgers, where he transferred.
Anderson was a guiding light, a product of the Hoboken projects who made the most of his football playing abilities to get an education, then come back home to the Mile Square City, willing to give back to the community where he grew up.
So when Anderson was asked, virtually begged, to take over the program a year ago, he took the job. But he wondered about the guy who had the job before him.
“Out of respect, I asked, ‘What about Carmine (Ronga, the former head coach)?’ ” Anderson said. “I was told that Carmine couldn’t have the job anymore, because he had two jobs within the district. When I was asked, I said, ‘Are you sure?’ They said they wanted me to have the job.”
So Anderson agreed to take the position, only if he could have long-time friend Vinnie Johnson, Sr. as a volunteer assistant coach. Johnson is the one who coordinates the town’s youth softball league, helping develop the young ladies into high school standouts.
Even before Anderson agreed to take over the program, he reached out to Ronga.
“I told him that I was asked to do it and out of respect to him, I told him I had to speak to him,” Anderson said. “I told him that I thought it was a good opportunity for me.”
Ronga had decided not to re-apply for the position because he was promoted to two positions – dean of students and director of security – jobs that wouldn’t allow him to leave the school premises until after 4 p.m. It appeared at the time that Ronga had given Anderson his blessing in taking over the program.
And what happens? Anderson settles in as a head softball coach so well that he guided the Red Wings to the HCIAA Seglio Division championship – the first-ever softball championship in the school’s history.
In the process, the Red Wings defeated High Tech, which had a winning streak that had stretched for over a period of five years.
Anderson’s remarkable rookie season enabled him to earn the distinction as the both the Hudson Reporter Softball Coach of the Year, as well as the Hudson County Softball Coach of the Year from the Newark Star-Ledger.
“The unimaginable happened,” Anderson said. “We won a championship for the first time ever. That just wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Anderson was becoming accustomed to his new coaching role. He was thinking more and more like a softball coach and wanted to better his program.
“After we won the championship, I knew we had a good team coming back,” Anderson said. “We had a very nice group of girls. We also had some good freshmen coming in that Vinnie knew from the Recreation program. I had developed a relationship with those parents. I wanted to have the opportunity to take our team out of state and play in a better tournament.”
So Anderson made arrangements to take the team to a tournament in South Carolina in April of 2006. “I was told that before we could begin fundraising for the tournament, I needed approval from the Superintendent,” Anderson said.
In June, Anderson was given the go-ahead by Superintendent Patrick Gagliardi to begin the process to take the team to South Carolina in the spring.
So Anderson oversaw the team as they organized car washes and T-shirt sales to raise the funds to go to the tournament. He got the players’ parents involved in the process. Everything was moving smoothly.
Then, strange things – which have become almost an annual event in the Hoboken Board of Education – began to happen in July. The Board of Education posted the position of head softball coach without Anderson’s knowledge.
“Why would they do that in the summer when they never did that before?” Anderson wondered. “I spoke to [Hoboken High School athletic director] Mo DeGennaro and he told me that I had nothing to worry about. Other people told me the same thing. So I continued with the fundraising. I didn’t worry about anything.” But there was a method to the madness of the posting.
Apparently, Ronga wanted his job back. This was the second time that Ronga had left the position and wanted to come back.
“I heard that Carmine put in for the job,” Anderson said. “I asked Mo again and he said to me, ‘How would it look if I got rid of you, especially after winning the championship.’ But they didn’t even tell me the job was posted. They didn’t let me know anything.”
Here’s the catch: Anderson is not a teacher and is not employed by the Board of Education. He works for the county of Hudson as a grant writer and specialist. Rules state that if a teacher or Board of Education employee applies for a coaching position, they would get first priority.
But there have been other coaching appointments that get moved along without following the written rules.
Based on the success he had last year, Anderson could have been rehired and no one would have ever blinked an eye.
Well, apparently no one except Carmine Ronga.
So last Tuesday night, at the Board of Education’s meeting, Anderson got the official word. He was out. Ronga was in. This took place despite some 20 players and six parents attending the meeting to voice their displeasure in Anderson’s removal.
“They came and spoke on my behalf,” Anderson said. “I thought that was nice.”
But calmer heads never prevail in Hoboken. Nor does common sense. One minute, you can be promised the moon and the next, you can have the rug pulled from under your feet.
Anderson tried to talk to Gagliardi to see if there was anything that could be done. Gagliardi offered Anderson an assistant coach’s job. Some reward. Win a county title, bring some prestige and honor to the school and then get demoted for no reason other than some guy wanted the job back.
Sorry, but when Carmine Ronga walked away from the position (which has a $6,200 stipend) for a second time, in my opinion, he relinquished all rights to it. Plain and simple. He should be able to come and go at a whim?
If Anderson failed miserably as head coach, then perhaps – just perhaps – it would make sense. But he achieved something that no one ever did by winning the county crown. Now, just like that, he’s gone for no reason.
It makes no sense, but then again, there are a lot of things that happen in Hoboken that make absolutely no sense. “If they were going to do this to me, why not just let me know,” Anderson said. “I would have just stopped what I was doing.”
Here’s the biggest kick in the teeth. How will it look if Hoboken now takes its softball team to South Carolina thanks to Anderson’s fundraising efforts?
Then again, how does it look right now?