It was two years ago when Alex Mirabel, still not yet the head basketball coach at St. Peter’s Prep, started to network himself.
At that time, Mirabel, the former Dickinson and New Jersey City University basketball standout, was an assistant at St. Peter’s under former coach Todd Decker. Mirabel introduced himself to Oliver Antigua, the former University of Pittsburgh star who is an assistant coach to his older brother Orlando at the University of South Florida.
“We met and spoke and I told him how I’d love to be a part of the coaching staff with the Dominican Republic national team,” Mirabel said. “At the time, he said that they needed someone to run the top recruits of Dominican talent, so I started recruiting Dominican players.”
Mirabel was able to introduce local players like Anthony Ortiz and Abraham Feliz of Union City, both of whom have Dominican roots, and Ferris standout Isaiah Dasher to the Dominican national level. Dasher’s mother is Dominican.
“I was the big hitter, bringing in the talent,” Mirabel said. “So they brought me in to do some coaching.”
With that in mind, Mirabel has been selected as an assistant coach for the Dominican Republic’s 17-and-under team that will participate in the Federation of International Basketball Alliance (FIBA) World Championships in Zaragoza, Spain beginning June 23 through July 3.
The Dominican Republic will play in Group D along with Bosnia and Herezgovina, France and Korea.
The United States, the defending gold medal winner from 2014, is in Group A and will face teams from Egypt, Turkey and Chinese Taipei. Team USA faces Turkey in the first round June 24.
The Dominican team will feature two players with local ties, namely Alonzo Frink, the former St. Anthony player who transferred to St. Joseph’s (Metuchen) last year, and Justin Minaya, the Old Tappan player who is the son of former New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya.
“It’s pretty cool that I was selected to be there,” Mirabel said. “It’s a top competition. I’m very excited. I never did anything like this before. I will get to see how they play and how they coach on that level and bring those things back to St. Peter’s Prep. It’s a huge step for me. In fact, it’s pretty shocking that I got picked. It’s very surprising that in only two years, I’d get a chance like this.”
But Mirabel said that the position came with some sacrifice.
“I did work so very hard,” Mirabel said. “I’m just trying to get better as a coach. A chance like this will help me grow as a coach. I can see the tendencies of the coaches. I know how to treat the players and that will be helpful to me. I believe this is something that will help me as a coach and as a person. I’m definitely excited for it.”
Mirabel said that Francisco Paulino, an aspiring basketball player from North Bergen, has been selected to the Dominican Republic’s U-15 team that will begin play in their world tournament in August. Paulino is certainly a player to watch…
The NJSIAA Meet of Champions was held Wednesday night at Central Regional High School in Bayville and the highest of accolades was achieved by Bayonne’s Victor Cotto, who won the gold medal in the long jump.
Cotto becomes the first Hudson County athlete to win a gold medal at the Meet of Champions since Snyder’s Zamir Thomas (200-meter dash) and St. Peter’s Prep’s Najee Glass (400-meter dash) both won at the M of C in 2011.
Other than this week’s Athlete of the Week Cameron Blair, Prep had a fine contingent of athletes that competed in the Meet of Champions this year. The list included Dakari Falconer, who competed in the 110-meter high hurdles; Zamir Mickens, who qualified in the 200-meter dash; and relay participants Will Delaney, Brandon Parrado, Masaka Aerts, Duran Gonzalez, Markus Bagley and Gus Nations IV, as well as shot put throwers William Woltmann and Ben Petrula.
Tomatse Ogedegbe of Hudson Catholic qualified for three events, namely the long jump, the high jump and the triple jump. Dakota Addison of St. Anthony became the first product of the Friar track and field program to ever qualify for the Meet of Champs, earning a spot with the high jump competitors.
Among the girls’ local competitors, St. Dominic was well represented by standouts Malia Gray, last week’s Athlete of the Week, and her talented teammate Camille Bertholon.
Gray qualified for four events – the long jump, high jump, 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash. Bertholon also made it in four events – the 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs and the relay with Destiny Foster, Celeste Aurora and Jianna Bustamante.
Having two athletes qualify for four events each at the Meet of Champions is no small feat.
“No doubt,” SDA head coach John Nagel said. “They’ve both done real well. We always felt like we needed them to do well for the team to do well. It’s a reward for the sacrifices both of them made for the team. Tripling all the time, especially in Camille’s case, can take its toll on you.”
It marked the sixth Meet of Champions that Bertholon has participated in during her illustrious career.
Other local girls to qualify for the M of C include Kailey Gallagher of Bayonne (high jump), Nathalie Medina of Memorial (high jump) and Nautica Smith of Hudson Catholic in the javelin…
While all of the local baseball teams had been eliminated from state playoff contention, West New York’s Gregory Cuevas helped to pitch St. Mary’s of Rutherford into the NJSIAA Non-Public B state title game this weekend. Cuevas got the save for the Gaels in their state sectional title game over Morristown-Beard last Tuesday…
In honor of 25 years at the Hudson Reporter, we continue with our list of Top 25 sports characters of the last quarter century. Without any further adieu, here’s No. 22:
No. 22, Howie Fink, Jersey City: Plain and simple, Howie Fink, who died in 2004 at the age of 85, was Dickinson sports.
Fink lived for Dickinson athletics. He was a fixture at his alma mater’s events — all of them. He was as much as part of Dickinson athletics as the Ram mascot. Howie apparently missed only five Dickinson football games in his entire life, which is totally mind boggling.
Fink organized the Dickinson High School Hall of Fame, long before there was a Hudson County Hall of Fame or an Emerson Hall of Fame or a Hoboken Hall. Fink’s organization and annual dinner was the lynchpin for the other Halls of Fame to follow. He was honoring all-time Dickinson greats with his annual shindig at the Casino in the Park in Jersey City dating back to 1965. Every other Hall of Fame organization followed suit.
Fink was also the long-time president of the Dickinson Athletic Booster Club, serving in that capacity since 1961.
In fact, Howie Fink was so much a supporter of Dickinson athletics that he was given the ceremonious title as “Mr. Dickinson.” Some of the kids at the games called him that. He was recognized by people by that name.
But Howie was far more than just a Dickinson supporter. He was a long-time employee of Jersey City Recreation, beginning in 1943, spanning the terms of 18 mayors.
Although he had no children of his own, Fink cared for the kids of his neighborhood, especially the Pershing Field and Washington Park Little Leagues and organizations where he spent most of his life.
In fact, Howie loved Pershing Field so much that he once told me he wanted to be buried in the right-hand batter’s box on the baseball diamond at Pershing Field.
Fink was a manager in the Hudson County Build Better Boys Baseball League, acted as the president of the Hudson County Semi-Pro Baseball League, and was a respected umpire in the Hudson County Umpires Association for more than 40 years.
Fink also supported many teams over the years as a sponsor, donating thousands of dollars to the betterment of baseball and basketball teams, out of the Howie Fink Association, which even rented a storefront on Griffith Street for years.
But you can’t begin to count how many kids in the Jersey City Heights wore T-shirts that bore the name of Howie Fink across their chests for a span of over 60 years…
Final Hudson Reporter High School Baseball Top Fives: 1. St. Peter’s Prep (20-8). 2. Union City (19-8). 3. Memorial (16-10). 4. Bayonne (15-13). 5. North Bergen (13-14)…
Final Hudson Reporter High School Softball Top Fives: 1. North Bergen (22-6). 2. Hoboken (15-9). 3. Hudson Catholic (17-10). 4. Bayonne (15-7). 5. Weehawken (15-9)…–Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.