In a stunning move, David Majewski resigned last Monday as the head softball coach at St. Dominic Academy, ending a 10-year run where Majewski guided the SDA program to become one of the finest in Hudson County.
Majewski won 190 games in his 10-year career at St. Dominic and led the Blue Devils to five HCIAA championships.
Majewski cited “a long series of events” as the reason for his resignation.
“I couldn’t deal with the school’s administration any longer and they treated me and my staff badly,” Majewski said. “I don’t know why, because I was a long-time teacher and coach at the school. I thought I had trust and respect from the school, but things happened where they no longer respected me or my staff. I was given a tremendous opportunity to coach there, but things have changed dramatically in recent years.”
The move caught SDA athletic director John Nagel by surprise.
“Dave was a fine coach for us and did a wonderful job,” said Nagel, who apparently learned of Majewski’s resignation from a reporter. “He exposed our students to trips all over the country and got them to go places that they probably never would have been able to go. Dave is leaving on his own free will. I wish him well. It’s a shame he’s leaving, because he worked extremely hard to build the program.”
Majewski had planned to meet with his players to tell them of his decision. He had just returned from Jupiter, Fla., where he coached the Jersey City RBI softball team in the World Series.
“I’m extremely disappointed to be leaving these kids,” Majewski said. “They’re hard working and willing to do anything that is asked of them. It’s going to be difficult to leave them and I just hope that they continue on with their softball careers. They put in all the work and it’s just unfortunate that it has to end like this. It’s not what I wanted.”
Majewski said that he has not even begun to think about the future.
“I am not thinking about another coaching job at this point,” Majewski said. “I just knew that I couldn’t do it anymore and my staff was in total agreement with me. I like to think that I made an impact on softball in Hudson County and St. Dominic Academy.”
There’s no question Majewski did. He turned the SDA softball program into a perennial powerhouse and helped to develop some of the best players in Hudson County over the years. It will be a big loss to the school and replacing Majewski will not be easy.
But whoever gets the job will find that the cupboard is not bare. The new coach will inherit an experienced team, one that should be among the best in the county again in 2010…
Speaking of coaching vacancies, St. Peter’s Prep is still conducting interviews for its new baseball coach and the candidates have been narrowed down to four extremely qualified coaches. It should be interesting to see which one of the four emerges from the pack and gets the position…
Here’s an update on Hoboken native Chris Lugo, who is pitching in the Washington Nationals’ minor league system for the Hagerstown Suns in the South Atlantic League (Class A).
Lugo, the former Hudson Reporter Player of the Year when he pitched and played for Hudson Catholic, has a 4-2 record with a 5.32 earned run average, pitching in 30 games. Lugo has struck out 43 batters in 47 innings.
Local fans can get a chance to see Lugo in action Aug. 31 through Sept. 2, when Hagerstown plays the Lakewood Blue Claws for three games, all beginning at 7:05 p.m. It would be nice if there was a strong local contingent in Lakewood to encourage Lugo in his quest to become a major league pitcher…
Standout New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs will be on hand Thursday night at the latest Pound4Pound boxing card at Schuetzen Park in North Bergen. Jacobs is getting involved in professional boxing as a manager and is already working with some of Union City boxing guru Joe Botti’s fighters…
Frank Clark, who was the long-time baseball coach at Emerson High School and last year at the new Union City High, has resigned his position to become a vice-principal outside of the Union City school district. It would only make sense for the powers-that-be to promote Chip Benway, who was the former head coach at Union Hill and worked with Clark as an assistant last season, to the position of head coach at Union City High. Benway deserves the shot…
It was extremely sad to see former Dickinson football and basketball player Todd Patterson’s life come to a tragic end last week. Patterson was allegedly involved with drugs and tried to throw himself out of a glass window, klling himself, while under the influence. Patterson was only 31 years old.
I had the pleasure of coaching Patterson in Biddy basketball when he was a 12-year-old. You could see then that he was a budding athlete, a true star in the making. Patterson enjoyed a good high school career at Dickinson, but then allegedly got mixed up with drugs and never could recapture any of that promise he showed as a youngster. It’s really a tragedy to see someone with so much promise die at such a young age… — Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.