Congratulations to Marc Taglieri, who has been named as the new athletic director at Lincoln High School, replacing Jim Fairbanks, who retired and moved to South Carolina to pursue a real estate career.
Taglieri, the former All-State baseball player at Hoboken High School who later played at the University of Virginia, has been the head baseball coach at Passaic Valley for the last five years.
But Taglieri always wanted to find something closer to his Hoboken roots, and considering the camaraderie and rapport he has with people within the Hudson County sports circles, his hiring was an excellent choice by Superintendent of Athletics and Physical Education Michael Venutolo.
I know that Taglieri will do an excellent job at Lincoln and will always keep the best interest of the kids in his heart, although the game of baseball will surely miss his coaching expertise.
And who would have ever figured that long-time best friends Taglieri and Vinnie Bello would eventually become respected athletic directors?
Bello beat Taglieri to the punch in first earning the AD's position at Marist a few years back and now wears the crown as the head athletic man at Pope John of Sparta, one of the state's most respected athletic programs.
Both Bello and Taglieri have already made their marks. It makes me feel ancient, because I remember both young men when they were carving their teeth in youth baseball, Bello with the Jersey City Stars of Tomorrow and Taglieri with the famed Hoboken Ambassadors team that went to Russia to play in 1986...
The high school hockey season should be getting underway very shortly, so that means that Hudson Catholic, the state's defending overall champion, will begin the year as the most hunted team in the state and certainly one to watch again, especially with All-State goalkeeper Joe Aliseo manning the pipes.
However, coach Cory Robinson was dealt a severe blow when the team's best player, defenseman Jason Ortolano, decided to transfer. Ortolano is pursuing a career in junior hockey, so he will be sorely missed. The Hawks have to be considered the state's No. 1 team to start the 2000-2001 campaign, even with the loss of Ortolano...
It was so wonderful to watch Jersey City native Bernie Parmalee have such a great game for the Jets last week, scoring two touchdowns in the 20-3 win over Parmalee's former team, the Dolphins.
Parmalee, the former Lincoln High School wide receiver who went on to break all the rushing records at Ball State University, before hooking on with his favorite team as a youngster, the Dolphins, got a little revenge on the team that released him by scoring the two touchdowns.
Parmalee's role with the Jets has been relegated to mostly special teams over his two-year career with Gang Green, but he stepped in admirably when Jets' Pro Bowl running back Curtis Martin suffered a back injury. Parmalee will see more action in the backfield this week again, as Martin tries to recover...
I cannot fathom the idea that the much-maligned and beleaguered James Felton has resurfaced at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Felton, the Jersey City native and Marist High School basketball standout, who wore out his welcome at St. John's, Florida State and St. Peter's College has somehow managed to get into school again at FDU.
Felton is currently out of action with a broken foot. It should be interesting to see if he can last the season in what appears to be his last, last, last chance in a lifetime of last chances...
I'm calling for the NJSIAA to stop these totally asinine "consolation" football games immediately. The games are scheduled for teams who do not qualify for the state playoffs, to give those teams an extra game against other teams with similar records within the same NJSIAA Group enrollment.
The games were supposed to give teams another chance to win a game, when they haven't had many chances during the course of the season. And that's about all. No one cares much about the outcomes, especially when the games are being played at the same time as other playoff games throughout the state. Even apathy runs amok in the newspaper business. Coaches don't bother to report the games. It appears to be a gigantic waste of time.
Well, how much credibility does the consolation round have after last week's debacle, when Tenafly, just two days before its scheduled kickoff against Hudson Catholic, decides it doesn't want to face a 4-4 team like Hudson Catholic and wants to face 0-8 Northern Valley-Demarest instead?
That's what happened. Tenafly contacted the NJSIAA, complained that it had a 2-6 record and shouldn't face a 4-4 team, and pulled out of the game. For some reason, the NJSIAA then obliged the wishes of Tenafly, allowed them to do what they wanted, and informed Hudson Catholic it had to play winless Snyder, a team that Hudson Catholic had already soundly defeated, in its consolation.
Yeah, some consolation. If you're Chipper Benway, the coach of Hudson Catholic, how in the world do you get your team excited to play a meaningless game against a team that you already drubbed? Makes absolutely no sense at all.
Here's the solution: Get rid of the consolation games. Adios. They serve no purpose. No one cares about them. If you don't make the state playoffs, pack up the equipment and go home.
I heard one coach say that it enables teams to stay fresh for Thanksgiving Day games. Say what? If you're 0-8 and you have to play on Thanksgiving, nothing is going to motivate that team to play. Nothing.
This Hudson Catholic-Tenafly fiasco is perfect proof that the entire idea is ridiculous...
Good luck to St. Peter's College head football coach Rob Stern, who takes the magical trip down the aisle this weekend with his fiance, the former Jennifer Cassaro. Stern got an early wedding present last week when the Peacocks defeated St. Francis of Pennsylvania, 42-14, to end the season at 4-7.
And Stern's former standout pupil at Hudson Catholic, namely linebacker Jon Wasielewski, was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year, for making 102 tackles this year, some 25 more than the next Peacock defender.
That means three straight MAAC Rookies of the Year for the Peacocks...
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NEW LINCOLN A.D. - Hoboken native Marc Taglieri (right) was named athletic director at Lincoln High School, which makes former high school coach Buddy Matthews (left) very proud.