There’s supposed to be excitement and joy in the fact that Hudson County finally is sponsoring true county championship tournaments for the very first time. Since the HCIAA was abolished last year, thanks to the major realignment mandated by the NJSIAA, the county’s athletic directors got together and decided to hold true county tournaments in most sports.
The county tourneys began in the fall with soccer and continued in the winter with boys’ and girls’ basketball. The county athletic directors will also sponsor tournaments this spring in baseball and softball. Sounds like a wonderful, novel idea, right?
Sure is – until you get to the seeding procedures to organize these tournaments.
Both the boys’ and girls’ basketball seeding was a little disjointed, but nothing like the seeding determinations to get the baseball and softball tourneys underway. The eventual seeding was downright absurd to say the least.
Let’s take a look at the softball seeding. Hoboken was given the top seed. How? No one knows. McNair Academic in Jersey City was presented with the No. 2 seed. That might be the most comical aspect to take place. Even the powers-that-be at McNair had to be downright shocked to earn the No. 2 seed in the entire county.
But the best team in the county by far, North Bergen, which has already defeated High Tech – the No. 3 seed and deserved No. 2 seed – twice and knocked off top seed Hoboken once in relatively easy fashion.
The Bruins have not lost a game to a Hudson County opponent all season and somehow, someway, they were given the No. 5 seed.
Well, even Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles could see that the Bruins are clearly the best team in the county and deserving of the top seed. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that formula.
How the seeding was determined?
The tourney director, Rich Nisbet of Dickinson, admitted that he made major mistakes in the seeding process.
“I take full responsibility,” Nisbet said. “I wouldn’t say that I was embarrassed by the seeds. Since this was the first time we did it, mistakes were bound to be made. It is a learning process. Hopefully, as we move forward, we will be better prepared next time.”
However, if the rumors are true that some coaches fabricated their team’s records in order to secure a better seed to get away from the better teams like North Bergen, then there is no excuse for that. That’s downright deception and lies and there’s no room in high school sports for such activity.
As for the baseball seeds, they are also a tad ridiculous, but considering there really isn’t a true top team in Hudson County baseball this year, the seeding is not as completely absurd as softball.
But the powers-that-be have to do a better job next year in seeding the tourney without any outside interference from meddling coaches.
The formula should be easy. No. 1 criteria should be the team’s record within the confines of Hudson County and No. 2 should be head-to-head. Plain and simple. Throw the overall records out the window. They mean nothing.
Here’s to hoping that the two tourneys aren’t damaged by the poor seeding procedures….
North Bergen hasn’t had a world boxing champion since the immortal James J. Braddock shocked the world by winning the heavyweight title back in 1935, forever memorializing the boxer known as “The Cinderella Man.”
That is, until Carlos Tamara won the International Boxing Federation junior flyweight world championship in January. Tamara, a native of Colombia who has called North Bergen home for the last three years, was honored by the township of North Bergen last week at the regularly scheduled commissioners’ meeting and was presented with an official township proclamation.
North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco presented the proclamation to Tamara and in turn, the boxer took his world title belt and placed it on Sacco’s shoulder to wear during the presentation.
“We haven’t had a world champion in North Bergen in a long time and we weren’t expecting another, but this is a very proud moment and we’re happy to honor Carlos,” Sacco said.
Tamara is currently in training for his first IBF title defense. He will face Luis Lazarte on May 29 in Lazarte’s hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lazarte is a professional veteran, with a career mark of 46-9. Tamara’s career record now stands at 21-4 after taking the IBF belt away from Brian Villorio in the Philippines in January.
“I’m excited to be back in the ring and fighting for the world title again,” Tamara said through his interpreters. “I know the expectations are high. I know people are pulling for him in his home country. I’ve seen a few fights of his and he will be tough. Whoever comes to fight that night will be the winner. I have to be on guard.”
Tamara and his handlers, Butch Sanchez of Hoboken and Angel DeJesus of Jersey City, traveled to New York on Monday to meet with the owners of Everlast Boxing Equipment, the most famous equipment name in the sport. Everlast is looking to sponsor Tamara for the upcoming fight.
“The first title defense is always a big one,” Sanchez said. “But Tamara will be ready. He’s in good shape and good spirits already.”
Sanchez was asked why Tamara won’t get a bout in the area, so local fans can appreciate his tenacity.
“The little guys always have to fight in other countries, unless they’re part of an undercard,” Sanchez said. “We would like to fight here sometime, but we knew this one was going to be away. Only the real boxing people around here know of him, but word is getting out. It’s going to be tough to get him a fight locally, but we will keep trying.”
Obviously, local residents would love to see their new neighboring world champ in action…
Some influential alumni of Dickinson High School are rallying together to try to help the soon-to-be-defunct football program.
Carlos Rodriguez, who was a standout football player for Dickinson in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has established the Dickinson Ram Football Association. Rodriguez has established a page for the association on Facebook and has already collected 189 members who are determined to do whatever they can to save Dickinson football.
“We had to do something,” said Rodriguez, who serves as an assistant football coach in Passaic. “We have enough kids in the school and have enough resources to have a football program at Dickinson. It’s a shame that they’re going to throw away over 100 years of football history.”
Check out the page on Facebook and perhaps offer your support….
Apparently, all the confusion about Joel Rivera’s tryout with the New York Jets worked out well in the long run.
Last week, it was a roller coaster ride. First, Rivera was in, then he was out, then finally back in again and attended the rookie training camp last Friday. His agent, Wes Bridges, received a call from the Jets late Thursday afternoon, officially extending the invitation to the Hoboken native and former William Paterson receiver. Rivera called this reporter from training camp Friday with the good news.
Well, Rivera got his foot in the door. It’s interesting to see if he gets an invite to regular training camp in Florham Park come July. Still, what appeared to be dejection turned out to be elation for the speedy Hoboken athlete…
Hudson Reporter H.S. Baseball Top Five: 1.St. Peter’s Prep (11-7). 2. North Bergen (10-5). 3. High Tech (14-2). 4. Union City (12-7). 5. Memorial (10-7).
Hudson Reporter H.S. Softball Top Five: 1. North Bergen (13-5). 2. High Tech (9-5). 3. Hoboken (10-3). 4. Memorial (10-3). 5. St. Dominic Academy (11-5). – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.