About a year ago or so, Weehawken High School athletic director Zach Naszimento thought it would be a good idea for the school to initiate some new varsity sports, including cross country and tennis.
“Our new interim superintendent of schools Dr. [John] Fitzsimons was implementing some new ideas and asked me if I had any ideas for the athletic department,” Naszimento said. “I told him that I’d like to start a cross country program in the fall with girls’ tennis and boys’ tennis and outdoor track in the spring. These sports were overwhelmingly supported. So we decided to start with it this season.”
Naszimento then had to go out and find someone to start the program. He asked Stan Fryczynski, the former Secaucus athletic director and current executive director of the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, for some assistance.
Fryczynski sent out an e-mail to the members of the NJIC, asking them for assistance in finding Weehawken a suitable first-year coach. One of the league’s members, Bogota, has a veteran basketball coach in Jay Mahoney, who has a young son named Kyle, a recent graduate of Ramapo College.
“I’m 22 and just graduated from school,” Kyle Mahoney said. “I didn’t think things like that happened. I didn’t think they’d actually hire someone so young. I wasn’t so sure. I sent my resume in, but just for the experience. I didn’t think I’d get hired.”
When Mahoney went for the interview, he didn’t know what to expect.
“I was so intimidated,” Mahoney said. “I just ran for Ramapo last spring. Now, I’m going to be coaching kids who never ran before? It was going to be hard. But it was the opportunity to be a head coach, so I jumped all over it.”
Mahoney was hired to be the first head coach of the new Weehawken cross country program.
“I was really happy,” Mahoney said. “I was really excited.”
But when Mahoney called for his first meeting, he had one boy and two girls attend the meeting.
“That was tough,” Mahoney said. “I knew it was going to be tough.”
Word of mouth traveled through the school that there was going to be a cross country program. That intrigued senior Mike Stepkovich.
Stepkovich was a former football player since he was a youngster in Weehawken, but he had suffered a series of concussions.
“I had my first one when I was like 12 or 13,” Stepkovich said. “I had five in all.”
After the last one two years ago, doctors told Stepkovich that his football career was over. In fact, all contact sports were history.
“I was upset with it, because I loved being involved in sports,” Stepkovich said. “When I couldn’t play anymore, I was devastated.”
Enter cross country, which is not at all a contact sport.
“I figured it was a sport that I could try,” Stepkovich said. “It wasn’t too bad.”
Natalia Ordonez had participated in some 5-kilometer road races in the past, so she thought she could give it a try.
“I was pretty happy when I learned Weehawken was having cross country,” Ordonez said. “I used to play volleyball, but wasn’t my thing. The weather is nice. I want to be outdoors. It’s a lot different than volleyball.”
So Ordonez gave it a try, although she is currently sidelined with a knee injury.
“Running is healthy and it’s good for you,” Ordonez said. “It has a different perspective.”
Now there are eight girls and five boys in the Weehawken cross country program.
“It’s a learning process on both ends, both for them and for me,” Mahoney said. “The first step is getting the kids to run up to the distance to finish a race. We were taking baby steps at first. There have been three races thus far. The kids are getting more comfortable with the distance. They’re able to run further and faster. The progress has been tremendous.”
Stepkovich has improved so much that he went from 45th overall in his first race to 13th overall in his second attempt to sixth last week in 23:24 against St. Mary’s of Rutherford, North Arlington and Paterson Charter.
“It’s great,” Stepkovich said. “It’s a fun sport. I never thought I’d be doing this well. I wasn’t last, so that was great for me.”
Stepkovich said that it helps having someone like Mahoney there to lead the way.
“It’s so easy to connect with him,” Stepkovich said. “He’s so amazing. He knows where we’re coming from, because he was just there. I’m glad I got this start. It’s better late than never. We have to start somewhere.”
“I’m definitely hoping to stick with it, once I get healthy,” Ordonez said.
And hopefully, Weehawken has a cross country coach who will remain with the program for the years to come.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Mahoney, who is also working as a substitute teacher in the district. “I look forward to being with them every day. It’s pretty unbelievable, me being in the authority role. We’re getting kids who didn’t know what the sport was to come out and enjoy it. I feel pretty blessed being the first coach.”
And Weehawken is blessed having a good young coach like Kyle Mahoney…
Yogi Berra died Tuesday night at the age of 90. The long-time New York Yankee great and Hall of Famer was not from Hudson County, but he lived in nearby Montclair and was a fixture at the Museum and Stadium that bears his name on the campus of Montclair State.
There are so many people from the area who got the chance to meet and greet with Yogi over the years, to shake his hand, to receive an autograph. Especially if you were a youngster, Yogi loved you, coming over to you and telling you a story, even if it did have a confusing “Yogism,” in it.
There wasn’t a more lovable and well liked superstar in American sports than Yogi Berra, who was never really caught up in the fact that he was a legendary figure. He just wanted to be Yogi, one of the guys. If you had the chance to meet him, you knew exactly that. He was one of a kind, truly an American legend, one that we had a chance to treasure for so long right in our own backyard.
Rest in peace, Yogi. If you get to a fork in the road where you’re going, make sure you take it…
In football, how can you ignore the two consecutive shutouts posted by Lou Zampella’s Hawks of Hudson Catholic? First, the Hawks knocked off Newark Central, 23-0, then they defeated Glen Ridge by a score of 13-0. When was the last time Hudson Catholic had two straight shutout victories? It’s been a long time, if ever…
Dickinson had a fine win last week over Belleville, taking home a 27-12 victory. But things get a little tougher this week, as the Rams face – you guessed it – Hudson Catholic and its scoreless streak…
Lincoln improved to 2-0 with a 20-0 win over Weequahic of Newark. It means that the Lions have outscored their two opponents by a combined score of 70-7…
Incredibly, the season is only two weeks old in most cases and there are only two undefeated teams left in Hudson County – Lincoln and Hudson Catholic….
Hudson Reporter H.S. Football Top Fives: 1. St. Peter’s Prep (2-1). 2. Lincoln (2-0). 3. Union City (1-1). 4. Hudson Catholic (2-0). 5. Hoboken (1-1)…
Hudson Reporter H.S. Soccer Top Fives: 1. Union City (5-1). 2. St. Peter’s Prep (5-1). 3. North Bergen (3-3). 4. Dickinson (2-1). 5. Ferris (3-2)…–Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.