TASTY TIDBITS 03/29/09 Marist’s DeFazio decides to retire Clemente Jr. visits Hoboken; Red Wing grid stars make college choice

After coaching girls’ basketball in Hudson County for more than 30 years, Bill DeFazio knew that his time had come.
“I always said that when I wasn’t having fun, then it was time to give it up,” said DeFazio, the legendary girls’ basketball coach at first St. Anthony and later Marist, who announced his retirement from coaching Wednesday. “I’m not going out the way I wanted to. I always pictured something different. I didn’t resign. I retired. This is it.”
DeFazio said that there were a number of reasons why he had to step down at this time, but most of them were health related.
“Let’s put it this way,” the 61-year-old DeFazio said. “I had three major surgeries in the past year. I had the shoulder surgery with a cyst removed there. It made it tough to work with the kids.”
But then, right as Marist was set to host its annual Christmas tournament, DeFazio suffered a mild heart attack and needed to have a heart procedure done. One of his arteries was determined to be blocked.
“It really put things in a different perspective,” DeFazio said. “I looked at things differently. Things weren’t the same. It wasn’t fair to me and it wasn’t fair to the kids.”
Just six days after having an angioplasty, DeFazio remarkably returned to the sidelines.
“I came back too soon,” DeFazio said. “I know that now. I neglected my family and my body. I kept worrying about winning.”
So after 30 years of winning, an HCIAA record 576 victories to be precise, DeFazio met with his players Wednesday and had an emotional farewell.
“This was very hard to do,” DeFazio said. “It was hard for me to tell them. But I knew I had to do what I had to do. It was very emotional.”
It marked the end of a fabulous coaching career. Not only did DeFazio win close to 600 games, but he won six HCIAA championships (three at St. Anthony, where he coached from 1978 through 1990) and three at Marist (1991 through this season). He took his teams to 10 HCIAA final games and 14 NJSIAA Parochial B state finals. DeFazio remains the only coach in New Jersey girls’ basketball history to win NJSIAA state titles at two schools (St. Anthony in 1984 and Marist in 2001).
Over the years, DeFazio has been inducted into the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame, the NJSIAA Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“I was fortunate to enjoy year after great year,” DeFazio said. “I never could picture myself retiring. I thought I could coach forever. But now, I can spend time with my family and my grandchildren.”
DeFazio said that he will remain at Marist in some capacity, working at the school and also serving as an assistant athletic director.
“It’s been a great ride,” DeFazio said. “I made a lot of great relationships over the years. It’s really been remarkable. You institute a system and you see it work. It’s really rewarding. I’m going to miss going to the gyms and being in big games and of course, I’m definitely going to miss the kids. But there comes a time when I have to understand that I can’t keep doing this.”
It’s a loss to the game of girls’ high school basketball. It’s almost unfathomable to think that now both Jeff Stabile and Bill DeFazio have retired from coaching. They were two rivals for so long and now, another era has passed. Some things just don’t stay forever….
As the Hoboken High School baseball team faced Union City in a scrimmage Wednesday, there was a familiar face watching the proceedings.
Roberto Clemente Jr., the son of the famed Pittsburgh Pirate Hall of Famer and Puerto Rican hero Roberto Clemente, was in attendance, posing for pictures and signing autographs.
Clemente Jr. was in Hoboken as part of a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano.
But it’s not every day that a celebrity of Clemente Jr.’s magnitude that graces the field at JFK Stadium.
While Clemente Jr.’s hero father has been deceased since 1972, killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve bringing goods to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, Roberto Clemente’s legacy lives on, especially in the hearts and minds of Puerto Rican natives, where he remains an adored idol to this very day.
“Kids need role models and no question, my father was a great role model,” said the younger Clemente, who was seven years old when his father was tragically killed. “I thought that kids didn’t know much about him, but with today’s technology, I’m so glad to know that they’re reading about him and learning about him. They’re learning about his legacy and becoming Clemente fans.”
Clemente Jr. said that he could relate to a lot of the kids, because he was basically raised by a single parent, like a lot of kids are today.
“I can relate to their issues,” Clemente Jr. said. “That’s why I’m here today, to make sure that they stay strong and do the right things.”
Clemente Jr. has always been involved in baseball, serving as a Spanish announcer for Yankee games on radio, doing games on ESPN Deportes and having a weekly radio show on WFAN.
But his biggest role is continuing his father’s mission, some 37 years after his father has been gone.
“It’s a great feeling to know that his legacy carries on,” Clemente Jr. said. “Kids from Puerto Rican descent are proud to be Puerto Rican and they’re all able to relate to me, get in contact with me. I can see how happy they are to see me by the expressions on their face. I enjoying every day doing things like this.”…
Hudson Catholic announced that boys’ basketball coach Damel Ling will not return. Ling spent the last two seasons as the head coach of the Hawks. Rumors persist that the new coach will be either former Bloomfield Tech coach Nick Marinello or former Union Hill coach Carlos Cueto…
Hoboken standout football players Michael Douglas and Colin Edwards are both going to the same college. They have both signed on to play at Garden City Junior College in Garden City, Kansas, with the hope of eventually going to a four-year school in the future…
On a personal note, it was sad to hear of the passing of Rev. Edward Heavey, S.J., who was the Dean of Students at St. Peter’s College for more than 35 years.
Father Heavey was more than just a fixture at SPC events. He was the single most identifiable figure at the school. I worked at Harvard on the Boulevard for five years, and during that time, Father Heavey always served as a voice of reason and common sense and treated everyone with the utmost respect. He was also a huge fan of the SPC athletic teams, the kind of support that didn’t necessarily come from other members of the Jesuit community at the school. I was fortunate to consider Father Heavey a friend and he will be so sorely missed in every facet of the school’s existence. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.