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The Ballgame! Season Debut -- Garfield's Mingo the guest · NorthJerseySports.com

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  New season, new sponsor as Vertical Rays is pleased to
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  verticalrays.com or e-mail local Rep and friend of the show Scott
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  It's Vertical Rays on North Jersey sports.com.
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  Back on the Ball Game, North Jersey sports.com original
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  multimedia series talking all things hoops across North
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  Jersey. We are a little late getting
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  started this year but no better time than the present.
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  I am Corey Doviak being joined by my Co host who will occupy
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  that chair for the rest of the season and years to come.
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  We have miles to go before we sleep.
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  He is the assistant coach at Felician University.
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  He is my old friend Brad Forestier.
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  What's going on, Brad? What is going on?
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  We are back. It is full-fledged high school
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  hoops, just college hoops every. It's just basketball season.
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  So when I see the snow on the ground it it gets me excited.
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  Yes, yeah. I mean, you do you.
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  You know, it might be nice to go somewhere for the winter and
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  everything else, but it's a winter sport.
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  And if you're a hoops junkie like me, a hoops junkie like
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  you, the cold weather comes with it.
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  I don't want to be watching Florida High School sports.
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  You got to be watching North Jersey high school sports.
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  And I'm pumped because we have a lot to talk about.
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  And again, it's all on me that we are starting so late in the
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  season. It's been a crazy early schedule
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  for me. I have a daughter who lives in
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  Wyoming and she came home over the break, so we snuck out to
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  Puerto Rico for a couple of days, which ate.
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  Stuff up and when I came home I had.
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  Yeah, it's five days of work that I didn't do while I was
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  laying on the beach in Puerto Rico.
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  So that, you know, eats up time. But all that is behind us now.
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  We're even going to have a guest on our first episode tonight as
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  your old friend Dion Mingo, the newly minted head coach at
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  Garfield, is going to join us a little bit later on.
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  And we're going to talk about the rebuilding process to
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  restore the glamour to a once glamorous program in southern
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  Berg County. But yeah.
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  Curious, I'm curious to see how, how, what he has planned, you
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  know, to, to get that program back to the, the animal glory
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  days of old. And yeah, you know, he
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  definitely has a, a, a challenge ahead of him.
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  And I'm I'm looking forward to to hear what he has in store to
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  get the the purple and gold back to where it.
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  Belongs, you know, you and I are well, me much older than you,
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  but we're old now and. Yes, we are, you know.
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  Sometimes when you like you, first thing that comes to our
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  mind when we think about Garfield basketball is Chris
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  Hannibal and the great teams that he had and Chris Storm, the
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  great teams that he had at the beginning and you're there when
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  he took. Over storms had a lot of good
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  teams, yeah. Right.
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  So, but you forget that, you know, that was 10 years ago,
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  kinda. And it just flies by and you,
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  you, you forget that, you know, the kids who are in high school
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  now, they don't know anything about it.
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  You know, it's all about yeah, what's going on now.
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  So you have to. I just wrote a story that's up
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  on North Jersey sports.com now about Brian Gazione winning his
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  400th game. I mean, I played against Brian
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  Gazione in high school 100 years ago.
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  Yeah. When you think about the fact
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  that he's been involved with Rutherford basketball for 35
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  plus years now and you're like, Oh my God, where did the time?
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  Yeah. For the Little Short Spin,
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  Little Short spin at Indian Hills.
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  He went 9 and 18, he told me. In the hills in one year.
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  But but yeah, I, I know, I happen to you know, you know,
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  we're, we're recruiting a kid and and I'll tell you how old I
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  am. I'm recruiting a kid from Saint
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  Mary's now and and I was there for for gashes 400 when.
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  But yeah, I I knew, I I know I'm getting old.
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  When one of the guys that I coached at Felicia and when I
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  was an assistant, when I first started as an assistant, still
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  an assistant, but his son is now a senior in high school.
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  So I'm like, man, I know I am getting old.
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  Yeah, no doubt about it. But let's let's talk about the
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  young ones now. I mean, here's the great thing
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  about and and I'm pumped up because, you know, I've been
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  able to get out in the last week, last two weeks, I've been
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  able to get out and see some games.
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  So, you know, even if we had started right off the bat, like
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  I go from that football slash soccer mode where I'm not really
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  paying attention to what's happening in, you know, high
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  school basketball. I'm not doing previews and all
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  that stuff because my hands are full at the end of those.
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  They play runs and now, you know, high school football runs
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  into the middle of December. So it's like, you know, 2 weeks
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  and then, you know, you take a nap and it's already basketball
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  season. So, you know, I have to get out
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  there and start talking to some people and seeing some games.
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  And I've been able to do that. And you know, I put it in a
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  tweet the other day when I was at the Brian Long Classic down
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  at Richfield Park High School. But I don't look now, but this
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  might be the year of some really competitive and really fun
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  public school basketball in Bergen County.
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  I mean, I know Bergen Catholic is the overwhelming favorite to
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  win the Bergen County Jamboree, but two through 7, you know,
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  toward the next 7 spots in the in the Bergen County Jamboree
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  quarterfinals, Brad, I feel like they're up for grabs.
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  Absolutely, yeah. I think I, you know, you know,
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  in years past, you know, you know, we could say it was, you
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  know, it was always locked up, you know, the scroll fields were
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  perennial. And but now I, I feel like, I
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  feel like we kind of have a little bit of a resurgence of
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  the public schools and, and more so, and even some of these
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  smaller schools are very surprising that are, are loaded
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  with talent and, and you know, yeah.
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  I mean, you know, we could talk about the Creskills and the 10
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  of flies and, you know, Emerson and Woolwood.
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  I mean, we can go on and on and on and, you know, you know,
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  Teaneck, Teaneck has jumped out and, and, you know, has had a
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  really good start, you know, and, and have beaten some very
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  good teams. And you know, yeah, I I just
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  think that the landscape at North Jersey, especially in our
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  immediate coverage area, is really off to a good start.
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  Really off to a good start and it's crazy.
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  I mean, Saint Joseph Regional, 1:00 and 9:00.
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  And, you know, they've had some tough luck.
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  They had a transfer who left to, you know, to to go to Bergen
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  Catholic. And they had two Division One
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  football players who decided not to play basketball.
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  So that's going to obviously hurt you a little bit.
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  But you know what other schools have been burned in the past by
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  kids transferring in and out. So, you know, yeah, there's.
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  I'm sure there's, I'm sure those, I'm sure those public
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  schools are are, you know, finally getting the the other
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  end of the pendulum saying, hey, now you know what it feels like.
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  Yeah, and, you know, we used to do the wrestling show here at
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  North Jersey sports.com, and we haven't done it in a while.
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  I mean, wrestling in the regular season is is too tough to cover
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  anymore. I mean, anyway, my point is
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  Donnie Spataro was the former Burton Catholic assistant
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  wrestling coach. And, you know, it was when they
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  had Nick Soriano and they were, you know, ranked in the country
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  and they were flying all over the place to these huge
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  tournaments and everything else. And everybody was screaming
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  like, you know, this is crazy. We got to cancel everything.
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  And and you know, he was like, I I understand it's tough right
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  now, but he goes everything is cyclical.
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  Let's see. And now you look where Burton
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  Kavik wrestling is. Not that they're not still good,
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  but they're not flying all over the country as the number one
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  team in the. Country.
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  And on the basketball side, you know, the NJSA, I said, hey, you
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  get one free transfer. And that's fine.
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  If you, you know, it sucks if you lose them to a parochial
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  school, but it's great when you get them back and you're allowed
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  to recruit your own kids now. You're allowed to say, hey, you
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  know, bring them in and, and this is what we can offer you.
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  And maybe, Brad, we're seeing the, you know, the fruits of
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  that labor paying off. Yeah, absolutely.
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  You know, you know, I, I don't know how I felt initially about
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  this high school portal and obviously coaching college, you
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  know, you know, the portal has been brutal, Yeah, brutal for,
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  for, you know, college football and college basketball.
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  But but yeah, I, I mean, I think there's pros and cons to it for
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  sure. And I think we're finally
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  starting to see it with the, you know, the resurgence of the of
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  the public schools. Yeah, I mean.
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  You know, when, let's say when, when Saint Joe's is 1 and 9 and,
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  and Don Bosco is 3 and eight, you know, you know, it's, it's
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  gonna, you know, it's, it's gonna make heads turn and, and
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  it's, it's gonna, I think now when you start moving forward,
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  some of these kids are like, maybe I should just stay in town
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  and, and, and you know, see how it goes.
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  Or at least give it a shot. Yeah.
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  Let. Let's see where they can go.
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  And then once, once it starts to pick up and once you get the
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  flavor of what it feels like. And, you know, basketball, it's
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  funny because you start in some places.
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  I'll say this. I went to the Brian.
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  I I said I went to the Brian Long Classic on Saturday.
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  I went to a battle of two undefeated teams.
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  Tenafly with seven and O going in, Kreska was 8 and O going in
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  and Kreska, like the old days, brought like a student section
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  with him. I don't know, it was probably 50
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  kids, maybe 45 kids, whatever, standing up in the corner.
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  Yeah. On a Saturday afternoon in
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  Richfield Park. They made the trip.
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  So, you know, and Kreska's good. They're going to keep winning.
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  So it's going to pick, you know, they have a history of winning
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  and and all that stuff. So it's going to pick up and
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  there's going to be more people in the gym and as these teams,
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  you know, as the kid gets swept up into that, like, what's
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  better than playing basketball in front of your friends who
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  are, you know, doing the old, even though it's trite and
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  frankly quite annoying, But the you can't do that rigging out
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  through the Yeah gym, you know what I mean?
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  I've been, I've been waiting many, many years for for high
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  school sports, especially basketball to get back to that.
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  You know, aside from, you know, when you get it from the, the
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  parochials, you know, when it's the Bergen Bosco game or the,
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  you know, Bergen, any of the parochials, you know, Paramus
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  Catholic and whoever. But but, you know, to get back
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  to the high school games when it's like like that, I mean,
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  yeah, that's, I mean, that's I, I, I've been missing that.
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  So I, I'm, I'm waiting for my fans to get out to one of these
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  games when I, I can during a break in my season to, to get
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  that experience because that's what, that's what high school
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  hoops is all about. Yeah.
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  And when you look around the Big N Conference, like in the
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  divisions like Tenafly, Teaneck, Old Japan and Demarest, there's
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  four good teams in the national. Now again, I wish it was the old
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  NBAL where you had 20 teams and you know, 12 of them were good.
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  But those are 4 good teams in the 16 league.
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  And you know, even Pascag Valley, they lost Devin Merkin
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  to graduations, one of their best players over the last, you
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  know, 20 years or whatever. So obviously they're I don't
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  want to say rebuild mode, but they beat DuMont the other day
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  at the Brian Long classic game. I saw at least I saw the
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  second-half, but four good teams there.
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  And then you look at, you know, the freedom with Northern
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  Highlands, Ridgewood, Hackensack is young, but I talked to Aaron
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  Taylor before the season when they were scrimmaging at
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  Demarest and he was very excited about what he has coming through
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  the ranks here, young kids at Hackensack.
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  So, you know, like, you want to see those powers.
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  Bergen County basketball's good when Hackensack's good, when
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  Teaneck's good, when Anglewood's good.
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  Those are basketball towns. And then you throw in the
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  Ramapos and the Highlands and the, you know, those type of
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  teams. It, it makes it a lot of fun
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  when you have some depth in, in public, in, you know, public
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  basketball in Bergen County and in, in I, I don't mean to take
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  away from Passaic County too, because you got a lot of history
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  and A, and a, a lot of great programs there too.
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  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
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  I, I, I, I'm, I'm looking forward to, to seeing some of
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  those teams get back to prominence and state county as
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  well. You know, Jamal Slappy's over at
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  East Side and probably Patterson at Kennedy.
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  You know, they're, I'm sure they're, they're, they're a few
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  guys away from, from bringing it back to its glory as well, you
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  know, and what we call, you know, right over the bridge in
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  Passaic County. So.
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  Yep, if they can just keep a couple, you know what I mean.
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  Yeah, I mean, they're, they're, they're losing guys to, to all
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  these parochials. And it's like the local
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  parochials, more or less, you know, a lot of these out of out
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  of county ones, you know, to, you know, Essex County and
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  Hudson County schools and, you know.
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  Well, I think that that might be what's hurting the, you know,
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  and again, I should not pretend to know what's going on inside
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  the Don Bosco basketball program.
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  Far be it for me to say. But, you know, like they're in
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  that weird spot where they're, you know, they had a Dylan
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  Harper a couple years ago and they were at the top, but then
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  up there there is a rung above them.
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  You know what I mean? They were lucky to keep Dylan
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  Harper relatively close to home and he was committed to the
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  program and he's an all time Burton County great and
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  everything else. But he could have easily gone to
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  a Mount Verde or a, you know, Oak Hill or any of these IMG
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  whatever. Yeah, absolutely.
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  That's that's really who Bosco is recruiting against.
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  Not so much, you know, Cliffside Park anymore.
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  Right. Yeah, I mean, yeah, back in the
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  day it was more, it was more localized, you know, I think.
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  Yeah, I think that's kind of something that Bergen's probably
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  dealing with, you know, Bergen out to try and keep some of what
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  they have what they did. I mean, they they kept Julius
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  Avent here, right? It was one of Michigan State.
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  So, you know, they they did a good job with that.
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  But yeah, I think they're in a class like that.
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  Like when it comes to, you know, the hardwood, you know, you got
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  to try and keep these kids. Like for instance, you know,
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  Aidan Dirkak, you know, flew the coop, you know, from Colonia is
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  not going to school out and aspire.
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  You don't have to aspire in Ohio wherever it is.
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  But I think, you know, now we're getting when you're when you're
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  you separate yourself so much, you know, you have to compete
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  with those teams. But I guess I think more on a
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  local level, you know, yeah, I think those schools are still
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  going to try and, you know, snag some talent out of the the the
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  local schools. But so to be honest with you,
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  with the way some of these publics are playing, you know,
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  I, I like I said, I I would think twice about, you know, as
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  the grass greener. Yep.
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  Yeah. And the answer, I mean, I, I
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  high school sports are about so many more things than wins and
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  losses. And you just, you know, when I
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  met you, you were a kid playing for Elmwood Park in not one of
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  but the greatest season in school history, you know, and we
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  still get a kick out of talking about it and all all that kind
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  of stuff. And it's, it's the memories that
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  it creates as much as the wins and losses that to have that
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  bond with the kids that you grew up with and then.
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  That's what it is, yeah. The memories, the friendships,
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  the friendships you make with kids from other teams.
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  It's beyond the court. And yeah, I want, I want more
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  kids to have that, especially from a public school standpoint,
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  because it's very, it's easy. I could have easily went to
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  Patterson Catholic and you know, where, where, you know, I grew
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  up in Patterson. I could have went to Patterson
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  Catholic. I could have went to all these
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  other school. But, you know, I just decided to
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  stay home and, and, you know, grind it out and, and it paid
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  off, you know, so I encourage more kids to do it.
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  Yeah, no doubt about, and that's coming from a a college
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  basketball coach right there. So that's good advice.
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  All right, we're going to get to Dion Mingo here in a second, but
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  why don't you just fill us in a little bit on Felician
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  University Athletics. You know, the basketball
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  program. You guys do a great job over
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  there. And I'm curious about it
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  because, you know, the portal, as we mentioned earlier, just
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  from a, you know, an active college basketball coach.
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  How crazy is it roster building nowadays on the Division Two
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  level? I mean, everybody knows what's
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  going on in Division One. There were 5001 Division One
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  football players at the Portal on January 2nd, but what is it
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  like at the Division Two local basketball level?
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  You know, for, for us, it's tough.
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  It's tough because you know, I, I think Division 2 as a whole is
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  one of the few scholarship level programs that you're still going
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  to go out and recruit high school kids, high school, junior
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  college, right? You're prep school kids, You're
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  still looking at those kids. But with the portal, you know,
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  now you're kind of almost at every year as almost could be a
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  reload. You know, last year we lost our
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  starting back court. You know, we had two kids
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  averaging well over double digits.
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  One kid, Jabri Fitzpatrick, is now at New Division One New
• 16:22
  Haven and is leading them in scoring.
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  And then Marcus Pierce went to a big time division two out in New
• 16:30
  Mexico, New Mexico Highlands, and he's their leading scorer as
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  their 6th man. You know, so we had to replace
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  our back court. Now, you know, we do a very good
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  job of not just recruiting, but development and we're able to
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  reload our back court and and bring in some transfers and some
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  some fresh talent. And we're off to a 12 and two
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  start one of our two lawsuits to the number two team in the
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  country. So you know, we're in a good
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  spot. You know, we're we're six and O
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  in the conference. You know, we went from, you
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  know, being hunters to being the haunted.
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  But yeah, I mean, in in all fairness, you know, I I hope it
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  doesn't. But, you know, I may, you know,
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  come March, you know, after the season's over or hopefully
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  April, if we go make a magical run to the national
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  championship. But you know, by March, you
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  know, we could be looking to, you know, reload, reload the
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  whole thing with transfers and, you know, bringing in talent.
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  And like I said, we hope that, you know, a couple guys stay and
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  are buying into what we're building.
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  But yeah, I mean, the division ones, when they see guys at our
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  level successful, you know, that, you know, have a proven
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  track record of, of getting the job done, they're gonna, they're
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  gonna, you know, sprinkle some fairy dust on those guys and say
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  come do this for us. You know, and then especially
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  with NIL, you know, yeah, not every team has NIL.
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  But, you know, even if these small schools can say, hey,
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  listen, I can give you $10,000 to come play here.
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  Well, let's see, I'm getting nothing at the division two
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  level. I can get 10 grand to go play at
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  Division One. I'll go do that.
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  And yeah, I mean, it's, it's a pecking order all the way
• 18:12
  through. Like my daughter went to the
• 18:13
  University of Vermont. So I followed them very closely
• 18:16
  and you know. Used to set out the set out the
• 18:18
  former Vermont Catamount Nick Veer, yes.
• 18:21
  Definitely Nick Veer, we talk about it all the time when I see
• 18:24
  him. So, you know, they they had a
• 18:25
  kid, Anthony Lamb, who may be NBA and he play, you know, they
• 18:30
  three of the four years that they were there that my daughter
• 18:33
  was there. Vermont made the NCAA
• 18:36
  tournament. The only year they did it was
• 18:37
  when they lost to University of Maryland.
• 18:40
  Baltimore County upset at home in the Patrick Gymnasium in
• 18:46
  Burlington, Vt in the game before UMBC went on to make
• 18:50
  history as a 16 seed, beating Virginia in the first round of
• 18:54
  the big tournament. So it was some crazy times and
• 18:56
  it was fun because you know, you could see, you know, you had
• 18:59
  Anthony Lamb was a four year player, made it to the NBA.
• 19:02
  Like Anthony Lamb is not making it past the sophomore year at
• 19:05
  Vermont. Now they're, you know, he's good
• 19:09
  play 2 great years. He's going to be a first team
• 19:11
  all conference player as a sophomore and it is a junior.
• 19:14
  He's going to make it $150,000 at some place in you know, one
• 19:19
  of the power fours or, or you know, Big East or something like
• 19:22
  that. So.
• 19:22
  Yeah, absolutely. It's really changed the
• 19:25
  landscape and taking a lot of the fun out of it.
• 19:27
  And last year's March Madness basketball tournament was the
• 19:30
  most boring. Yes, it it since I've been
• 19:35
  following it and I'm 53 years old and I started following it
• 19:38
  when I was about 7 so. Yeah, it's and, and that's
• 19:41
  unfortunately with with no real, you know, guidelines and
• 19:46
  parameters and caps on on, you know, NIL and, and the transfer
• 19:49
  portal, you're going to see that more often, you know, and, and,
• 19:53
  and, you know, and it and it sucks because that's like a
• 19:55
  college coach. You're like, man, I really want
• 19:58
  to be good, but I want to be good, but then keep my guys.
• 20:01
  And it's like those two don't always work hand in hand.
• 20:03
  Like you know that you're going to be really good.
• 20:05
  Like right now, I think we're, we could be very good.
• 20:07
  You know, we're sitting 12 and two and I'm like, man, we can,
• 20:10
  we can easily put together 2022 in season, you know, just in the
• 20:14
  regular season. And like that's going to come
• 20:16
  with individual accolades and that's going to come with all
• 20:18
  these, all these division ones. As soon as our season's over,
• 20:21
  starting to to, you know, try and get in these kids years to
• 20:25
  have them move on to to bigger and brighter things.
• 20:29
  Yeah, I just got to lock the doors to the dorms from the
• 20:32
  inside. I got to do some right there.
• 20:35
  I got to do something to hang on to, to to what we have because
• 20:38
  we're we're building something special.
• 20:39
  And, and if I can get one more year with these, with this
• 20:41
  group, man, it could be, it could be changing just for, you
• 20:45
  know, North Jersey college basketball.
• 20:48
  You know, we have a, you know, there's a lot of good schools in
• 20:50
  in North Jersey, you know, Division One, division two,
• 20:52
  Division Three. And I think, you know, yeah,
• 20:54
  Montclair State was top ten in the country right now.
• 20:56
  You know, I, I have high hopes that my buddy Dustin Potts over
• 20:59
  there is going to do some big things in the D3 tournament.
• 21:02
  Yeah, I I think this could be a year where you could start
• 21:05
  seeing some things from local colleges on a national.
• 21:08
  Scale. That's crazy, my East
• 21:10
  Stroudsburg warriors not off to a great start this year.
• 21:12
  Three and three in the conference, last I checked.
• 21:14
  And lost a couple of home games. It was just surprising for my
• 21:18
  warriors out there in the Poconos.
• 21:20
  Yeah, no, they don't. They don't lose too many home
• 21:22
  games there and they have a very talented, talented team, yes.
• 21:27
  PSAC is tough though. Yeah.
• 21:29
  The PSAC is, is is is a very tough conference.
• 21:34
  Yeah, I don't. I try to stay away from PSAC
• 21:38
  schools. Yes, All right.
• 21:40
  Well, one school that we're not going to stay away from, we are
• 21:43
  going to embrace with open arms the Garfield Boilermakers.
• 21:48
  As we welcome in our first guest on the first episode of The Ball
• 21:52
  Game on North Jersey sports.com for the season.
• 21:56
  Let's say hello to Dion Mingo. Coach.
• 21:59
  Thanks for joining us here on The Ball Game.
• 22:03
  Thanks for having me. Truly appreciate it.
• 22:05
  Thank you guys for having me. Well, this is the first time
• 22:08
  that we will get a chance, me personally to talk to you.
• 22:12
  So I'm just a a little bit interested, a lot interested
• 22:15
  actually. And we talked about a a little
• 22:17
  bit before we came on the air here.
• 22:18
  But you know your story winding up in Garfield.
• 22:22
  I mean, I know you played at East Orange before it was East
• 22:26
  Orange Campus High School, went on to Bloomfield College, but
• 22:29
  you know, talk a bit about a little bit about your journey
• 22:32
  that has you now as a first year head coach in the NJIC with the
• 22:37
  Garfield Boilermakers. Well, I I started out.
• 22:42
  My first head coaching experience was at Bloomfield
• 22:46
  College where I was a grad assistant under Gerald Holmes
• 22:51
  and I was happy to to get a chance to work on the coach
• 22:55
  Holmes. That was a great learning
• 22:56
  experience. From there I went on to work and
• 23:00
  be an assistant varsity coach right away at Dwight Inglewood
• 23:05
  in Bergen County. So my first ever coaching job
• 23:09
  was in the Bergen County area. So I was there for seven years
• 23:13
  and I worked under a guy by the name of Eli Goldberger and.
• 23:16
  I loved Eli Goldberger, he had some good teams there too.
• 23:20
  Yes, yes. We had some great teams.
• 23:22
  He was a real mentor to me. He showed me what it's like to
• 23:25
  be a coach working in the Bergen County area.
• 23:28
  Of course, when I got here, I didn't know anything about the
• 23:31
  Park Ridge, the Crest Hills, the Leonias, nothing.
• 23:35
  And I was I, it was eye opening, but it was the best thing that
• 23:38
  ever happened to me coaching wise.
• 23:40
  So I spent some time there with him.
• 23:43
  We made a couple runs in the Jamboree.
• 23:47
  We have some good teams. We had AK by the name of Wes
• 23:49
  Dickinson. He was really good.
• 23:51
  Went on to Dartmouth from there. I left in 2012, went to to
• 23:57
  Rutgers North for a year just to just to expand my horizon with
• 24:02
  the college game and that was a great experience working with
• 24:06
  Joe Lockrin also. Good guy from there.
• 24:10
  Yeah, Yeah. From there, I went to, I
• 24:14
  interviewed for the West Arms High School job and that was the
• 24:17
  first time I, you know, I interviewed for a head coaching
• 24:20
  job and I thought I was ready and I didn't get the job and I
• 24:26
  was devastated. But it was another learning
• 24:29
  experience. I went on to East Orange campus.
• 24:34
  That's where I went back home. I worked with a guy by the name
• 24:36
  of Billy Lovett for a year. That was that was a great
• 24:42
  experience. Also.
• 24:43
  We have some good teams over there.
• 24:46
  He left, I left actually, and he stayed.
• 24:50
  I went and that's when I went to the, the, the vocational school
• 24:54
  at N 13th St. And a lady by the name of Doctor
• 24:58
  Jeter, she was the one that gave me my opportunity to be a head
• 25:01
  coach. I owe her so much.
• 25:03
  She, you know, took a big chance on me and it all panned out.
• 25:08
  The first year I win 21 games and I thought every year was
• 25:13
  going to be like. That nothing to this game.
• 25:17
  Right, right. I'm thinking, oh man, this is
• 25:20
  going to be it. I like it here.
• 25:23
  But you know, that's when the transferring thing really took
• 25:26
  off and I lost my 2 best players to Saint Anthony's Nigel
• 25:29
  Marshall and Evan Williams and. And they left if.
• 25:34
  They went to Saint Anthony's. Yeah, at least you could Pat.
• 25:36
  Yourself on me. Not for that.
• 25:38
  Yes, yes. So they left, stayed there for
• 25:41
  three years. I was able to parlay that into a
• 25:45
  job at Newark Academy, which is a job cut kind of like Dwight
• 25:50
  Inglewood, which I understood the climate, the community and
• 25:56
  what it takes to be a head coach at a school like that, very high
• 26:00
  on the academic skill. And I was happy.
• 26:04
  You know, I got, they picked me to be the coach.
• 26:06
  I was excited. I stayed there for five years.
• 26:09
  I had to play by the name of Chase Clark.
• 26:11
  He went on to Bentley. He's in the senior now.
• 26:15
  I got a chance to coach my son there.
• 26:17
  That was great. And it was just a great
• 26:21
  experience. And after my son graduated, I
• 26:25
  decided I wanted to do something different, maybe go into the go
• 26:28
  back into the public school sector.
• 26:30
  And that's when Columbia came about.
• 26:35
  To be honest, I was after the North Academy.
• 26:37
  I was, I was done. I was done.
• 26:39
  I was like, you know what, I got a chance to coach my kid.
• 26:42
  It was a good run. He went to school at a great
• 26:44
  institution. I'm just going to do something
• 26:47
  different, maybe get back into the college ranks.
• 26:49
  But a lot of people are like, hey man, Columbia is going to
• 26:52
  open up. You should try and see if you
• 26:53
  can get it. I'm like, I'll see.
• 26:55
  I interviewed. I got selected for the job.
• 27:00
  I was there for two years and it was very, very interesting.
• 27:05
  It was a good job. I met some nice people there,
• 27:09
  but the expectations were the IT was a little bit different and
• 27:15
  you know, it just didn't go the way I wanted it to go.
• 27:18
  It didn't go the way they wanted to go be change a DS.
• 27:22
  I came in with one guy and then they hired a new AD and
• 27:26
  ultimately, you know, I didn't have a good season and you know,
• 27:31
  we went our separate ways or whatever the case is.
• 27:34
  What great experience group for school.
• 27:37
  First year we went to our the to the state tournament against
• 27:41
  watch on hills. Great game.
• 27:43
  Made some great connections with some of the players over there
• 27:46
  still have a relationship with. And it was just a good
• 27:50
  experience, but it didn't pan out the way I wanted it to be.
• 27:54
  And after that I was like, I'm definitely, I'm definitely
• 28:00
  taking a break. I'm done, man, I'm done.
• 28:03
  I'm going to just relax, focus on my daughter.
• 28:06
  She's the youngest, one of my 3 kids.
• 28:09
  And I got in touch. Someone put me in touch with
• 28:13
  Anabol at Garfield, Brian Gacion, who's the head coach to
• 28:18
  Saint Mary's. And we just had a conversation
• 28:23
  and this fire just reignited. And I knew what it was.
• 28:26
  I knew it was going to be a rebuild.
• 28:28
  And I'm, I was all for it. And I'm happy that I'm here.
• 28:32
  I like it here. I like Mike Alfonso, who's the
• 28:36
  AD Dora d'amico, who's the principal.
• 28:40
  And of course, Anabal, he's great man.
• 28:42
  They got, they support me in every way, shape or form.
• 28:45
  And it's this is what I've been looking for all my career as a
• 28:49
  high school head coach. Nothing against the spots that I
• 28:52
  was at before, but the support here is through the roof, man.
• 28:56
  And that's that's what I'm looking for.
• 28:58
  Yeah, a lot of good sports guys lined up there for sure.
• 29:00
  All right, Brad wanted to. I don't want to dominate the
• 29:03
  conversation. I've been writing down some good
• 29:05
  I think you know. You know, you know me, me and
• 29:08
  Dionne have the pleasure of going back, you know, many
• 29:10
  years, not just from a division two level, but we were teammates
• 29:15
  in many of these men leagues, men's leagues that we we played
• 29:17
  in and, and we, we built a, a pretty solid friendship along
• 29:22
  the way, even though we were rivals many years ago.
• 29:25
  Yeah. But you know, yeah, you know,
• 29:29
  having the support and I know the support that he's talking
• 29:32
  about because, you know, having played against Hannibal and
• 29:35
  having an opportunity of coach against him when I was coaching
• 29:38
  high school basketball, you know, there's there's not one
• 29:41
  guy out there and and there there there are.
• 29:43
  But he's he's one of the few that's that's truly passionate
• 29:47
  about sports in the city of Garfield.
• 29:51
  He coached there for, for, you know, a numerous amount of years
• 29:54
  and had a lot of success there and coached, you know, some
• 29:58
  really good, some really good talent, you know, Miles Austin
• 30:01
  and and, you know, KJ Harris and I can go on and on about all the
• 30:05
  guys that he's had. But yeah, I mean, you know,
• 30:09
  what's what's, what's it been like having a guy like Anibal
• 30:12
  kind of in your corner, like helping you out with with let's
• 30:16
  call, let's call for what it is a complete overhaul of the
• 30:19
  Boilermaker program. I mean.
• 30:24
  You know, when I came in to interview with Mike, Miss the
• 30:28
  principal, Miss D'amico and Anibal, you know, they explained
• 30:32
  to me what they were looking for and I explained to them what I
• 30:35
  was looking for also. But the support man like.
• 30:40
  This is what? High school basketball is about
• 30:43
  It should be your A, your AD, your principals, the
• 30:46
  administrators, they should have the same vision and be aligned
• 30:51
  with you the way these guys are. I mean, and of all, I can
• 30:55
  literally talk hoops to him. I could talk to him about
• 30:57
  anything. I'm just, I'm just, I like being
• 31:01
  in Garfield. It's crazy.
• 31:03
  Never in a million years I thought I'd be coaching in
• 31:05
  Garfield, but the, the level of comfortability that they have
• 31:09
  created here for me, it's, it's great, man.
• 31:13
  They allow me to coach. They allow me to hold the kids
• 31:16
  to all the kids to be accountable.
• 31:20
  And that's what they're looking for more so than the winds.
• 31:23
  The winds have come, but we just got to start from the ground up
• 31:27
  because like you said, Brad, like the the younger generation,
• 31:31
  they just doesn't, they just don't know the tradition of
• 31:34
  Garfield, right, of what what came before them.
• 31:39
  So you got to kind of let them know guys like when you ride
• 31:41
  into Garfield, if you know there's something, there's a a
• 31:46
  note there that says City of champions, like that's there for
• 31:50
  a reason. That's there for a reason.
• 31:53
  Like that is this is not just some rinky dink, you know,
• 31:57
  whatever. It's like tradition here, you
• 31:59
  know, but the kids, they need to know that.
• 32:02
  And it starts from the younger kids all the way up.
• 32:05
  And we're getting there because we're getting there.
• 32:08
  But to answer your question, it's been nothing but, you know,
• 32:11
  good here and and support, man. So Anibal is great.
• 32:16
  You know, I just want to stretch on Mike Alfonso, the AD, He's
• 32:19
  good also. So I got I got the right support
• 32:22
  to get to where we need to be. It's going to take a couple of
• 32:25
  years, but we'll get there. Yeah, you know, there's been
• 32:28
  nothing but nothing but wars in Garfield.
• 32:31
  And yeah, I have complete confidence that that you're
• 32:34
  going to get it back to where it was because I mean, during my
• 32:37
  high school days and, and even into my high school coaching
• 32:40
  days, you know, I, I, I man, there was nothing more I didn't
• 32:46
  want than to play at Garfield in the bombshell at a yeah, in like
• 32:51
  a in the band box that that is the gym with that up tempo, you
• 32:55
  know, running gun and and, you know, full court pressure.
• 32:58
  So, and I know coming from where you came from and how how Coach
• 33:02
  Holmes ran his systems and how Joe Lachlan does things that
• 33:05
  Rutgers North and all the stuff you made along the way.
• 33:08
  I know that within within a few few years, you're going to have
• 33:11
  that program back to where where it belongs.
• 33:14
  And you have some decent pieces. You know, I've heard, I've heard
• 33:16
  about some stuff about some kids that you've had.
• 33:19
  I know there's a lot of hype around Milian Adams, who's a
• 33:23
  young sophomore that you have. So tell me a little bit about
• 33:27
  the makeup of your team and how they've progressed so far since
• 33:30
  you've transitioned as the head coach.
• 33:33
  So when I first came in, we literally just, we had one guy
• 33:41
  that played varsity last year and that was a million, I'm not
• 33:45
  even kidding. Like he was the only returning
• 33:48
  varsity player and he wasn't even a starter.
• 33:51
  He was like getting spot minutes.
• 33:54
  And I literally have freshman's sophomores and 8th grade kids
• 33:59
  coming in. So I did a lot of work with them
• 34:02
  over the summer, a lot of, you know, condition and stuff,
• 34:05
  shooting, just learning the game.
• 34:07
  What I, what I came to realize is the kids and they would tell
• 34:11
  me, oh coach, I don't know, I, I never did shell drill before.
• 34:16
  We never did. You know, we don't, I don't know
• 34:20
  what a triangle in two is. I don't know what a boxing 1 is.
• 34:22
  So it was literally, it's literally ground up.
• 34:25
  So I'm like, OK, all right, I see what I got to do here.
• 34:29
  But the team is made-up of a bunch of young kids, sophomores,
• 34:33
  freshman's. I got 2 seniors who never
• 34:37
  played. They're just big kids, you know,
• 34:40
  I don't know if people know. The dynamic of Garfield is, you
• 34:43
  know, a predominantly Hispanic area and some Polish and a
• 34:47
  Polish area also a. Couple of big Polish kids mixed
• 34:50
  in, yeah. Yeah, you can't get fenders from
• 34:52
  the soccer team and that's set a good.
• 34:54
  Pick for you. So I I got a couple, I got a
• 34:58
  couple. So I got a couple of soccer
• 35:01
  kids, but they're learning how to play.
• 35:03
  But the, the one thing I'm going to say, man, because like these
• 35:07
  kids, they work hard. They work hard and they allow
• 35:10
  you to coach them like it's, it's like a breath of fresh air,
• 35:14
  man. And like you, it was every spot
• 35:17
  that I went to is like, you're fighting the cold.
• 35:19
  You got to deal with this. And these kids are just like,
• 35:22
  yes, coach, all right. I mean, they still have the
• 35:24
  shortcomings because they're kids and they're learning.
• 35:27
  But for the most part, everybody that I have from top to bottom
• 35:32
  has gotten better in showing up on time, making sure you do what
• 35:36
  you you need to do, speaking up, talking little things like that.
• 35:41
  But Adam's man, he, he's a talent.
• 35:45
  He's a talent, he's a talent. I'm he's a hard worker.
• 35:49
  He's in the gym 2 hours before before we have practice every
• 35:53
  day working on his shot. And he never done that before.
• 35:56
  He told me he's like coach, I never did it.
• 35:58
  I just show up and play. So I'm teaching him how to
• 36:01
  prepare and be a basketball player.
• 36:03
  And he's young, so he, he's, he listens.
• 36:05
  I got his ear, you know, And he, he yeah, he's still a sophomore.
• 36:10
  So he does make some mistakes, you know, he still has some
• 36:13
  attitude and stuff. But we're working on that.
• 36:16
  And he's getting better and better and better.
• 36:19
  I got this one kid, Eric Chisholm.
• 36:21
  He's a freshman, you know, and he he's about 6 foot three can
• 36:26
  get to the basket, but very, very raw, you know, doesn't
• 36:30
  really know the game. And then I got another kid,
• 36:33
  Elias Cordero, really good shooter, plays really, really
• 36:38
  hard. So that's our start.
• 36:39
  That's three of our starting 5 right there, sophomore and two
• 36:42
  freshmen and then another sophomore kid who never really
• 36:45
  played. And then I throw a senior in
• 36:48
  there, you know, so you know, like I I the, the work ethic and
• 36:54
  the commitment, that's the part that I like.
• 36:57
  And I know if that continue, we'll get better along the way.
• 37:02
  Yes. You don't want to be one in
• 37:03
  eight. We just played Bagoda the night.
• 37:05
  That was a tough game, 6470. The guys are learning, learning,
• 37:09
  learning and they they got us. But I'm just like us.
• 37:12
  We got to keep going. You can't quit.
• 37:15
  We got it. Can't give up.
• 37:16
  We got Warwick on Wednesday, all right.
• 37:20
  But here's the other thing. I have a kid coming back, a
• 37:23
  transfer from bargain charter, Bergen Charter, Jayden Reyes.
• 37:28
  He's pretty good. Junior, He's going to help us.
• 37:32
  Emilion is getting double team every night, you know, so it'd
• 37:36
  be a little bit different when Jayden comes back and Jacob
• 37:39
  Taylor comes back. So it's all a learning
• 37:42
  experience this year, man, and I embrace it.
• 37:45
  I embrace it all. Right.
• 37:47
  So I, I love hearing that. I like your well thought out
• 37:51
  answers and I'm happy to hear it.
• 37:54
  But in the time as you were talking, it gave me a chance to
• 37:57
  go back through the North Jersey sports.com archives.
• 38:01
  And were you at Dwight Anglewood in 2012?
• 38:08
  That's when I left. OK, 'cause I just found the
• 38:11
  story that I wrote almost 14 years ago now.
• 38:16
  West Dickinson scored 20 points in a 4841 win over Waldwick on
• 38:21
  the same night Dwight Anglewood that Dwight Anglewood honored
• 38:23
  the 2002 team that reached the semi finals of the Jamboree.
• 38:27
  So. Yep, I was there.
• 38:29
  Yep. So we've been in the same place
• 38:31
  before, Coach. I'm sorry I didn't.
• 38:32
  Absolutely. 14 years ago absolutely yes.
• 38:36
  So I, you know what, it's funny there, there's a, a, a
• 38:39
  correlation because, you know, you were at Dwight Anglewood,
• 38:41
  which had that great history and I, I covered that group in 2002
• 38:46
  that went to the. That was the Tom Curry year.
• 38:49
  That was the Tom Curry year and Eric Salzer.
• 38:52
  And yeah. Eric Salzer, whose father was an
• 38:56
  orthopedic Doctor Who set my broken arm, you know, all times
• 39:01
  in the small world in North Jersey sports.
• 39:03
  And it's fun to just go back and read the story and see, you
• 39:07
  know, just, you know, Doug Palmadessa, who was a great
• 39:10
  player for, wound up being a great player for Wolfa Key.
• 39:13
  Yeah. Yeah, I came an O2 so crazy.
• 39:16
  Other guy that could treat it really well.
• 39:19
  That Connor Walsh. Yeah, Connor.
• 39:22
  It's some really good teams. Yeah, these kids are, you know,
• 39:25
  almost 40 years old, man. So it makes you feel old.
• 39:28
  Anyway, Eli Goldberger is quoted in that story as well.
• 39:32
  He brought everybody back in town.
• 39:33
  But my, my question for you is this.
• 39:36
  So, you know, we've seen Garfield has deployed some
• 39:40
  resources to you know, it is the city of champions.
• 39:43
  You you look at the history of the NFL, Louis Castillo, Wayne
• 39:46
  Corbett, Miles Austin, you know, it it it has all that It lost a
• 39:51
  little bit of its luster over a certain amount of time.
• 39:54
  I feel like the soccer run a couple of years ago, which
• 39:58
  coincided with the finishing of the field.
• 40:01
  I mean, I was there when they opened up the turf for the first
• 40:04
  time in the state semi finals and they wanted a comeback
• 40:06
  fashion. And it really was, you know,
• 40:08
  then they went down and won it at Franklin in the state final
• 40:11
  and it was great. And there was that real.
• 40:13
  Feeling of community support and camaraderie around Garfield.
• 40:17
  What? How do we do that for the
• 40:23
  tradition Rich Garfield Boilermaker basketball program?
• 40:27
  Like, I mean it's a simple question like where do you even
• 40:30
  start? Well, you know, like the the
• 40:34
  first thing I would say is that we just got to like, I have to
• 40:38
  make myself known in the community in the sense that that
• 40:42
  ate that middle school, getting back to that middle school,
• 40:45
  meeting those kids, which I did last year and just letting them
• 40:49
  know, Hey, this is what we this is what can happen if we all
• 40:53
  stay here. That's number one.
• 40:55
  You have to stay in Garfield and you know, the my Anna Ball, they
• 41:03
  give me the reins to keep this gym open.
• 41:06
  And I tell kids, hey, come, come.
• 41:09
  There's open gym, there's workouts, there's things going
• 41:11
  on what you can do. Of course, we love to have a
• 41:15
  Miles come in and speak and talk and meet kids and things of that
• 41:19
  nature. But maybe that's not going to
• 41:22
  happen. But we've got to find, I got to
• 41:24
  find a way to answer your question is just making myself
• 41:28
  known in the community and keeping this gym open.
• 41:32
  Different programs, you know, the 8th grade program, the youth
• 41:36
  programs is which which I'm allowed to do.
• 41:39
  And this spring I'm going to do it.
• 41:41
  So just to get it back open and letting the kids understand the
• 41:44
  sense of tradition and history. You know, I talk to them all the
• 41:48
  time about what's what was here prior before them and they don't
• 41:53
  know, they don't know. So you always got to give them
• 41:56
  that kid bit like, you know, some of the kids didn't even
• 41:59
  know who. Well, they don't know who Miles
• 42:02
  Austin was this, you know, they're like who I'm like, yo,
• 42:05
  he played basketball and he played football.
• 42:08
  He scored 1000 points. They're like, OK, yeah, you did
• 42:10
  play in the NFL. So I just, the, the other thing
• 42:13
  is it's always this, I always tell the kids, there's two guys
• 42:19
  that went to the professional Football League from this same
• 42:22
  hall, these hallways you guys walked in and this gymnasium
• 42:26
  right here. So it can be done.
• 42:28
  Might not be on a professional level, but you, you definitely
• 42:31
  can go to school from there. You definitely can make yourself
• 42:34
  into a college player or something of that sort.
• 42:37
  You know, so the tradition and the accessibility, I think those
• 42:41
  are the two big things. All right, Brad, you got one
• 42:44
  more for the coach before we let him get back to watching some
• 42:46
  tape. You know I will.
• 42:51
  I got Walwick. I got Walwick Wednesday.
• 42:53
  I got to watch Del Rey and Antonio.
• 42:56
  Yeah, yeah. Before I, before I, before I, I,
• 42:58
  I give my last question. You know, the one good thing is,
• 43:02
  you know, coming from that error, right?
• 43:05
  And me, me and Miles being so close, I will shoot a text to
• 43:08
  Miles to see if I can get him back up here.
• 43:10
  Since he is somewhat local. I will reach out tomorrow, see
• 43:14
  if I can get him back up in the, in the gym for a practice or
• 43:17
  something to, to meet the meet your young kids.
• 43:19
  And, and I can take from experience too, you know, just
• 43:22
  from, from coaching high school, right?
• 43:24
  And, and you know, when I went back to Elmwood Park, we had a
• 43:27
  good run with, with Pat Gabriel, who's now at Demorest.
• 43:31
  And he was a firm believer coming from Raymondville
• 43:33
  College, right? Firm believer in, you know,
• 43:35
  investing in your young, your young talent, right?
• 43:38
  And you're going to take some lumps and bruises and, and, and
• 43:40
  we did, you know, we, we started the freshman in software floors
• 43:43
  and, and it was an up and down year.
• 43:45
  But you know, you know, you Fast forward two years later, nobody,
• 43:48
  nobody wanted to run into that buzz saw, you know, when Ellen
• 43:52
  Park was rolling again. And you know, you fill in a Eli
• 43:55
  Tiller's hand and a couple other pieces and, and next thing you
• 43:57
  know, you win a session and you're playing in the state
• 44:00
  semifinals again. But you know, you have these
• 44:02
  young kids coming back and you're reloading and like, Oh my
• 44:04
  gosh, you got to play Ellen Park now.
• 44:05
  And you're losing, you know, like, oh man, it's gonna be like
• 44:08
  a 30 point, you know, whipping on us.
• 44:10
  Like, man, you know, and I think you, you know how you describe
• 44:13
  this young talent you have, I, I think you're, you're kind of
• 44:16
  priming yourself for that. And I think that helps.
• 44:20
  And I think getting some alumni back, which, which I can help
• 44:23
  you do for sure will, will help encourage these guys, you know?
• 44:26
  And yeah, I mean, a lot of guys more so went for football way
• 44:30
  back in those days, right. Yeah.
• 44:32
  You know, Dave Strat went to Northern Iowa and and played
• 44:34
  linebacker there for four years and won a bowl game.
• 44:36
  And there's tons of guys who were football wise and they they
• 44:39
  played basketball as well and, and track.
• 44:41
  And, you know, that's where, you know, the city of champions
• 44:44
  right there. They were constantly, you know,
• 44:45
  getting wins and everything. But I think putting trying to
• 44:49
  put you in touch with some of those alumni and getting them
• 44:51
  back in the gym to show these young kids that that it can be
• 44:54
  done. Will will definitely go a little
• 44:55
  way. And and you haven't ducked any
• 44:57
  smoke either. You know, Dion, you know, you
• 45:00
  didn't really mention that, you know, you took over over the job
• 45:03
  and you immediately put these kids in all these high level
• 45:06
  fall leagues and, and spring leagues and and stuff trying to
• 45:10
  get these guys ready for what it is and getting some experience
• 45:12
  for them. So I, I, I commend you on that
• 45:14
  too as well. Thank you.
• 45:16
  My last question, my last question to you is, yeah, Now,
• 45:22
  now that you're in you're, you're, you're a head coach in
• 45:25
  Bergen County. You know, what is your, your
• 45:29
  anticipation for, for your, your future of your program And, and
• 45:33
  you know, how do you feel that you can bring Garfield
• 45:36
  basketball back to its prominence in that Bergen County
• 45:39
  community? Well, I'm a just allude to what
• 45:44
  you just said. I took over in April and
• 45:50
  immediately I put the entire team and I'll say, hey, we're
• 45:53
  going to be playing in Patterson on Tuesday and Thursdays.
• 45:56
  And they're like, what? Like why?
• 46:00
  I'm like, it's not about wins in my head, I know it's not about
• 46:03
  wins and losses, but I need to see who I have, who's going to
• 46:07
  show up and who's going to compete.
• 46:09
  And I had some kids who showed up every day.
• 46:12
  We we got our tails beat, you know, sometimes they were ending
• 46:16
  the games early. You know, we down 35 and I'm
• 46:19
  like, I end it. But and kids kept showing up,
• 46:22
  kept showing up, kept showing up.
• 46:24
  And I'm like, hey, we're going to be fine.
• 46:25
  You guys got to commit to something.
• 46:27
  And it was all new for them. So that was my way of getting
• 46:32
  them ready. All right, it might.
• 46:35
  Like I said, the record doesn't show it, but we're ahead of
• 46:39
  where we need to be. Like I'm teaching, teaching,
• 46:43
  teaching every day now. In a few years, we're going to
• 46:48
  look back on this interview and we're going to say, hey, you
• 46:52
  guys did say that. You know, in a few years we're
• 46:54
  going to be all right. We are going to be fine.
• 46:57
  We're going to be fine. I can promise you that.
• 47:00
  These kids are going to work. I'm going to be here.
• 47:03
  I'm not looking to cut out or anything like that.
• 47:06
  We got a good group between Cordero Adams and Chisholm and
• 47:14
  Jacob Taylor and Jayden Reyes. We will be fine.
• 47:17
  It will be a different team next year.
• 47:20
  I can tell you that. It's going to be a different
• 47:21
  team next year, All right? And to get them back, like you
• 47:27
  guys said, you got to harness the talent that you have, the
• 47:30
  young talent I'm going to make. I know a lot of people.
• 47:33
  You know, Brad, you know, Brad always got a tournament.
• 47:37
  He got something going on. I'm going to have.
• 47:39
  I was just going. To say he's a good guy to know.
• 47:42
  We have we have a nice. University that I think.
• 47:45
  Right, Jennifer, guys, right. And I'm going to expose them to
• 47:49
  that. And here's the other thing.
• 47:51
  Here's the other thing, fellas, A lot of these kids have never
• 47:55
  been out of Garfield. They've just been here and I'm
• 48:00
  like, I'm like, hold on, hold on.
• 48:01
  So you guys never went down to play down in South Jersey.
• 48:05
  You never went down the hoop group.
• 48:06
  You never went down to playing East Orange, playing Irvington.
• 48:10
  And they're like, Nah, 'cause we just play here, Patterson or we
• 48:13
  might go to Humble Park or something like that.
• 48:15
  But I'm exposing them to different things.
• 48:18
  You know, I had a lot of people come in, talk to them former
• 48:22
  players. I had Wes Dixon come and speak
• 48:24
  to them, you know, just to let him know, like let them know
• 48:28
  like, hey, it can be done. There's a there's a world
• 48:32
  outside of Garfield also, you know, and they're they're
• 48:36
  getting like slow exposure to that.
• 48:38
  Like, I mean, it sounds this is going to sound crazy, but my
• 48:42
  team, I'm like, guys, we're going to, we're going out to
• 48:45
  eat, we're going to pick a nice restaurant and everybody's like,
• 48:48
  oh, Applebee's, Applebee's Fridays, Applebee.
• 48:51
  I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not going to Applebee's.
• 48:54
  We're not doing that. Like pick up Garfield, I hope.
• 48:59
  I hope the answer was Charlie Bloods.
• 49:02
  Right. They were like, well, of course,
• 49:03
  that's like that's all I go to on my mom cook at home.
• 49:06
  But I just have good dudes, man. Like I like being around them.
• 49:11
  But like I said, to answer your question, Brad harness, my young
• 49:15
  talent, keep them with me. The other thing that I have to
• 49:20
  do is get the kids who are at these private schools to come
• 49:26
  back to Garfield. I got 1 already and that's got
• 49:30
  to let them know, hey, nothing against the private sector, but
• 49:34
  you're from Garfield. You will get a chance to play
• 49:37
  here with me that I can guarantee you.
• 49:39
  And I got one kid to come back and you know, he gets to play on
• 49:42
  Sunday. He'll make it with his first
• 49:45
  game, his debut, and we'll be a little bit different, you know,
• 49:49
  But there's a lot of kids out here who's at different schools
• 49:52
  from Garfield and they're not playing.
• 49:54
  And once I can get it, talk to them and put that bug in the
• 49:57
  air, like, hey, come on back, let's build this thing and we
• 50:01
  will get there. We'll get there in about two
• 50:03
  years. Well, I mean, all those things
• 50:06
  you said and it will lead to wins on the basketball for I
• 50:10
  have no doubt about that. But again, it high school
• 50:13
  sports, it's what it's supposed to be all about.
• 50:14
  It's supposed to open you up to new things.
• 50:16
  I mean, you know, even if it is an Applebee's in a different
• 50:20
  town, all those add up and you're changing lives and you're
• 50:24
  changing perspectives, which is really that that's that's why
• 50:27
  Brad and I, I mean, I know from speaking for myself here, like
• 50:31
  that's why I'm still doing high school sports, you know,
• 50:33
  because. I love it man.
• 50:35
  Yeah, it's it's because you you see that effect that it has on
• 50:39
  kids and look, however many years after we're all done
• 50:41
  playing high school basketball, we're still here.
• 50:43
  For me, it's 30 five years later, still talking about high
• 50:45
  school basketball. So it.
• 50:46
  Means a lot. You know, I mean, go ahead, I'm
• 50:49
  gonna, I'm gonna just say this. Wesley Dickinson donated 20
• 50:53
  pairs of sneakers to the high school, to my basketball
• 50:55
  program. He donated.
• 50:57
  He donated 45 back. One of the kids that I coach at
• 51:01
  Dwight Angle with Jake Rosen, he's a marketing director at at
• 51:05
  Oakley. He donated 45 backpacks.
• 51:08
  These kids act like it was Christmas.
• 51:11
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 51:13
  They they have children. 'S lives I mean, my, my wife is
• 51:15
  a special Ed teacher in Englewood and you know, it's the
• 51:18
  same So that's, you know, education, teaching, it's all
• 51:22
  those things and yes, you can use basketball as the vehicle to
• 51:25
  get all that stuff done, but the most important stuff is the
• 51:27
  stuff you're already doing so you got it and just.
• 51:31
  Just thank you man. Yeah, Now happy to meet you.
• 51:35
  I mean, I didn't even ask you about the scatter report on Brad
• 51:37
  in the men's leagues, but we'll save that for next year.
• 51:41
  Brad, Brad is Brad is a bully man.
• 51:45
  I'm like, and he can shoot. So I'm like, yo, hold on, what's
• 51:48
  going on here? I mean, you know what I mean.
• 51:50
  It's. Those hey, look, we have 10
• 51:54
  battles. Definitely, definitely with him,
• 51:57
  Ivan, Brad and Steph. Those were the years, man, you
• 52:01
  know, and I always go back to the thing that changed my life.
• 52:06
  It's going to sound crazy, is winning the CACC championship
• 52:10
  for me in college at Bloomfield College.
• 52:13
  That was the that was the first time in my basketball career
• 52:17
  where I was like, I do not care what I have to do for us to win
• 52:23
  this game. I'm going to do it and I played
• 52:27
  for my guys and we won and we we got the ball rolling.
• 52:30
  We were the that team in O3 O 4 was the first team to win a CACC
• 52:34
  championship at Bloomfield and they just took off after that.
• 52:39
  Well, they did indeed. They did indeed.
• 52:41
  Off topic then. I mean, you got to be bummed
• 52:44
  that Bloomfield College is no longer an independent
• 52:46
  university. I mean.
• 52:48
  Absolutely, absolutely, man. I mean, we went to the, we went
• 52:53
  to the lead 8, you know, numerous NCAA tournament
• 52:58
  appearances. You know, I think Coach Holmes
• 53:01
  has like 10, maybe 8-9 or 1012, you know, THC championships.
• 53:06
  And I'm just like nothing to get no disrespect to the league that
• 53:09
  they're in now, but I'm just like, man, I didn't.
• 53:12
  I didn't see this coming. Yeah.
• 53:14
  It's tough. Well, and no offense, I don't
• 53:17
  lose any sleep that Bloomfield College is no longer in the
• 53:20
  conflict either. I have I have the utmost respect
• 53:24
  for Gerald. We've had some some wars for me
• 53:28
  on the court and and on the sidelines with him And and but
• 53:33
  you know, and just so they they they're still, you know,
• 53:35
  obviously, you know, Mont Slayer had had had purchased Bloomfield
• 53:38
  College and they're in the USCAA.
• 53:41
  But they actually played up at Wagner, right?
• 53:44
  And A and a yeah. And Wagner a game and and took
• 53:48
  them to overtime. So, you know, Gerald is still
• 53:51
  doing his thing and getting getting the most out of guys.
• 53:53
  And and yeah. And Dion, anytime you want to
• 53:57
  bring your guys down, the Felician men love to have you
• 54:00
  have your kids watch, watch a game and see, you know, see the
• 54:03
  high level that that still is our conference in the CACC.
• 54:07
  I'm not going to brag, but we are 12 and two right now.
• 54:10
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I've been following
• 54:12
  and you know. I know, I know, I know.
• 54:15
  I had I had a lot of Felician guys in the gym this summer and
• 54:20
  there I was just in, you know, I will meet a guy and he knows a
• 54:23
  guy and he's like, hey, coach, can we have open runs Absolutely
• 54:26
  come up, you know, and the gym and Garfield is filled with guys
• 54:30
  for Felician and people like, yo, what's going on up here?
• 54:32
  I'm like, yo, I'm just opening the gym so guys can work out.
• 54:36
  And it was, it was a breath of fresh air, man.
• 54:39
  Yeah, and, and knowing the guys that showed up, yeah, knowing
• 54:42
  the guys that showed up to his gym too, you know, those are,
• 54:44
  those are, you know, those are some of the guys that that
• 54:47
  embody, you know, what it is to be a division two student
• 54:50
  athlete. And yeah, I mean, those, those
• 54:53
  guys will, they'll continue to do that.
• 54:54
  And, and they'll play with, play with your guys and teach your
• 54:56
  guys stuff. And and yeah, man, just keep,
• 54:59
  keep doing stuff like that because that's, that's, that's
• 55:01
  going to, that's going to dynamically change the culture
• 55:03
  of your program. Yes, yes.
• 55:06
  Thank you guys. To have two cat guys on here, we
• 55:10
  could sit here and do this all night.
• 55:13
  All night with you, with this coach.
• 55:14
  If if you know, if you got to do a complete rebuild and you only
• 55:18
  have, you know, the one win through the 1st, whatever, three
• 55:21
  weeks of the season, at least it was against Lodi.
• 55:25
  Yeah, yeah, Oh my God, Also. True.
• 55:27
  That was like, it was like we was in Madison Square Garden
• 55:29
  that night. I'm like, what's going?
• 55:31
  On in here. They're like, oh man, you better
• 55:33
  be Lodi. You better be Lodi.
• 55:35
  Okay, alright, I got you. Dion Mingo, brand new head coach
• 55:40
  of the Garfield Boilermakers. Great way to start our season
• 55:44
  here with the ball game. It it it it's too long.
• 55:48
  It was all on me. I was late getting it started,
• 55:50
  but you got me all pumped up here.
• 55:52
  And we're going to keep close tabs on you.
• 55:54
  And as soon as something happens that you want to talk about, get
• 55:57
  in touch with Brad, get in touch with me and you're right back
• 56:00
  here. And you know, once it starts
• 56:02
  turning around, which I know it will, I'm going to come down
• 56:04
  there and cover a game or two and get back to my southern
• 56:07
  Bergen County roots as well. So thanks for coming out here
• 56:09
  and best of luck with everything you got going on at Garfield.
• 56:12
  Thank you, Dion, and yeah man, good luck against our buddy
• 56:16
  McBain on Wednesday night. Yeah.
• 56:18
  Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.
• 56:20
  Brad. Thanks for putting this
• 56:21
  together, man. That this is pretty cool.
• 56:23
  Thank you all. Right, Brad?
• 56:25
  Well, a home run for guest number one on the inaugural
• 56:29
  edition for the season of the ball game.
• 56:31
  Dion Mingo. My first time talking to him.
• 56:35
  Good dude. Yeah, a lot of good things from
• 56:37
  from, from Coach Mingo and yeah, kind of kind of, you know,
• 56:43
  piqued my interest to see, you know, what he does there and how
• 56:45
  things progress over the next few years during his tenure.
• 56:48
  And yeah, I, I think, you know, I think, I think he has what it
• 56:55
  takes to to get Garfield back to, to relevance, you know, and,
• 57:00
  and get, you know, relegated back to the upper echelon of
• 57:02
  that NJIC. Yeah, if it can be done.
• 57:06
  Sounds like he's the guy to do it.
• 57:08
  So what do you, you know, an interesting way to look at it?
• 57:11
  I'll tell you from my perspective, teams I'm looking
• 57:14
  forward to seeing like, like I said, I'm back on the beat now.
• 57:17
  I got a lot of the stuff that I do photography wise and
• 57:20
  everything else out of the way for the beginning of the season.
• 57:22
  So now I can focus on getting to, you know, 3-4, five games a
• 57:25
  week. You know, some of the teams that
• 57:28
  I'm looking forward to seeing, I want to see Cliffside Park.
• 57:30
  I want to see Northern Highlands.
• 57:32
  I'm a big fan of Kyle Sabella, so I want to see Fairlawns off
• 57:36
  to a good start in a, you know, a tough league with Wayne Hills
• 57:39
  and Wayne Valley. You know, they're the lone
• 57:42
  Bergen County team in that Passaic County heavy
• 57:45
  Independence division in the Big N, even though that's changing
• 57:47
  next year. And then, you know, I'm going to
• 57:50
  hang around the national division where as we mentioned,
• 57:54
  there were a 10 to 5 teen that go to pandem.
• 57:55
  Rest are and you know, we'll see the big boys when the time comes
• 58:00
  in the Jamboree and in the NJIC. I don't know how many people are
• 58:04
  aware of it that they've changed the grouping procedures.
• 58:09
  Where you're grouping for this year is based on your results
• 58:12
  from last year. So, you know, it's nice in some
• 58:16
  ways that teams that are on a good run are gonna, you know,
• 58:19
  play up and play against some better competition as the season
• 58:23
  goes along. But teams that lose a bunch of
• 58:25
  seniors after a good year, like Richfield, for example, this
• 58:27
  year had a great group of seniors last year.
• 58:30
  I think they won a game in the in the in the state playoffs for
• 58:32
  the first time in many years. They lost everybody in their own
• 58:36
  11. So that new system has its pros
• 58:39
  and its cons. I guess there's no perfect way
• 58:41
  to do anything. But yeah, I.
• 58:42
  Don't. I don't, I don't know.
• 58:44
  I don't know if I don't know if I'm a huge fan of this
• 58:46
  relegation that they're doing. Yeah.
• 58:49
  Where, you know, you're, you know, based on how you did last
• 58:52
  year, you're either going up or down.
• 58:54
  You know, I had a chance to talk to the Lyndhurst head coach,
• 58:58
  Perry Moska, who who has a a, you know, good group of young
• 59:04
  talent. You know, he's sitting at, you
• 59:07
  know, 7 and 4 right now, you know, lost a, you know, lost a
• 59:12
  couple. But I said it.
• 59:13
  Most of his you know, his his powerhouse guys are are young,
• 59:16
  you know, for, you know, freshmen, sophomores, you know,
• 59:18
  he's got 1 senior who's the one of their stand out guards.
• 59:22
  But yeah, I mean, he might have a very good year this year, you
• 59:26
  know, and then, you know, he may stay up in that relegation up
• 59:31
  and then those kids might graduate and then you're back
• 59:33
  down. Yeah.
• 59:34
  So I don't know if I like the the up and down and you know,
• 59:38
  you're constantly your schedules changing every year.
• 59:41
  You know, I think they can do that a little better.
• 59:45
  They can do it. All right, So you know, I was
• 59:47
  trying to be nice, but. They can do it a little better.
• 59:50
  Bro, it's brutal. I I was talking to I.
• 59:53
  I'm sure he wouldn't mind me saying it.
• 59:54
  Johnny Ziemba, long time coach of Fort Lee.
• 59:56
  Now he's. At Yeah, all right.
• 59:58
  So Emerson's a very good start at Emerson as well.
• 1:00:02
  Yes, start out there. Emerson sitting at 8:00 and
• 1:00:04
  1:00, you know. There Emerson's great and Johnny
• 1:00:07
  Ziemba is, you know, one of the most under under what's the word
• 1:00:11
  I'm looking for underrated, underrated coaches in really in
• 1:00:15
  Bergen County history. He had some great teams at Fort
• 1:00:17
  Lee and Fort Lee has not had a great team since he left.
• 1:00:19
  So yeah, he, he, he, he's got full, my full respect.
• 1:00:25
  And, you know, I value his opinion greatly.
• 1:00:27
  And he's just a good guy. And you know, they're 8:00 and
• 1:00:30
  1:00, but in their, you know, Saddlebrook, Eastern Christian
• 1:00:34
  and Hawthorne in the league. Hawthorne Christian, I should
• 1:00:38
  say. I mean, those are he's got 6 non
• 1:00:41
  competitive games in his yes. And we're talking about Emerson
• 1:00:46
  and on Emerson's schedule, there's no Cresskill, there's no
• 1:00:50
  Park Ridge there. These are historic rivalries in
• 1:00:53
  small school BCSL Olympics basketball that why do we why
• 1:00:58
  don't the powers that be understand the tradition of high
• 1:01:01
  school sports? They've done it in football
• 1:01:04
  where they have to play down to the stupid one state champion,
• 1:01:07
  nobody. He goes to the games because
• 1:01:08
  they don't care about the match up.
• 1:01:09
  And now they're doing it in basketball, where Cresskill and
• 1:01:13
  Park Ridge don't play each other.
• 1:01:16
  Yeah, I, I just, it's, it's ridiculous.
• 1:01:19
  You know, we need to go back to that, the BCSL, the BPSL, the,
• 1:01:22
  and then JAL, we need to go back to, to that because that, you
• 1:01:27
  know, that's, that's where we, you talked about it before and
• 1:01:32
  you know, the, the, the, the student, the student, you know,
• 1:01:36
  fan base, where the games are packed.
• 1:01:38
  Kids are, you know, it's bringing kids into the gym.
• 1:01:40
  I mean, that's what we want. You know, you don't, you don't
• 1:01:42
  want the kids out on the street and sitting in front of their
• 1:01:44
  Playstations and Xboxes. You want them being productive
• 1:01:48
  and and and supporting their their fellow classmates and
• 1:01:50
  their community. How many people are going to be
• 1:01:53
  ever seen Hawthorne Christian game at.
• 1:01:55
  Hawthorne Nobody. When you win 63 to 19, like they
• 1:02:00
  call a straight a spade, like nobody's gonna want to go to
• 1:02:02
  that game. Easton Christians 7517 Like
• 1:02:06
  who's showing up to that game? Yeah, their.
• 1:02:09
  Parents probably don't want to go to that game.
• 1:02:11
  Why are they afraid to have the good teams grouped like or not
• 1:02:15
  even good teams, just traditional teams like Emerson.
• 1:02:19
  Park Ridge is going to have more people every time.
• 1:02:23
  Yes, no matter how good they are than Emerson Eastern Christian
• 1:02:27
  why don't what are we. Doing same thing.
• 1:02:30
  I that's why I said, you know, we did it a few years back.
• 1:02:33
  I think it might have been two or three years ago.
• 1:02:36
  We had Saint Mary's Rutherford absolution.
• 1:02:38
  We hosted Saint Mary's versus Rutherford in a in a non
• 1:02:41
  conference game. It was sold out.
• 1:02:45
  It was like we're, it was like we're playing Bloomfield and,
• 1:02:47
  and Mingo. Mingo can definitely talk about
• 1:02:50
  it. But yeah, I mean, it, it was, it
• 1:02:53
  was sold out. Everybody from Rutherford was in
• 1:02:56
  that gym. You know, there must have been
• 1:02:59
  900,000 people in the gym standing loud.
• 1:03:04
  And it was, that's the environment that we want.
• 1:03:06
  I mean, that's, you know what I, I went to, I went to a Jambo,
• 1:03:09
  the Jambo semifinal game last year, Bergen Bosco semifinals
• 1:03:15
  and it was packed, but it wasn't packed the way it used to be
• 1:03:20
  packed. Like there were no students.
• 1:03:22
  There were no students there. There was no student sections.
• 1:03:24
  There was no chanting. There was no making fun of
• 1:03:28
  anybody in a, in a jocular way, right?
• 1:03:32
  I wasn't, I was like if I was a burger and a Bosco student, like
• 1:03:35
  I'm not, I have no butterflies in my stomach.
• 1:03:37
  I'm not worried about playing Bosco or Bergen.
• 1:03:39
  You know, I'm not worried about the the the student section, you
• 1:03:43
  know, going off on me if I fumble a pass or missed a layup
• 1:03:46
  or it just wasn't the same atmosphere.
• 1:03:49
  It was it was packed, but it just it didn't have that same
• 1:03:52
  like Bergen Jambo semi final at the Rothman Center, now the
• 1:03:55
  Pagoda Savings Bank arena, whatever it is.
• 1:03:57
  But yes. But when you it just, it just.
• 1:04:00
  Didn't have the same vibe and I was like, I was, I was a little
• 1:04:03
  turned off by I was like. Yeah, take it back one round to
• 1:04:07
  the quarterfinal round at Hackensack High School the week
• 1:04:10
  before, and good seats still available for every game.
• 1:04:15
  Nobody. Yeah, I can go sit in the the
• 1:04:16
  front row or, you know, second-half, you know, my
• 1:04:19
  parents be like wherever I wanted.
• 1:04:22
  And this year they're doing the quarterfinals at the Rothman
• 1:04:25
  Center. And like I said, I, I, I, I
• 1:04:27
  think it, I think this really has a chance to be a fun year
• 1:04:32
  because and listen, nobody's beat.
• 1:04:34
  Well, stranger things have happened.
• 1:04:35
  But being honest, nobody's beaten Bergen Catholic for the
• 1:04:38
  Bergen County Jamboree title. At least none of these.
• 1:04:40
  Public schools, but. You know, lost in the fact that
• 1:04:43
  the semi finals would be, you know, Bergen Bosco and Joe's and
• 1:04:46
  then, you know, and throw in your Ridgewood, your round PO,
• 1:04:50
  whoever was going to grab that fourth spot.
• 1:04:52
  What this does when Joe's is down and Bosco is down in the
• 1:04:57
  same year is that it makes the quarterfinals good.
• 1:05:00
  So if the committee does it right and Bosco gets in, you
• 1:05:04
  could have Bergen Bosco in the quarterfinals and then you could
• 1:05:07
  have three good games where you don't know who's going to win.
• 1:05:11
  And how awesome would that be? Because it hasn't happened that
• 1:05:14
  way in 20 years. Yeah, easily.
• 1:05:17
  And, and, and I'm I'm going to, I'm going to take it a step
• 1:05:20
  further. There's there's going to be two
• 1:05:22
  public schools playing against each other in the semi final for
• 1:05:25
  a spot in the championship. How great.
• 1:05:27
  And then, you know, like, that's the de facto public school
• 1:05:29
  championship of Bergen County. That's.
• 1:05:31
  Great. To me, whoever, whoever,
• 1:05:33
  whoever, obviously Bergen's going to play somebody, right?
• 1:05:36
  You're probably going to get 3, definitely 2, maybe three public
• 1:05:39
  schools and that semi final and you know, yeah, obviously, you
• 1:05:45
  know, Bergen's, Bergen's going to win that unhandedly most
• 1:05:47
  likely. But yeah, whoever is in the
• 1:05:49
  other semi final, right, without Bergen or another parochial,
• 1:05:54
  yeah, you almost could say that's the best thing.
• 1:05:58
  Yeah, they're going. That's the best team in Bergen
• 1:06:00
  County. Yep.
• 1:06:03
  Yeah, you know. I remember a couple years ago,
• 1:06:05
  the last time Cresco had a real good team, when they made the
• 1:06:08
  Final Four, they beat Hackensack in the quarterfinals, a good
• 1:06:11
  Hackensack team. And then Ramapo played, you
• 1:06:14
  know. So it was, it was, I think it
• 1:06:16
  was, who was it? Was it Bosco, Ramapo or vice
• 1:06:19
  versa or whatever? But it was Bergen, Bosco, Ramapo
• 1:06:21
  and Cresskill in the semi finals and both games were 50 point
• 1:06:25
  games. So, you know, when you got 1
• 1:06:28
  behemoth like Burton Catholic, somebody could take a shot at
• 1:06:32
  him and maybe you'll see the greatest upset, but nobody's
• 1:06:35
  ever beating, you know, Bergen Bosco and Joe's on the way to
• 1:06:39
  win. You know what I mean?
• 1:06:40
  Maybe you can summon, you can summon the, you know, David
• 1:06:44
  versus Goliath for one time and you get hot.
• 1:06:47
  There's no shot clock in high school, you know, in New Jersey,
• 1:06:49
  high school basketball. Get it?
• 1:06:51
  On start on that topic. Well, we got plenty to.
• 1:06:55
  You know what, Let's leave it there.
• 1:06:56
  We got plenty to talk about this year.
• 1:06:58
  Yeah. Sure.
• 1:06:58
  Ball game and I'm glad Episode 1 is out there for the for the
• 1:07:02
  masses. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:07:05
  But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to to a lot of these, a
• 1:07:10
  lot of these teams that have started off strong.
• 1:07:13
  We're you know, we're 10 between 10 and 13 games in depending on
• 1:07:16
  on your schedule. But yeah, you, you touched on
• 1:07:19
  it. Cresco, Emerson, Waldwick,
• 1:07:21
  Midland Park, you know, Patterson, Charter, those are
• 1:07:23
  all off their good starts. You know, we touched on Ramsey
• 1:07:28
  is off to a good start, Westwood is off to a good start and
• 1:07:31
  Westwood good. So, you know, I'm looking
• 1:07:33
  forward to, you know, getting out and seeing, you know,
• 1:07:35
  Tenafly Teaneck building Highlands, who I thought was
• 1:07:39
  going to be, I thought was going to struggle a little bit with
• 1:07:42
  with Lucas leaving, you know, and they're, you know, they're
• 1:07:46
  sitting at 7:00 and 2:00. You know, Wayne Valley's, you
• 1:07:49
  know, coming off on a good start as well.
• 1:07:51
  You know, Passaic County Demarest, you know, Gabe is
• 1:07:54
  always going to have those, that those teams playing really well
• 1:07:58
  over in Group three. Yeah.
• 1:08:01
  You know, Ridgewood, Ridgewood playing well.
• 1:08:03
  You know, Fairlong, like you said, they haven't played too
• 1:08:05
  many games, but you know, they're off to a good start.
• 1:08:08
  Hackensack So yeah, you know, there's a lot of good games
• 1:08:12
  coming up. You know, we're getting into the
• 1:08:14
  thick of it now where, you know, the the Jamboree cut off is
• 1:08:17
  right around the corner. So yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm looking
• 1:08:21
  forward to to seeing a lot more good basketball.
• 1:08:27
  And yeah, I think episode 2 of the ball games will be very,
• 1:08:32
  very fun when we're into the nitty gritty and the Jambo's
• 1:08:36
  kicking off. And yeah, to me, like I said, I
• 1:08:39
  think I'm so public. The publics are here.
• 1:08:43
  The publics are here, I think. Cool.
• 1:08:46
  All right, Brad Forest theory. The band is back together.
• 1:08:49
  I think we should do an episode every night between now and the
• 1:08:51
  time of the Jamboree cut off, but there's no listen, there's
• 1:08:55
  nobody stopping us from doing more than one a week, so we'll
• 1:08:59
  we'll just keep an eye on what's going on.
• 1:09:01
  We'll, I'm gonna keep my recorder handy.
• 1:09:03
  I'm going to try to get some interviews from around North
• 1:09:05
  Jersey. I can play them in the show, and
• 1:09:08
  we'll keep it rolling from here. But episode one in the books.
• 1:09:10
  Brad, great to have you back and looking forward to what comes
• 1:09:14
  next. Good to be back, looking forward
• 1:09:16
  to it. Follow the leader.