Macchi resigns; Tate MIA
Despite winning its first HCIAA basketball championship in 38 years, St. Peter’s Prep is in the market for a new head coach.
Joe Macchi resigned last week, citing family responsibilities and work constraints as the reason for his leaving after just four years, culminating in the pinnacle.
Macchi posted a 70-30 record at the Prep during his four seasons and guided the Marauders to the HCIAA title this year and went to the NJSIAA Parochial A North state sectional championship game a year ago.
Prep Athletic Director Rich Hansen was saddened by Macchi’s decision to step down.
"Joe is a devoted coach and well respected by everyone," Hansen said. "We had a great relationship, more than just being the basketball coach. He was a role model to our students, a very dedicated guy to the position. Replacing the coach alone would be difficult, but there are so many other things involved. It’s going to be a challenge to find someone to replace him. I don’t know if there are any people out there who would be ready to take the job and keep us at the same level."
Another shocker in the basketball world took place last week as well, when Marist guard Tony Tate dropped out of school.
According to reports, Tate, the former St. Anthony guard who transferred to Marist two years ago in a heated controversy, simply withdrew from school, without giving further reasons to the school’s administration.
Tate, who averaged 17 points per game for the Royal Knights this season, earning Third Team All-Area honors, had fully recovered from his torn ACL knee injury and was being recruited by several colleges, including Fairleigh Dickinson University. There were rumors that Maryland and Providence were also looking at Tate as well.
Without a high school diploma, Tate would be ineligible to receive any college scholarship, so the abrupt move could have damaged any and all chances of him playing college basketball.
Stay tuned. There may be more to the Tate story in upcoming issues…
The baseball and softball seasons are scheduled to begin this week, despite the frigid temperatures and horrendous weather. We’ll have our in-depth previews, featuring more on the prospects of the upcoming season in next week’s editions…