Six things you need to know about the 2017-18 New Jersey high school basketball season
The 2017-18 high school basketball season in
The 2017-18 high school basketball season in
By SEAN BOCK
Longtime St. Anthony (N.J.) High School coach Bob Hurley won the 2017 Best Coach Award at this year’s ESPYs on Wednesday night.
“It’s really a great honor to be here tonight,” Hurley, who turn 70 July 31st, said in his acceptance speech. “Getting this award alongside all these iconic coaches, but even more specifically it’s a great honor to be representing all these great coaches.”
During his 44-year coaching career at St. Anthony’s, Hurley went 1,162-119 and captured 28 State Parochial titles and four national championships. In 2010, he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, becoming the second high school coach to be inducted.
Alex Rice, the 6-foot-2 Class of 2019 shooting guard and son of Monmouth coach King Rice, will transfer to Mater Dei next year following the closing of St. Anthony’s.
“I really get along with the coaching staff,” Alex Rice said.
Rice averaged 10 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists last season under Naismith Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley at St. Anthony’s. He will join six returners at Mater Dei, which went 25-4 last season, winning back-to-back Shore Conference championships.
“I am excited that Alexander Rice will attend Mater Dei Prep,” Mater Dei head coach Ben Gamble, Hurley’s longtime former lieutenant at St. Anthony’s, told ZAGSBLOG.
“The resurgence of the program and adding a very good young player with a high IQ will make us a state contender. Alexander will join a returning backcourt of Kenny Jones, Kyle Cardeci and Yasin Prelaw. It’s a great problem to have. He also arrives as an Honor Student.”
Ithiel Horton, a 6-foot-2 Class of 2018 guard, will transfer to Roselle Catholic with the closing of St. Anthony’s this spring, he told ZAGSBLOG.
“Yes sir,” the Union, N.J., native said by text, adding that he made the move because of a “national schedule, maximum exposure and the chance to play under a great staff that will be with you for the rest of your life.”
Under head coach Dave Boff, Roselle Catholic has won two New Jersey Tournament of Championships titles in the last five years (2013 and ’15) and produced a slew of Division 1 products, including Isaiah Briscoe (Kentucky), Tyler Roberson (Syracuse) and Chris Silva (South Carolina).
It didn’t take Bob Hurley long to figure out his next move.
After the heartbreaking closure earlier this month of St. Anthony’s, the school with which he was synonymous for more than 40 years, Hurley plans to launch the “Hurley Family Foundation” this fall in Jersey City, he told ZAGSBLOG. He estimates the co-educational program will open with between 100-200 kids ages 7-17.
“We will set up a not-for-profit where I would just rent the gym we previously played games in, CERC, and we would rent it for the same hours during the year that St. Anthony’s had rented it and just open it up, start with 7-year-olds and have 7-year-olds in,” he said. “The Boys Club would help me transport kids down there, work with them and work with different age groups.
“[We would] do a preseason for high schools where guys could work out before the high school season and then during the winter have leagues for younger kids. All house-league stuff. We’re not aspiring to have travel teams, we just want to have the house leagues and introduce kids to basketball at an early age. And give them a place where they could play on a year-round basis.”
