Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Page 12 Thursday, February 7, 2013 The Westfield Leader and The Scotch Plains – Fanwood TIMES A WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PUBLICATION
Tigers Set Back Blue DevilsCONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
Devil’s Den
By BRUCE JOHNSONSpecially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times
James O’Rourke (WHS, ’12) will beamong the honorees Sunday at the 77thHot Stove League Baseball Dinner. Theevent starts at 1 p.m. at L’Affaire Ban-quet Center in Mountainside.
O’Rourke was a football and base-ball standout at WHS and he will behonored Sunday as a first team all-groups all-state centerfielder at WHS.O’Rourke recently finished his fresh-man season of football at GettysburgCollege, where his teammates includedformer Blue Devils Hugo Nolasco, acornerback, and Mike Stravach, a re-ceiver. As a freshman tailback, the 5-foot-7, 170-pound O’Rourke played insix games, with 18 carries for 98 yardsand a touchdown against Johns Hopkins.
Also being honored in the studentcategory are Chris Folinusz of Cranford,Khaseem Greene of Elizabeth, JennaKulback of Berkeley Heights and Shan-non Syciarz of Garwood.
Three men will be inducted into theUnion County Baseball Hall of Fame:Bill Dolan of Rahway, Jim Riccitelli ofRoselle Park and George Virgilio ofElizabeth.
Marty Appel, former public relationsdirector of the New York Yankees, willbe the guest speaker and will also signhis recent book “Pinstripe Empire,” thedefinitive history of baseball’s greatestdynasty, from the days of the New YorkHighlanders through the 2011 season.
The Hot Stove League Dinner beganin 1936 as a celebration of Union Countybaseball. And not just high school base-ball, but American Legion and profes-sional ball, too. And let’s not forget theold Union County League. From 1927until 1984, there was an adult, no agelimit, semipro/amateur baseball leaguethat featured most of the outstandingplayers of their time. They had thePlainfield Twilight and Union CountyTwilight leagues during the weeknights,and the UCL on the weekends, the EssexCounty League or the Morris andSomerset League. Every county in NewJersey had basically the same setup,with a twilight league during the weekand a weekend league.
Westfield was represented in the UCLby the Hawks (1927-39, 1941-58),Bowman’s (1940), Bombers (1961),Merchants (1962-84) and PAL (1982-84). Westfield also featured all-blackteams like the Colored Bombers, Acesand Clippers. Home games were playedat Recreation Park (now Kehler Sta-dium), Tamaques Park and Unami Parkin Garwood.
Now those leagues are mostly forgot-ten, replaced by travel teams, collegeleagues, and over-under whatever age
leagues. But some old-time leagues stillexist for the truly dedicated baseballer:the North Jersey Met League (Bergen/Passaic counties), Morris County Ma-jors, Rancocas Valley League(Burlington), Jersey Shore League(Monmouth/Ocean counties), AtlanticCounty League, Salem County Leagueand the Tri-County League (Camden/Gloucester).
So if you’ve got a couple hours tospare Sunday and love baseball, thiswould be a well-spent afternoon. Tick-ets are $40 and can be purchased at thedoor, or online at [email protected] proceeds will help fund the UnionCounty Summer Youth Baseball Leagueand Fall Teen League. For more infor-mation, call Jim Iozzi at 908-917-2523.
WRESTLINGThe wrestling team has been on fire
since its third-place showing at thecounty championships, when only 182-pound senior Brian Bulger won a goldmedal. Since an opening-day loss toRoselle Park, which won the UCT, theDevils have won 17 in a row!
Coach Glen Kurz now has 158 coach-ing wins, which puts him No. 2 all-time,ahead of his former coach DonMacDonald (152) and behind only GaryKehler (239). (Does Sandy Mamaryneed more people with the initials G.K.to apply for coaching jobs at WHS.Besides Kurz and Kehler, there’s alsoGeorge Kapner and his 1,000-pluscoaching wins.)
There’s still plenty of wrestling left,with the team and district tournamentscoming up. WHS last won a district titlesince 2009, when this year’s seniorswere in eighth grade. And before thatthe last district title was 1994, aroundthe time some of them might’ve beenborn. The Devils have gone 61-22 indual meets over the last four years. Anew district title adding “2013” to thewrestling banner in the gymnasiumwould look good.
While we’re talking about wrestling,you have to go back to 1993 to find thelast time WHS tied an opponent, 28-28against SP-F. Sometime after that, theNational Federation of High Schoolsdecided there should never be any moreties, in team scores or individual bouts.So they created a system of 14 criteria tobreak potential ties.
And, if the tie somehow hasn’t beenbroken after the first 13 criteria, thesure-way decider is No. 14: A flip of thereferee’s disk. Like a flip of the coin.Oh, if the disk somehow manages toland on its side, you then have to tie, andkiss your sister. Seriously, a flip of adisk? Is a tie really that horrible? Is your
sister? Any tie is still better than acontrived loss.
Whatever, here’s a breakdown of thathistoric (WHS’s last-ever wrestling tie)1993 match:WHS 28, SPF 28 – Jan. 15, 1993 at SPF103 Kevin Sullivan (W) p. Craig Costello1:57112 Jeff Checchio (W) p. MorimaAbrams 1:07119 Pat Bartels (S) p. Brian Buldo 5:39125 Jason McLean (S) d. JamesHogaboom 13-2130 Mark Donnadio (S) p. Paul Hayes0:55135 Chris Posey (W) d. Jorge Mendez 8-0140 Mike Marcovecchio (S) d. CoryPosey 10-9 OT145 Mike Liggera (W) d. Pedro Mendez3-2152 Ralph Sanguiliano (S) d. LanceKovac 6-5160 Mike Rebuth (S) d. Tom Whelan 8-3171 Greg Atkins (S) d. Frank DiGiovanni6-2189 Paul Baly (W) d. Kareem McDowell8-4Hvy Seth Coren (W) p. Kevin Burke 4:30
Under the current rules, SP-F wouldhave been the winner because it won 7of the 13 bouts.
SWIMMINGWhen was the last time a team won
the Union County Championship with-out winning an event? Answer: It hadnever happened before WHS pulled offthe feat on Jan. 27.
A better question would have been,when was the last time WHS didn’t wina single event at the county champion-ship? Answer: That had also never hap-pened before Jan. 27.
The county championships date backto 1938-39, 1942-43 (no team scores)and then from 1954-2013. That’s 64years, 62 years with team scores, andWestfield has won the team title 58times. But WHS won at least one race,individual or relay, every year until thisyear. Some years in the mid-1960s, infact, WHS won every event at counties.
Six times WHS only won one event atcounties: 1942 (Dave Ryan, 100 back),1999 (Seth Burstein, 100 fly), 2000(200 free relay), 2005 (Pat Daurio, 200IM), 2011 (200 free relay), and 2012(400 free relay).
While they won no gold (except thefirst-place trophy), the boys put on avery impressive show of their depth.The Top 15 List of all-time best perfor-mances took a major beating. High-lighting that was junior Tyler Lessner’s59.84 in the 100 breaststroke, makinghim just the fourth in school history tobreak a minute. The other three areDave Schwartz (57.52 in 1992), Daurio(58.27 in 2005) and Rich Andrews (59.52in 1986).
Sean Beattie’s performance deservesmention. The unheralded junior sprinterfinished seventh in the 50 freestyle atthe county meet. But, due to an injury,he was also entered in the 500 freestyle.He was the No. 9 seed with an entry timeof 5:19.43. In a very close team compe-tition with Summit, Beattie delivered a5:06.23 to place fourth in the event.
The girls also won counties for the30th time 36 years, including a currentstreak of 21 straight. Top performancewas a school record 1:37.16 in the 200free relay by Caroline Baldwin, GwynDevin, Ellie Reinhardt and SarahCronin.
IN PASSINGLee Hale passed away on Jan. 25, and
the town of Westfield has definitely lostone of its biggest boosters. The 89-year-old Hale was an icon, involved in justabout all things Westfield, including theAthletic Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame,Echo Lake Country Club, and assortedgroups involved in the downtown’sgrowth.
(Full disclosure: OK, I’m very sorryLee for all those times I kicked your ballinto a sand trap or off the edge of thefairway into the rough back in the ’60swhile caddying at Echo Lake. I hadsome growing up to do, and I saw it asa me-proletariat vs. you-bourgeois thing.If it makes it better, you were not theonly one I did that to.)
Hale was probably best known thepast 20 years as the president of theWestfield Athletic Hall of Fame. It wasstarted in the early 1990s, along withGary Kehler, Roger Love, Bob BrewsterSr., Bruce Johnson, Bruce Moran, SandyMamary, George Brownell, Bob Petixand Charlie Frankenbach. Hale has beenits only president, his name providing alittle “je ne sais quoi” to the group.
Since the first induction in 1994, theWestfield Athletic Hall of Fame hasinducted 92 athletes, 15 coaches/con-tributors and 14 teams. When the 11thinduction is held – Nov. 24, 2014 – therewill be a major absence at the headtable.
DEVIL OF THE MONTHSenior Sam Meyer set a school record
recently when he scored seven goals ina 10-0 rout of Berkeley Heights. The oldrecord, like most of the school’s icehockey records, was held by RonKashlak (’99), who notched five againstCranford in 1998.
The Devil’s Den appears occasion-ally on Thursdays during the schoolyear in The Westfield Leader. Contact uswith comments, complaints and sug-gestions at [email protected]. And re-member, win or not,
O’Rourke Among HonoreesAt Hot Stove League Dinner
a 16-4 run that would break the gamewide open. Jones scored nine of theTigers’ first 11 points in the thirdquarter to give Linden a double-digitlead that they would not surrender forthe remainder of the game.
The Blue Devils made it interest-ing, however, as Kane made the playof game at the end of third quarter ashe hit a one-handed, buzzer-beatingthree-pointer from almost half courtto make the score 44-34 going intothe fourth quarter.
It would be all Tigers in the fourthquarter as Moore, who had been in-visible most of the game, became thethird Tiger of the night to dominate.After letting Toresco get most of hispoints in the paint the whole game,Moore scored 11 points in the fourthquarter alone to put the game outreach. Despite baskets by Mitchell,Mele and Toresco, the Blue Devilswere unable to close the gap. Jones
led all Tigers scorers with 23 points,while Moore chipped in 13.
Coach Colicchio was impressedwith the fight the Blue Devils put upsaying, “Give them credit! They madeshots, they made us work defensively,and they had us on our heels a bit. Ithink what made the difference wasthat we wore them down in the thirdquarter.”
Colicchio went on to say, “I toldmy guys at halftime that they’re giv-ing us all they had and we reallydidn’t respond with the same effort.We had to go a little more zone in thesecond half in order to handle theiroffense better.”
The Tigers improved to 14-3, whilethe Blue Devils dropped to 10-6.Westfield 12 13 9 9 43Linden 17 11 16 19 63
Devil of the MonthSam MeyerIce Hockey
View Thousands of Homes Online
Mountainside $1,197,000Price reduced 50K+! Extraordiary, renovated 1917Georgian Colonial w/ bdrm suites on cul-de-sac.Easy NYC commute.
Agent: Jennifer Colamedici MLS: 2991567
Cranford $499,900Charming and updated Colonial w/ 4BR, 2.1BAon a quiet str. Fabulous open floor plan & manyupdates. Close to all.
Agent: Beth Sullivan MLS: 2993212
Clark $525,000Stunning custom home completely renovated -4BR/2.5BA, 2 att gar, Hwdflrs , SS apps ,new ktch& bths. Lrg prvt yard.
Agent: Jodi Luminiello MLS: 2983740
Scotch Plains $174,500This move-in ready, 1BR/1BA first flr condo hasnew carpet & has been freshly painted. Laundry/storage in common area. Must see!
Agent: Joyce Taylor MLS: 2992721
Mountainside $629,900Very spac 6BR/4BA Exp Ranch, 1st flr lndry, Kitw/brkfst Rm, LR w/fpl, FR, Mstr w/Fbth, ampleclst space & lovely yard.
Agent: Diane Kontra MLS: 2973442
Cranford $615,000Charming 4BR/2BA Col offers rich oak flrs,chestnut trim & built-ins. Stunning EIK w/granite,dormered 3rd flr. Mins to NY trans.
Agent: Julie Murphy MLS: 2993663
Plainfield $375,000This 5BR/1.1BA Col is updated & move-in ready!LR w/ fpl, FDR, central air, screened porch, fencedyard & 2 car garage.
Agent: Cynthia Alexander MLS: 2992506
Rahway $314,900Elegant 3BR/1.2BA Col in Milton Lake Section w/lrg LR & FDR situated on a corner lot. Full bsmt,1 car garage & close to all.
Agent: Janice Good-Piga MLS: 2992318
Probitas Verus Honos
D-BAT MOUNTAINSIDE
PRESENTS
DEMO DAY
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9th
11 AM – 3 PM
D-BAT Mountainside
1124 Globe Avenue
Mountainside, N.J. 07092
(908)518-7950
