Hey Everyone:
Now just to clarify: I was a member of that team, but my contributions to the title run were minimal, and that’s putting it nicely. I was a high jumper/long jumper, and not particularly good at either one. I could run fast and I could jump high or far, the issue being that I couldn’t do both of those things at the same time.
So I was more Ed Hearn than Gary Carter, more Chad Curtis than Derek Jeter. Still, winning that championship was one of the highlights of my life. I didn’t give much more thought till early October, when the alumni office sent me a letter inviting me to the ceremony because they recognized me as a member of one of the teams that they were honoring.
How cool right?
This past Saturday, Tara and I headed back to my old hood for the induction ceremony. The flood of memories that came back was something else.
We had won a couple of indoor meets that winter, but lost in the Brooklyn/Queens championships (The BQ’s) and the city championship meet. That wasn’t unexpected, our strength was during outdoor season.
Before the two big championship meets, our coaches, Coach Carey the track coach and my coach, Field Events Coach Devoti, would bring us into a classroom and write out on the chalkboard how they thought we could win the meet…if so and so wins this race, and this guy comes in second, we’ll score this many points, etc. It was a bit like watching MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki on Election Night doing his thing.
They did this before the 1990 Outdoor BQ’s, which would be a 2 day event, the first half being at our place. After day one, we had a 16.5 point lead, due in no small part to our future Captain Mike Panzini winning the shot put event with a 54 foot 4 inch throw.
The next day, however, we went up to Iona Prep (in New Rochelle, which was neither in Brooklyn or Queens now that I think of it) and Archbishop Molloy caught us, and won the BQ Championship.
The two weeks between the BQ’s and the City Championships were tough. We were all disappointed and the coaches were on edge. Molloy had won the Indoor BQ’s and City titles, and now it was looking like they would sweep all 4. I don’t even remember the coaches doing the projections the day before the meet.
The Cities were held at the old Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island. (Now called Icahn Stadium, and completely refurbished) on May 26, 1990.
Now it’s not like there was a scoreboard where we could keep track of everything. We saw we had won a couple of races we hadn’t won at the BQ’s and had managed some extra, unexpected points in the javelin. Around 2:30 or so, the buzz was starting to build that we had pulled off the upset. When the officials confirmed it, we went bananas!
We went back to school in the vans and celebrated the victory. I’m thinking we took bottles of soda and sprayed them around the locker room in lieu of champagne, I’m not quite sure but it was something along those lines. It was awesome.
A few years back, I remember reading Frank Gifford’s memoir about the 1958 NFL Championship game. One of the things I remember him talking about was when he was doing Monday Night Football, he would be flying all over the country. On some of those long flights, he would think about the guys he played with that day, both his Giants teammates and his Baltimore Colt opponents.
I found myself doing the same thing on long car rides or train rides. I at least had the advantage of social media if I was curious about an old teammate. But I really didn’t do a great job keeping in touch with many of the guys.
Fortunately, both coaches Carey and Devoti were there on Saturday, as were a few of my teammates. Shot put/discus thrower Brendan Maloney (who still had our 1990 Championship jacket, and more remarkably than that, it still fit him!) Pole-vaulter/Javelin thrower Joe Scarantino, and middle distance runner Alex Mendez, along with the aforementioned Hall of Fame sprinter Mike Hamilton. My first captain, Dave Sucic, and former fellow high jumper Andrew Corrado, who graduated the year before, were also there.
One of the other people to be inducted was Mr. O’Donell, who was the athletic director when I was there. The current athletic director, my friend Gerard O’Riordan, was part of the 1990 Soccer City Championships, so he was honored as well. Mr O’Donnell was introduced by my junior year math teacher Mr. Stampfel. I went over to talk to Mr. Stampfel after the ceremony, and he asked me if I thought he was a good math teacher. “You were an awesome teacher” I told him, “the fact that I still can’t do math was not due to your lack of trying.” What can I say? I’m a writer not a mathematician.
I told Coach Devoti a story I hadn’t told in years, and I never told him…. He and the late great Mr. Maher* were my sophomore year gym teachers. The day of the gym quarterly exam, I had been home sick with strep throat. The first day back after exam week I went up to Coach Devoti and asked if I could take the gym quarterly.
“Where were you during exam week?” He demanded to know.
“I don’t know, taking my exams?” I said something smart like that.
(The gym quarterly BTW, was a written test about basketball. They gave the gym quarterly independent of exam week. I knew basketball as well as I knew anything)
“Go find Mr. Maher and see if he’ll let you take it. If it was up to me you’d fail!”
I found Mr. Maher who gave me the test without any fuss, it took me about 10 seconds to do, and I handed it in. 100 on the test, 100 for the quarter in gym.
The next morning I was having breakfast with Danny Boland, and I was calling Devoti every 4 letter word I could think of. “He did something like that with me, Danny told me, “then he asked me if I wanted to join the track team.”
“I’d never join any team with him” I said
Later that day….
We were playing basketball in gym class and Devoti was the ref. I was taking the jump against Michael “Sunny” Chaplin who went on to play for University of Texas. Of course there were 10 guys behind me and nobody in front.
“Not one of you think I can win this tap?” I deadpanned
Devoti burst out laughing.
We played the game and I held my own against the school’s best player. Afterwards, Coach pulled me aside and asked if I was interested in joining the high jump team. After what happened the day before, I figured I’d tell him no. (Politely of course) But I surprised myself and said yes I would.
I don’t like tossing the word father-figure too much, because the father I have is pretty amazing in his own right, but Coach Devoti became my closest confidant and mentor the next two and a half years. I was so happy to see him on Saturday.
And with Coach Carey, I pulled what Letterman referred to as “a Kathie Lee”. I showed him Timmy’s cross country times. “He’s only a freshman and these are his times? That’s excellent! You keep him going!” He told Tara that he followed Nassau County track so he’d keep his eye out. He’s the expert, so that meant the world to me.
And I can’t talk about high school without mentioning a man I’ve spoken about on these pages many times. At 91 years young, Brother Robert Connolly is still going strong. Still sharp as a tack, still moving around well. Still the most brilliant person I’ve ever met. He showed Tara and I the new addition they put on to the cafeteria, a patio with a retractable roof. Brendan told Tara “There’s two things they didn’t have when Billy and I went here. This patio and girls.” (McClancy went co-ed 10 years ago)
And for an added bonus, I won one of the raffles. A basket filled with McClancy memorabilia, plus a bottle of wine that was made by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.
It was great to be back. A really special night.
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My original plan was to watch the Jets game, write up this blogpost and post it Sunday night. The debacle that was both our teams losses though, killed that plan.
FOOTBALL- Jet, Giant disasters….
I didn’t get to watch the Giants game but I was following the score at the bottom of the screen. Interestingly, there was a debate last week over the Giants-Lions game fit the definition of a trap game. That is-a game against a lesser opponent, when the next game you have is against a rival or a big time opponent. There was an argument that the Lions were better than advertised and therefore not an inferior enough opponent that the Giants would look past them and forward to their Thanksgiving Day showdown vs the Cowboys.
Well, we see how that turned out.
As for the game I did watch, the Jets vs. the Patriots, well, I’ve been reading and hearing about this being another edition of Bill Bellichick striking us in the heart once again. And that is total nonsense.
He had nothing to do with this one. The Jets lost because their playoff caliber defense couldn’t overcome their Pop Warner caliber offense. I have tried to be very patient with Zach Wilson, and I still believe he can be a really good quarterback in the NFL. But a game like Sunday’s makes it very hard to defend him. Yes, he threw a couple of balls that should have been caught, but he also threw a couple of balls that should have been picked off, only to be dropped by the Pats defense.
The game winning touchdown, scored on a punt return for crissakes, may have been aided by an illegal block to the back that wasn’t called (H/T to Joe Walsh and my sister Katie for pointing that out) but was mainly due to poor tackling, which also plagued the otherwise fantastic defense. And although there is a lot I like about Rob Saleh, I didn’t really like the play-calling towards the end of the game. I realize that when it’s late in a game and you are tied or trailing, you have to throw the ball. But with Wilson clearly not having it, and with a timeout still to use, I thought the Jets should have run the ball more. Michael Carter and James Robinson had a couple of nice runs there, and the goal was to get into field goal range. A run, followed by Wilson spiking the ball, I thought could have gotten them into FG range. I realize that’s a classic second guess, but hey, what do I know right?
The Jets have made so much progress this year. Most of us didn’t think they could win 6 games all season, let alone 6 by Thanksgiving. But this is the kind of loss that can set your progress back a few pegs. They still have road games against the Bills and Dolphins and while they have beaten each team already once this year, can you see them winning against either one now? The Dolphins actually have a functioning QB and the Bills have perhaps a top 5 QB in the league. The Jets could have been in first place after Sunday, instead they are in the basement. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see them climbing out of there again this season.
UPDATE-The Jets announced on Wednesday afternoon that Zach Wilson has been deactivated for Sunday’s game against the Bears. Mike White will get the start. This has as much to do with Wilson’s lackluster performance as it does with the fact that he answered “no” asked if he felt he let the defense down.
Hate to break it to ya Zach.
THE WORLD CUP- How Dry I Am?
The World Cup, usually held in the early summer, instead starts this week because it’s being played in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar and the summer heat would have been too much. As it is, it’s still plenty warm down there.
Unfortunately the fans attending the games will not be able to cool off with an ice cold beer.
FIFA announced last week that they along with the government of Qatar, reversed their decision to allow beer sales at the 8 stadiums where the World Cup was being played.
“Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA fan festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters.”
Budweiser, who is perhaps the biggest sponsor of the tournament, to the tune of $75 million, also now has an issue of what to do with all the beer they have already shipped to Qatar and now cannot sell.
UPDATE- Budweiser announced on Tuesday that all the beer originally sent to Qatar that will now not be sold there will instead be sent to whichever country wins the tournament. If ever there was an incentive to win! The US played to a 1-1 draw with Wales on Monday and now have to face mighty England on Friday. I’m guessing those Buds won’t be turning up on our shores, but hey, you never know.
There were about a million reasons why having Qatar host the World Cup was a bad idea, the aforementioned weather being one, a slew of human rights violations against women, migrants and the LGBT community topping the list, but having to sit through 90+ minutes of low scoring soccer without the aid of an alcoholic refreshment or two is just wrong.
As for the tournament so far, Saudi Arabia pulled off what is being called one of the biggest upsets in history with their 2-1 victory over Argentina on Tuesday morning. I don’t think it was that big of a deal, the Saudis practically had home field advantage and let’s be honest, a much higher payroll than Argentina had. And as Mike Breen used to say, the game was a lot closer than the final score indicated.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you’re off on Friday, be careful if you decide to go shopping. Hopefully much of the Black Friday violence in years past has come and gone.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great (rest of the) Week
*Tommy Maher may have been my all time favorite teacher. I spent most of the 2001 Hat Party with him reminiscing about our time at that school. We lost him in 2009, a loss that saddens me to this day.
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