Thanks, gents. IR, that was one heck of a HS team you played

for and you and your teammates would have broken me in half during HS, with my 135 pounds of raw fury. I used to be able to throw a football pretty well and several ND players commented that they couldn't believe I didn't play QB in HS. However, if they saw a picture of me in HS they would have immediately understood why. I later managed to gain 50 pounds freshman year by hitting the dining hall and food sales (Mmmm Sarge's pizza....), as well as hitting the Rock weight room and Bball or FB with my roommates constantly). But even then, the guys in your HS league still probably would have broken me in half. Our HS football league was located several planes lower than yours. I watched a HS game while on break a couple years after I got to ND and "our" poor QB could barely reach the WR on a quick out and it was a wounded duck. We sucked at sports generally, although we rocked at wrestling and soccer due to the paisans who lived in the very Italian Raritan section of our school system - home of the Bongiovi - aka "Bon Jovi" as morphed by one descendant - family, USMC Medal of Honor winner John Basilone, etc. Our field and fieldhouse was named for John Basilone and he deserved better.

Actually, our basketball team got really good a couple years after I graduated and won the state championship in 1987. It didn't hurt that they had the Miller brothers (Lance and David) who went on to play at Villanova, as well as Eric Murdock who became an All-Big East star at Providence before being taken in the 1st round pick by the Bucks. The star coach of the local Catholic school, Immaculata (Theo Riddick later played there) taught at our HS back then but coached Bball across the highway at Immaculata. That is until Eric and the Miller Brothers were freshmen and the coach was smart enough to come back to coach our school. (I spotted Eric at the gym in our old home town earlier this year and said hello to him. The fact that he was wearing a Providence shirt helped. He still looks like he could play. Cool guy.)

By contrast, during my time just a few years earlier, the star players knew to go elsewhere. A kid I knew in middle school (who helped relegate me to the B team in basketball) is an example. Terry Bross ended up going to HS elsewhere, then started at Center for a St. Johns Final Four team and then played in the Mets system before briefly pitching in the majors for the Mets and Giants in the early 90s.... But I digress.

And those are some great guys you are referring to that went from your HS to ND. I remember my brother back in the day getting a kick out of pronouncing your cousins' name with gusto. Who knew I'd be friends with their cousin one day. Do I remember correctly that your cousin's dad played on the Gold Medal Olympic team with Bill Russell and KC Jones, among others?

P.S. A website re our HS's only glory days is linked. Another tangent: I just looked at the team photo and now remember that one of the assistant coaches of that Championship team was Mr. Fischer, one of my favorite HS teachers. Still remember his class on "20th Century Asia" in which he spent a lot of time sharing his photos and stories about living in India for a while. A really cool laid back dude. One day in August 1984, when my mom, hometown girlfriend, and I were driving on Rt. 31 in Roseland on or about my first day at ND as a frosh, we heard someone honking wildly at us and waving to get our attention. It was Mr. Fischer. He had been driving back across country and just happened to stop at the ND exit at that moment to get gas when he saw us driving next to him. We had him follow us back to campus and he came up to my dorm room in Grace and we caught up a bit. I thanked him for helping me get there. Good times. What are the odds?

PPS: I also just noticed from the team photo that Tony Iovine was on 1987 bball team. He would later enroll at ND as a regular student. Never knew who you were going up against in pick up games at ND. (I once got my ass kicked in a Grace Hall inter-section intramural bball game by a guy who I learned soon leaned was voted "Mr. Colorado" in basketball but just wanted to be a regular student at ND) Likewise, Tony was just another ND student who played on a state Championship team. Years later, he was one of the four or five of us Bridgewater-Raritan HS West/ND guys who were out at the bar together when the dude who went to Delbarton/Georgetown became utterly perplexed and dismayed when he realized that 4 or 5 guys from a public high school got into ND without a similar elite private school education. ("Wait, wait, you went to a public high school too?!") What a pretentious douche.

Click here for link at http://www.raritan-online.com/b87-basketball.htm