It’s safe to say that in terms of athletics, the township of Weehawken has made gigantic strides in recent years. The Weehawken High School football team enjoyed the most successful season ever in 1999, winning a school record eight games. The boys’ basketball team advanced to the North Jersey Section 1, Group I semifinals earlier this month. The town’s Bambino (now called Cal Ripken) baseball program and recreation basketball programs have won their fair share of championships in the last few years. But there is one sport that was totally foreign to Weehawken residents – namely ice hockey. There’s no real place to play locally, and the high school doesn’t offer it as a varsity sport. Interested residents have to travel far and wide in search of ice time. However, don’t believe that Weehawken doesn’t have its fair share of hockey heroes. In fact, the Hudson Catholic High School hockey team, which shocked the high school hockey world in New Jersey by capturing both the Parochial and Tournament of Champions titles over the weekend, features four people – three players and an assistant coach – who hail from Weehawken. Senior Paul Severino, junior Frank Baker, freshman Jerry Colella and assistant coach Frank McGady are all natives of Weehawken. Needless to say, Weehawken is somewhat of a hockey town these days, thanks to the exploits of the winning quartet, who are enjoying the first state hockey championship in Hudson County history. Baker was the one who had the biggest role in the state championships for the Hawks. The defenseman was one of the Hawks’ key performers. Baker was introduced to the sport of hockey by his father, Frank Sr., who was a standout player in New York and once played junior hockey at the old Ice World in Totowa. When Frank, Jr. was old enough to skate, his father brought him to Hackensack to participate in the youth hockey program there, the Mavericks. “I was about seven or eight years old when I first started playing,” Baker said. “I just always loved to play. I’d try to play however I could, whether it was street hockey or roller hockey. I loved it.” And there were times that Baker laced up the skates and went ice skating – on the makeshift skating rink at Arricale Field. “Hey, it was a chance to skate in Weehawken,” Baker said. “I went up there and went skating. I couldn’t do much, except go forward. But it was skating in Weehawken.” When the time came to choose a high school, Baker had to go to a school that offered hockey. And his cousin, fellow Weehawken resident Paul Severino, had already been attending Hudson Catholic and playing for the hockey team there. “Paul sort of opened the door for me to go to Hudson Catholic,” Baker said. “I sort of followed him.” However, Baker could have never dreamed what would evolve in just his third year at the school: reaching the pinnacle, earning the right to be called New Jersey’s premier hockey team. Hudson Catholic defeated heavily-favored Seton Hall Prep 2-1 last Saturday night to capture the Parochial state title, then knocked off Hudson County rival Bayonne 4-2 to win the overall championship at the Continental Airlines Arena. The idea that Hudson Catholic, an inner-city school that had to scrape and claw for ice time for practice just eight years ago, could actually be the No. 1 team in the entire state is something that Baker is still having a tough time to realize. “I didn’t think it was real,” Baker said. “I thought the whole thing was a dream. I always dreamed it could happen, but I never thought it was actually possible. We beat Seton Hall earlier in the year, so I started to think that maybe it could happen. And as soon as that happened, we all started to think that way.” The Hawks lost to Seton Hall Prep 2-1 just three weeks ago, but then gained the final revenge in the Parochial finals. “The rivalry is there,” Baker said of Seton Hall. “After we beat them on Saturday, we had to come back Monday and win. If we didn’t win Monday, then it wouldn’t have meant a thing. We all had that in the back of our minds, that if we lost to Bayonne, everything we had accomplished wouldn’t have meant anything.” The Hawks wasted little time in taking control of the T of C finale, scoring two goals in the first six minutes and coasted from there. “It’s really like a dream come true,” Baker said. “It’s something you never think can happen to you.” Especially for a kid from Weehawken. But Baker, his cousin, his other teammate and his coach all can enjoy the fact that Weehawken can win in hockey just as well as other sports.
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
