Morano, Delaney earn nods as Coaches of Year
The 1999-2000 Hudson Reporter Boys’ and Girls’ All-Area High School Basketball Teams once again represent perhaps the finest local basketball array of talent found anywhere in the state of New Jersey.
I would be hard-pressed to find 30 more talented players – 15 boys and 15 girls – coming from one particular county like the talented Hudson County contingent that have earned the honors of being placed on the annual All-Area team.
Among the boys, all five of the first team honorees led their respective teams in scoring, teams that qualified for the NJSIAA state playoffs and in some cases were able to lead their teams to state sectional championships.
One of the boys’ honorees, Rashawn Wilson of Dickinson, earned First Team All-Area honors for the second straight season.
It was a tough selection for Player of the Year, with really no clear-cut choice. Our selection was talented St. Anthony sophomore guard Elijah Ingram, who led the Friars in scoring, averaging close to 18 points per game, while playing against the toughest competition of any other player in the county.
The choice for Boys’ Coach of the Year was also tough. But when Emerson first made it to the HCIAA championship game, then two weeks later guided the Bulldogs to the North Jersey Section 1, Group III championship, the Coach of the Year had to be Emerson’s rookie head coach Drew Morano.
On the girls’ All-Area First Team, three performers make repeat performances – namely Marist’s terrific tandem of Tara Walker and Makeda Gleaton and St. Dominic Academy’s standout center Sophia Vucetaj.
As for the girls’ Player of the Year, there was no question or doubt. For the third straight year, the honors go to Marist’s Tara Walker, who definitely showed her true colors with her performance during the state playoffs, especially the 27-point, 29-rebound performance against Morris Catholic. Walker carried Marist on her shoulders to the Parochial B North state sectional title and deserves the honors for the third straight year.
The choice for Coach of the Year is also somewhat of a decided choice. For the second straight year, St. Dominic Academy’s Mike Delaney carried his team to unexpected heights – this year culminating in the school’s first-ever HCIAA championship.
And with three state sectional titles and a host of teams qualifying for state play, it definitely was a season to remember in Hudson County hoops.