The high school basketball season is just around the corner, with teams officially beginning practices this weekend, but the Friars of St. Anthony have already been dealt a serious setback.
Ralph Fernandez, the Guttenberg native who was expected to be the team’s starting point guard this season, has moved with his family to Florida. This move comes after Fernandez had a brilliant summer, culminating in a selection to the All-Star team at the prestigious Five-Star Basketball Camp.
Fernandez’ departure leaves the bulk of the scoring load falling on the broad shoulders of super skywalker David Bullock, who is expected to be one of the best players in New Jersey this season. But losing Fernandez this close to the start of the season has to be a major blow for legendary head coach Bob Hurley and his storied program… It was going to be a glorious homecoming for Union City native Gordon Chiesa, who signed a two-year contract to become the top assistant coach with the New Jersey Nets over the summer.
The long-time hoop coach and member of the Hudson County Hall of Fame had just returned to his home state after 17 years with the Utah Jazz. Chiesa and his wife, both New Jersey natives, were ecstatic to be home.
However, after just three months, their youngest son, who was born and raised in Utah, was not pleased with the move and asked his parents to move back. Like the true family man that he is, Chiesa decided to move back and resigned his position with the Nets, walking away from approximately $400,000 in the process. That’s the epitome of family dedication. But that’s simply how much of a family man Gordie Chiesa is.
Chiesa will land on his feet somewhere. He is too good of a coach not to find a job in the league. But it would have been a storybook relationship, having a hometown hoop junkie working with the locals in the Meadowlands. It’s a shame that it all didn’t work out for him, because it would have been nice to see him around more often. No one loved his Union City roots more than Gordie and is a true historian of Hudson County basketball, rattling off name after name every time you get a chance to talk to him. We wish him well…
Speaking of Hudson County Hall of Fame members, there was an interesting item that came out last week, when former UNLV head basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian’s new book, entitled “Runnin’ Rebel: Shark’s Tales,” was released by Sports Publishing, LLC.
In the book, Tarkanian writes that he enlisted the services of one Frank Sinatra, who was Tarkanian’s long-time friend, to help recruit Jersey City native Mike O’Koren, the Hudson Catholic graduate who is currently an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards.
At the time in 1976, O’Koren was one of the most sought-after players in the country and he was being recruited by every college in America. Tarkanian wanted O’Koren to go to UNLV, so he asked Hoboken’s native son and crooner to pay a visit to the Hudson Gardens housing project in Jersey City to the O’Koren home and see if “Old Blue Eyes” could sway O’Koren to go to the Las Vegas school.
Tarkanian wrote that Sinatra did in fact pay a visit to O’Koren in his home, but the attempt didn’t work, because O’Koren went to North Carolina instead, where he became an All-American. In fact, in 1977, when O’Koren was a freshman at UNC, he scored 31 points in the NCAA Final Four against – yes, UNLV.
“I told Sinatra that he was a lousy recruiter,” Tarkanian wrote in his book.
O’Koren was approached after last Saturday’s Nets-Wizards game, but it was an emotional loss for the Wizards and didn’t stop long to talk. But we will find out in the future whether this Shark Tale was a true one, because it’s one that this reporter never heard before, and he’s known O’Koren for almost 30 years…
Memorial ace shortstop/pitcher Jesus Castano has made his college choice known already before he starts his senior season. The talented Castano has signed a letter of intent to play at St. Peter’s College for Derek England in the spring of 2007. Let’s hope by then England gets a few more wins for the Peacocks…
Our resident baseball guru and downright curmudgeon Ed “The Faa” Ford is resting comfortably after heart surgery. It will be only a matter of time before “The Faa” is his ornery self once again…
— Jim Hague