When he took the job as the new head basketball coach at Hudson Catholic High School, <B>Steve Ricciardi</B> vowed that he was not about to turn his back on the Amateur Athletic Union basketball program that he developed at St. Michael’s in Union City.
As long as there were no Hudson Catholic players involved with the AAU 17-and-under St. Michael’s team, then Ricciardi was going to serve as the coach.
“It’s a program that I’ve put a lot of time into,” Ricciardi said. “It’s a great situation, getting the chance to coach some really good players and we’re trying to get them to the next level.”
Ricciardi’s moonlighting team went to the next level last weekend, when they captured the New Jersey AAU state championship at Stevens Tech in Hoboken. St. Michael’s defeated another Hudson County AAU power, the Jersey City Bondsmen, 64-51, in the title game.
In the championship game, <B>Harold Bautista</B> of Union Hill was the leading scorer with 18 points and <B>Chad Timberlake</B> of St. Anthony added 14. Some of the other members of the state championship team include <B>Mowiel Solar</B> and <B>Paul Williams</B> of North Bergen, <B>Elezar Velez</B> and <B>David Vega</B> of Memorial, <B>Jarett Love</B> of St. Peter’s Prep and <B>Darrell Melvin</B> of St. Anthony.
By winning the state title, St. Michael’s has qualified for the national championships in Orlando, July 24-30. Ricciardi, whose St. Michael’s team won the state title in 1997, will now look to raise the necessary $10,000 to take the team to Florida.
“We’ll have a few fund raisers,” Ricciardi said. “We want to do it the right way.”
Ricciardi is having fun, coaching this All-Star team.
“The chemistry is great,” Ricciardi said. “They all get along very well and they know the team concept. Nothing comes above the team. We keep everything simple and don’t have any problems. Since they all understand that, it makes coaching this team fun. It’s doing what I want to do”.