Prep's Bullock commits to Virginia Tech

St. Peter's Prep quarterback Tahjamell Bullock in action last season at Caven Point Cochrane Stadium

A little more than three years ago, when Tahjamell Bullock was thinking about the high school that he wanted to attend and play football at, he didn’t hesitate in choosing St. Peter’s Prep.

After all, Prep had sent players like Brandon Wimbush (Notre Dame), Johnathan Lewis (Rutgers) and Maasai Maynor (Navy) to major college football. Even as an eighth grader, Bullock had Prep’s strong quarterback history planted firmly in his mind.

“I knew that Prep had a lineage of great quarterbacks,” Bullock said. “In my mind, I knew then that I wanted to get the chance to play big-time college football. The goal was always to go (NCAA) Division 1 on a scholarship.”

After a brilliant junior year for the Marauders, throwing for 2,260 yards and 28 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, while rushing for an additional 461 yards and scored five TDs on his own, Bullock collected his fair share of big-time college scholarship offers.

It didn’t hurt that Bullock led the Marauders to an 11-1 record and the NJSIAA Non-Public Group 4 state championship and the No. 1-ranking overall in the state of New Jersey.

So as the recruitment of Bullock continued throughout the winter and spring – and even through the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic shut down everything else in the sports world – it did not deter the colleges from pursuing Bullock.

Bullock narrowed down his choices to three – Rutgers, UCLA and Virginia Tech.

In the end, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Bullock decided to go to the school that best fit his football and academic needs. On Wednesday, Bullock gave a verbal commitment to Virginia Tech and will sign a national letter of intent to attend the Blacksburg, Va. school when the first signing period begins in December.

Bullock said that he was a tough decision, but said that Virginia Tech won out for a handful of reasons.

“I always felt like I had built a good relationship with the coaching staff,” Bullock said. “I had a good visit with Coach (Justin) Fuente and his staff when I visited Blacksburg. I had a good tour of the campus. I enjoyed my visit there and met some of the players. Academically, it’s the best fit for me.”

Bullock plans on majoring in architectural and constructional engineering.

From a football standpoint, the Hokies’ offensive scheme is one that totally fits Bullock’s playing style of passing, running and creating plays that might have broken down in coverage with his fleet feet.

It was his running ability that helped the Marauders come from behind to defeat St. Augustine Prep in the sectional semifinals, scoring two touchdowns in the final three minutes to win 35-28 (a game where Bullock threw four TD passes and scored the last one with only seconds remaining) and to win 21-14 against Don Bosco Prep in the state championship game at MetLife Stadium last December. Bullock scored the game-winning touchdown in the state title game as well, a 5-yard scamper in the closing minutes.

The Virginia Tech run-pass option offense is one that sent former Hokie signal callers like Tyrod Taylor, Sean Glennon, Logan Thomas and of course Michael Vick to the National Football League after their playing days in Blacksburg were done.

“They do go for quarterbacks that are dual threats,” Bullock said. “They’re going to know how to utilize my talents.”

Now that the recruitment is over, Bullock can focus on the matters at hand, namely trying to be the first Prep team to ever repeat as state champions. With a plethora of talented players returning, the Marauders should be a strong favorite to be among the state’s best teams again in 2020 – provided that there is a football season come fall.

“No doubt, it was our goal last year and we got it done,” Bullock said. “It’s going to be the goal again this year. We all want to win again. I want to have fun with my guys.”

Bullock was asked if he will be the focus of all the opposition come September.

“I guess you can say I’ll have the bulls’ eye on me,” Bullock said. “I think everyone wants to win a championship We all embraced it last year and we all want to focus on it again for this upcoming season. We have a great group coming back. We can’t be phased about what people are saying about us.”

St. Peter’s Prep head coach Rich Hansen believes that Bullock made a wise decision.

“I think it’s a great fit for Tahj,” Hansen said. “They’ve been with him the whole time. The offense s very similar and academically it’s a top school. The proximity of the school to his home so his parents and family can come to see him play meant a lot. I think it’s what Tahj deserves. It’s the whole package for him at Virginia Tech. You couldn’t ask for a better fit for him.”

Hansen just loves what Bullock brings to the table.

“He’s an outstanding leader,” Hansen said. “He’s a very humble kid. He exemplifies what we try to have in our program. He now has his dreams set, his goals set. He’s just a tremendous kid. He’s what every kid should aspire to be in all ways, on and off the field.”

Bullock is ready for his next challenge.

“My recruitment was a blessing,” Bullock said. “I was blessed to be in contact with all those schools and to narrow it down to three good schools. I have a good relationship with (Rutgers head) Coach (Greg) Schiano. Coach (Chip) Kelly at UCLA contacted me all the time. But now that it’s Virginia Tech, I have that weight off my shoulders. I can concentrate on football, go out and have some fun with my teammates. I made the decision that was the best for me. I had to think about the life after football aspect.”

When the idea of the NFL was floated out to Bullock, he stopped the reporter in his tracks.

“Now, let’s not get too crazy here,” Bullock said. “I’m just going to take this one day at a time.”

For now, Bullock is headed to Blacksburg. What happens after that remains to be seen.

Gibbs family: A heartfelt tale of father and son

Shyquan Gibbs’ career as a college basketball player came to an end in March, when the talented point guard played in his school record-setting 125^th straight game for the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Gibbs started the last 108 of those consecutive games for the Highlanders. He scored 818 points, collected 246 assists and added 109 steals during his tenure at the Newark school.

More importantly, Shyquan’s academic record is impeccable. Gibbs was the valedictorian of the St. Anthony High School Class of 2016, was a three-time member of the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic team and twice was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America District team. Gibbs earned his degree in business administration in just three years at NJIT and is currently working toward a Master’s degree.

That was enough to make his father Shelton very proud.

You see, Shelton Gibbs was a college basketball standout in his own right. He went from Snyder High School in Jersey City, where he played with some of the greatest players in the history of the school, people like Rafael Addison, who had a great career at Syracuse and ended up in the NBA and the late Clarence “Boo-Bee” Richardson, whose legend just grew and grew during his high school days, especially when he shattered a backboard with a ferocious dunk before the late Darryl Dawkins earned a reputation for bringing down baskets in the NBA.

After Shelton Gibbs graduated from Snyder, he headed up north on Kennedy Boulevard, where he landed at St. Peter’s College. Along the way, Shelton never let a speech impediment -- a pronounced stutter -- stop him from his basketball hopes and dreams.

There might have been an educator could have relegated Shelton at an early age to special education classes because of his troubles speaking. Such a determination would have put a stranglehold on Gibbs’ progress in the educational system.

Shelton Gibbs would have none of that. He totally overcame his personal strife to become a college student/athlete with no restrictions whatsoever.

The elder Gibbs downright flourished at “Harvard on the Boulevard,” where he played from 1981 through 1985. When Gibbs graduated from SPC in 1985, he had helped the transformation of the Peacocks into a power in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Under the guidance of the late coach Bob Dukiet, Shelton Gibbs scored 1,688 points in his career, averaging close to 16 points per contest. Gibbs’ point total was the school record at the time and remains the No. 4 scoring total in school history, a mark that has now been obliterated by Keydren “Kee-Kee” Clark’s total of 3,058.

After graduating from St. Peter’s in 1985, Gibbs became a Hudson County probation officer and he became an assistant basketball coach at his alma mater of Snyder. He eventually became the head coach at Snyder and has remained there for the last 15 seasons.

So basketball has been a huge part of the Gibbs family for a long time. Gibbs’ older son, also named Shelton, played at St. Anthony and was on the team in 2004 that went undefeated (32-0) en route to the ninth of St. Anthony’s unprecedented 14 NJSIAA Tournament of Champions titles.

Basketball was the blood that flowed through the Gibbs’ collective veins, Shelton and his boys. It was always part of the boys’ lives.

 Shyquan Gibbs (left) and Shelton Gibbs

“Not everyone was lucky enough to have that for a family,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “Having my Dad around was good enough for me for sure. My Dad would take me to the gym with him at Snyder when I was a little boy and he would work with me after hours. He would stay in the gym with me, working on my game.”

When he became old enough, Shyquan started to play at the Jersey City Boys and Girls Club, where he was under the guidance of Robert Cole, the father of R.J. Cole, who was a star at St. Anthony and later Howard University. After sitting out a year due to transfer rules, R.J. Cole is set to play this upcoming season for Danny Hurley at UConn.

Having role models like his older brother of 12 years, his father and Coach Cole, Shyquan was definitely well on the road to success.

“They definitely put so much discipline in my life,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “They established my work ethic. I knew I had to work hard for everything in life. It was great having that in the house. I always had two people to look up to at home. My Dad and my brother were great role models and had a great impact on me.”

Through it all, Shelton Gibbs mentored his son, nurtured him and sent him down the proper path.

But Shelton believes a lot of Shyquan’s development – both on and off the court -- came from within.

“It has always been a blessing to watch him grow,” Shelton Gibbs said of Shyquan. “He always listened to me and listened to his coaches. When I watched him, it was almost like me being reborn again. It’s like we turned back the hands of time. It reminds me of playing in front of my Mom and Dad.”

Shyquan Gibbs has only seen tapes of his father in action for the Peacocks.

“For sure, growing up, people would always tell me stories about my Dad,” Shyquan said. “But besides being a great player, I’d have people tell me how, as a probation officer, my Dad changed their lives, that he helped to shape their lives for the better.”

As he developed as a player and learned about life, Shyquan Gibbs had plenty of guidance at home.

“Those are the ones I looked up to,” Gibbs said of his father and brother. “They were my pillars. They both wanted me to be the best in the family. Yes, it was a blessing. I think the most important life lesson my Dad taught me was to be a good person. He said that being a good person could go a long way in life. He taught me to always treat people with respect. That was the best piece of advice he gave me.”

And there was no question where Shyquan Gibbs would go to high school.

“I think I knew since I was a little kid that I was going to go to St. Anthony’s like my brother did,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “So getting to play for Coach (Bob) Hurley (the Naismith Hall of Famer) wasn’t a culture shock for me. I had structure in my life from my Dad and Coach Cole, so getting Coach Hurley to teach me just kept me on the straight and narrow. Both my Dad and Coach Hurley are very similar in that aspect.”

And the Hall of Famer paid Shyquan the ultimate compliment.

“He said that I was the only one that he never kicked out of practice,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “I’ll take that distinction.”

Shyquan said that playing for Hurley was the ultimate preparation for college basketball. After all, Hurley helped to mold so many guards during his nearly five decades at St. Anthony, including his own two sons Bobby, the Duke All-American now coaching at Arizona State, and Danny, who played at Seton Hall and is now the head coach at UConn.

“I think dealing with that intensity that comes for playing for Coach Hurley got me ready to play at a Division I program,” Shyquan said.

Incredibly, those four years at NJIT came to a close in March. The time flew by. From a personal standpoint, I was privileged to serve as the public address announcer for almost every one of Shyquan’s home games at NJIT. Every game started with a fist bump between player and announcer, a sign that Jersey City was in the house at the tremendously magnificent $110 million Wellness and Events Center.

“Time waits for no man,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “It will have a different feel not being on the court every day next season.”

But Gibbs will have a Master’s degree in business next month. Maybe the time has come for the young man to put his education to work and not his basketball skills.

“Eventually the ball had to stop bouncing,” Shyquan said.

“He’s the first in the family with a Master’s,” Shelton Gibbs said. “His brother and sister (Shellyse, who played basketball at McNair Academic) have degrees. Shyquan has his Master’s. It’s been a blessing to watch him play. It’s funny, when Shyquan and Shelton played for St. Anthony’s, I tried to get to every game, but I ran back and forth between games and my games. And I was the only Dad who had two sons who had 32-0 records.”

Truer words were never spoken, because even Hurley’s sons couldn’t lay claim to that.

“I’m proud of him because he was able to get his work done and then play basketball,” Shelton Gibbs said. “He knew education came first. He took a lot of pride in getting good grades. Ever since he was in grammar school, he was determined to do well.”

And the pride just oozes sweetly out of Shelton Gibbs’ lips, out of a mouth that sometimes struggles to communicate his feelings.

“He’s just a great kid,” Shelton Gibbs said. “He’s excelled and keeps excelling. He’s very humble and very respectful. And I’m lucky to have him as my son.”

And the two will celebrate this weekend, because after all, it’s Father’s Day and this will be Shelton Gibbs’ day for raising such an incredible young man, using basketball as a guiding light.

Remembering two good men: Kevin Hennessey and Mark Scheurer

During the time of the horrific coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the terrifying civil unrest that has been caused by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I wanted to pay tribute to two men who lost their lives in the past week, in an untimely fashion considering Father’s Day is this coming Sunday – and both men featured here were fathers, loving and caring fathers at that.

In his heyday, Kevin Hennessey was an outstanding athlete, a track and field and cross country superstar at St. Aloysius High School and later Seton Hall University.

Hennessey’s cross country career ended in the 1959 season with a second place in the entire state of New Jersey, leading the Kardinals to the Jersey City and Hudson County championships.

But he was just getting started. During both the indoor and outdoor track seasons in 1960, Hennessey won the Hudson County and NJSIAA Parochial C championship in the 880-yard run, setting new county and state sectional records along the way.

Hennessey also won the prestigious All Hallows Invitational Mile and the even more impressive Eastern States Invitational Mile, defeating a top-flight national field in the process.

Because of his efforts, Hennessey was awarded the Hudson County Track Athlete of the Year, the Catholic Advocate Athlete of the Year and the New Jersey Track Coaches Association Athlete of the Year. That’s quite an array.

Article written about the late Kevin Hennessey by Fred Cranwell of the Jersey Journal in 1960

Hennessey took his immense athletic talents to Seton Hall University and won the famed Metropolitan Mile during his sophomore year. He won the 1,000-meter run as a junior and won the mile as a senior. Hennessey helped the Pirates win the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Championship in cross country. He was also part of the Seton Hall two-mile relay that won both the IC4A and National Championship in 1964.

Hennessey is a member of the Seton Hall University, the Hudson County Track Coaches Association and the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame, earning induction in 2004.

Kevin Hennessey was tremendously proud of his athletic accomplishments. He was a familiar face at several Hudson County cross country and track meets and was an avid supporter of the Hudson County Track Coaches Association, annually attending the HCTCA’s Awards Banquet and Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies.

His son, also named Kevin, who is the owner of the O’Leary’s Publik House on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and was also a basketball player at St. Peter’s Prep and St. Peter’s College before becoming a Jersey City firefighter.

The younger Kevin Hennessey obviously never saw his father run.

“But I know what I’ve heard about him,” Hennessey said. “I guess he was pretty good. And he let us know how good because he talked about it all the time. I heard it enough times to gather that he was one of the best.”

The elder Kevin Hennessey passed away Monday at the age of 78 after battling a series of medical issues in the past year.

“But he had a hell of a run,” Kevin Hennessey said. “He was a tough city kid who had to battle a speech impediment as a young kid.”

The elder Kevin Hennessey was born with a cleft palate and had to learn to talk with it.

“People made fun of him,” Kevin Hennessey said of his dad. “He was taunted and teased a lot when he was a kid.”

So Hennessey overcame his speech impediment and let his fleet feet do the talking.

The younger Hennessey reflected on what kind of a father he was to his four children, sons Jeffrey, Mark and Kevin and daughter Linda.

“He spent a lot of time with us growing up,” Kevin Hennessey said. “He did a lot of things with us. But he was as competitive as anything. He just wanted to compete in sports and in life. He was tough on me, but I think he was tougher on the older ones. They just wore him out. I would get over on him, so I got it a little easier.”

The late Kevin Hennessey (center), with sons Jeffrey (left), Mark (right) and Kevin (front)

A salesman of floor products for a living, the elder Kevin Hennessey was also a doting grandfather to his several grandchildren and would brag about each and every one.

“He left an impression everywhere he went,” Kevin Hennessey said.

From a personal standpoint, Kevin Hennessey became a good friend to me. We would spend a lot of time talking about the old days during a beer or two at the Park Tavern on West Side Avenue, my home away from home for over 40 years. He gave me a history lesson or two over the years and even made the familiar phone call to me when he didn’t agree with something I wrote. Believe me, there were plenty of those calls.

But Kevin (and he made sure I called him Kevin and not Mr. Hennessey) was always more helpful than a hindrance. He was a walking encyclopedia of sports knowledge, especially track and field. Perhaps the legendary Ed Grant is the only person alive who knew more about Hudson County track and field history than Kevin – and for that alone, he will be so sorely missed.

However, I will miss the countless talks, where he would get so very close to my face to make sure a point was driven home. I’ll miss his opinionate take – a trait that was passed on to his sons. I’ll miss laughter, the generosity and the hearty handshakes and hugs.

Perhaps it was only fitting that after three months of being totally shut closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, O’Leary’s Publik House was able to serve customers outdoors Monday on tables in the parking lot with proper social distancing. Just three hours after the first lunch was served Monday outdoors, Kevin Hennessey passed away.

“Maybe that was his way of saying that he was good to go,” Hennessey said. “It was time for us to get up and get running again. When he died, I thought about it and how fitting it was.”

It certainly was.

The other man who died last week was Mark Scheurer, who wasn’t nearly as athletic as Kevin Hennessey, but perhaps thought he was.

As it turns out, Scheurer was indeed an excellent football and basketball player at St. Peter's Prep during his heyday, one of the only people to play for both the legendary football coach Bill Cochrane and the legendary basketball coach Jerry Halligan.

Mark was a character, someone who I got to know first from the Park Tavern, where he would come to visit his friend from St. Peter’s College, the late Larry McGuirk, who was the weeknight bartender at the Park Tavern for two decades. Mark was a professor at St. Peter’s, as well as other local colleges like Ramapo College and Hudson County Community College.

Mark fashioned himself on being quite an athlete, first as a basketball player, but later in life, as a runner. In fact, Mark maintained that he was in training for the Irish National Olympic Track Team under his pseudonym Pontiac Maguire, a name that he used to write poetry, sonnets and articles. In fact, Mark used to write poetry and present his poems to friends and relatives as gifts.

I would constantly see Mark running around Lincoln Park and he would constantly bellow, “I’m in training, Haguey, I’m in training.”

He truly was a character, one of a kind, a brilliant man with a keen mind. He certainly knew a ton about politics, sports and life. His chats were also memorable – either for good reasons or questionable. But Mark made his presence felt, both at St. Peter’s College and at the Park Tavern.

And the athletic legacy lives on, because his young granddaughter, Maddie Branigan, was a freshman basketball standout for St. Dominic Academy last season and an All-Area honoree from Jim Hague Sports in early March. Maddie averaged 15 points and nine rebounds per game for the Blue Devils last season and certainly has a very bright future.

Two very memorable people with two lasting legacies. May they both rest in peace.

College hoop coaches come together for good cause

Daniel Marks is a Jersey boy, born and raised in Basking Ridge, a proud member of the Ridge High School Class of 2009.

Over the last six years, Marks has held many jobs with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA, most recently as the Manager of Prospect Information. It’s a pretty term for a talent scout, a guy who has worked his way up the Bucks’ organizational food chain. Marks has watched the Bucks go from a 15-win team when he started to one of the best teams in the league now.

Of course, it helped the Bucks that they had the great fortune of drafting Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 15^th pick overall in the 2013 NBA Draft. Antetokounmpo is the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and was a strong contender for his second straight MVP crown before the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a crashing halt in mid-March.

“My first year was Giannis’ first year,” Marks said. “I say that I can be as equally responsible to the team’s turnaround. It has been really cool to be part of the Bucks and see the growth of the team, becoming a contender. When I first got to Milwaukee, I couldn’t find where you’d buy a T-shirt. It’s been neat to see the growth both on and off the floor.”

Even though Marks now resides in Milwaukee, he always wants to do something good for his native New Jersey.

Recently, Marks came up with an idea that stemmed from his journeys around the country, scouting for possible talent that the Bucks could either draft or sign.

“I was in a hotel and saw all the shampoo and soaps and toiletries that go unused,” Marks said. “I saw a Tweet from a sportswriter who was collecting those things and it gave me the idea that those unused items could go to good use.”

Marks thought that the unused toiletries could go to good use with the homeless in Newark. He then started the initiative he dubbed “Scouting and Scavenging,” an idea that officially kicked off in January.

“We started collecting from January through mid-March,” Marks said. “Then the coronavirus hit. But we have a couple of hotels that have donated.”

Marks also started a fundraiser on a GoFundMe page and raised over $2,000 to purchases toiletry kits, which put soap, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, mouthwash, toothpaste and toothbrushes in Ziplock bags. He also collected some small non-perishable foods, like cookies, cereal and crackers.

At first, Marks was putting each kit together with the help of his father Bill, mother Ellen and sister Ilana. But the supplies that were coming in were just too vast for a four-person crew.

So Marks reached out to the community that he knows best – namely the basketball community.

FDU head men's basketball coach Greg Herenda (left) and 

Rutgers head men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell at the organizing drive

Marks sent e-mails to every college basketball coach in the state and asked for a little bit of help. “Scouting and Scavengers” needed some good old-fashioned teamwork.

“No question, I wanted to help out in any way I could,” said Joe Loughran, the veteran head men’s basketball coach at Rutgers-Newark, a coach who gets to see a lot of the homeless people that dwell in areas around the campus. “I wanted to help out in a town where I’ve worked the last 19 years. I was impressed with David’s mission and wanted to be a part of it.”

So did Tony Bozzella, the head women’s basketball coach at nearby Seton Hall.

“It was a great idea,” Bozzella said. “All year long, we compete against each other. Now we’re united for a great cause. You don’t realize how many times you go to a hotel and you don’t use the shampoo and it gets thrown out. It was collected as a team and we put them into bags as a team. It was really incredible to see all the boxes of toiletries that had to be sorted out. I couldn’t believe it. It was so organized.”

Greg Herenda, the head men’s basketball coach at Fairleigh Dickinson, also volunteered right away when he received the email.

Then Herenda remembered one thing: Wednesday, June 10 was Greg and Jill Herenda’s 25^th wedding anniversary.

“Initially, I told Dan that I couldn’t make it, because it was my anniversary,” Herenda said. “But Jill said, ‘You have to do that.’ She’s incredible. She’s with me in all our charitable events.”

Herenda also enjoyed himself working the event. He was paired with the Rutgers University head men’s coach Steve Pikiell, putting bags together.

The collection of New Jersey college basketball coaches are collecting goods for the needy of Newark

“Dan did a great job organizing everything,” Herenda said. “We were like a machine. It was great, because I saw guys I haven’t seen in a long time. It was great working with other coaches.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also on hand, putting kits together.

The Brick City Peace Collective and Hello Fresh have been collecting goods for the needy every Wednesday at the JFK Center in Newark, so the Scouting and Scavenging group joined forces to have the day of a lifetime. Hello Fresh provides more than 500,000 meals to the needy of Newark every year.

There was also fresh produce and fruits that were bagged up as well, courtesy of Hello Fresh and Table to Table.

The Brick City Peace Collective was established by Mayor Baraka last year. How fitting was it that there was a group of peaceful people working together to help the needy.

“Given what’s going on in the county and what happened in 1968 with the riots in Newark, this was refreshing,” Marks said. “We had a good turnout. The response was impressive.”

Some of the other coaches involved were Princeton head men’s coach Mitch Henderson and women’s head coach Carla Berube; NJIT head women’s coach Mike Lane; Tony Skinn and Duane Woodward, assistant men’s coaches at Seton Hall; Jeff Rafferty, assistant coach at NJIT; Rick Callahan and Jamal Meeks, assistant men’s coaches at Monmouth; Lauren DeFalco, assistant women’s coach at Seton Hall and Matt Loughlin, the radio voice of the New Jersey Devils. Yes, that’s hockey, but Loughlin is great donating his time for charity causes.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (left) and Scouting and Savangers' director Daniel Marks (right)

“The turnout was tremendous,” Marks said. “It was definitely more than I expected. We wanted to keep everything positive and we did.”

Marks gave a special thanks to Dawn Haynes from the Newark Board of Education.

The coaches all enjoyed themselves.

“It was very rewarding,” Loughlin said. “I know Coach Herenda and Coach Pikiell forever, so it was good to see them. We were giving back to the city that I work in.”

“Newark is our city, our community,” Bozzella said. “This has an impact on all of our neighbors. We’re going to go back and help again.”

“I think I’m going to bring my team and go back,” Herenda said. “I can’t thank Dan enough for including me in it. It was a great event and a good cause.”

Needless to say, Marks was happy.

“It just picked up some steam from where we started in January,” Marks said. “I thought it was going to be hard when COVID-19 hit. But I had faith and it turned out pretty cool.”

After getting spurned by Rutgers, Barringer's Wise signs with UMass

Zamar Wise won’t exactly say that it was his dream to play football at Rutgers University, but he was elated about the opportunity when the Newark native and Barringer High School standout received a scholarship offer to play for the Scarlet Knights three years ago.

Wise received the offer from then-Rutgers head coach Chris Ash and offensive coordinator and quarterback coach John McNulty.

“I was pretty excited,” Wise said of the Rutgers offer. “I knew that if I stayed home, I would get more support from family and friends. I’d rather play at home in my home state. I thought everything was perfect. Rutgers was going to be my home.”

Wise was an electrifying player at Barringer, a talented and diversified kid who lined up as a quarterback, wide receiver, safety and a punt and kick returner for the Bears. Wise was blessed with a cannon for an arm, the ability to throw the ball 75 yards effortlessly. He also flourishes in plays outside of the pocket, making either the right pass or run at the last minute. His decision-

making ability is among the best witnessed by a high school quarterback in recent memory.

Former Barringer quarterback Zamar Wise

In fact, even though he was only a sophomore at Barringer, Wise was so certain that he was headed to Piscataway that he told all other prospective recruiters that he was going to Rutgers. Wise had received offers from Maryland and Temple, among others.

Dwayne Williams, the former Bayonne High School All-State player who went on to play at the University of Iowa, was hired by the Newark Board of Education to become the new head football coach at Barringer.

Williams had spent several years as the head coach of Schlagle High School in Kansas City, after serving as the head coach at Marist in Bayonne and before that a long-time assistant coach at Bayonne.

Williams heard of Wise when he took the job in 2018, but had no idea how great of a player the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Wise really was.

“I didn’t know the kind of impact player he was,” Williams said. “I didn’t even watch film of Zamar. I was actually still working in Kansas City and I got a call from coaches from North Carolina and North Carolina State. Then I looked at the film and I was amazed.”

Williams had a long-standing relationship with Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, who was an assistant coach at Iowa when Williams played there.

“Coach Snyder told me that Zamar was a special player,” Williams said. “That told me how good Zamar was.”

And then Williams developed a close relationship with Wise.

“I found out how great of a guy Zamar is,” Williams said. “I also saw the loyalty he had to Barringer and the loyalty he had to the state of New Jersey. It’s why he chose Rutgers.”

“Since my freshman year, it was all about Rutgers,” Wise said.

So it was a done deal. Wise, the brilliant do-everything signal caller for Barringer, who had 11 touchdowns passing and six rushing in his first four varsity games as a freshman, was headed to Piscataway. Or so it seemed.

A lot of things transpired from the time Wise gave Rutgers his verbal commitment in 2017.

First and foremost, his Newark home burned down, so he was shuttling back and forth from his father’s residence in North Carolina back home to Newark. Because he missed time from school, Wise didn’t have the core curriculum requirements from the NCAA Clearinghouse in order to play right away as a freshman in the fall of 2020. So Wise had to take extra classes, as well as his regular classes, in order to get his paperwork in line.

With that in mind, Wise headed to Milford Academy, a New York preparatory school in order to get his academia in line while playing football.

“It was a good experience for me at Milford,” Wise said. “I’m glad I went. It wasn’t the kind of offense I was used to running, so they moved to me to wide receiver, but I’m a quarterback. I thought that I wanted to play no matter what, so I went along with the move.”

At the same time in Piscataway, Ash was fired as the head coach of the Scarlet Knights, replaced on the interim basis by Nunzio Campanile and eventually replaced by Greg Schiano, the storied former head man on the Banks of the Old Raritan.

Wise got all of his paperwork with the NCAA Clearinghouse taken care of before the NCAA signing day in February.

But before he had the Rutgers National Letter of Intent in his hands, Wise received a series of messages on Twitter that the offer to Wise was no longer on the table.

“He was told that they were going to go in another direction,” Williams said.

Wise never spoke to Schiano at all. 

“After going through everything to get there, I had nothing," Wise said. "I never spoke with Coach Schiano. I tried to speak with him, but I was told he was too busy.”

Wise said he never got a real reason why the scholarship offer was rescinded. The timing couldn’t have been worse. After all, he was already at a college prep school. 

“I was really stressing myself out,” Wise said. “I was really thinking about not playing. I really wanted to stay home.”

Zamar Wise with Barringer head coach Dwayne Williams

Anyway, Wise was left holding the bag, a satchel that did not include a scholarship.

But once word got out – thanks to diligence and contacts Williams made through the years – that Wise was back in the open market, the offers started to come in. Wise received firm scholarship offers from Central Michigan, Hawaii and Temple. The University of Kansas and Tulsa got in late to the Wise recruiting parade, but still made a last ditch offer.

Finally, it came down to a case of loyalty – just like what Zamar Wise is all about.

When Walt Bell was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland in 2017, he was the very first coach to offer a scholarship to Wise when he was a freshman. Bell was recently hired as the new head coach at the University of Massachusetts. The new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at UMass is a man named Angelo Mirando. Williams knew Mirando from his days as QB coach at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, when Williams was at Schlagle.

“Therefore by the grace of God,” Williams said. “It was karma.”

Bell and Mirando liked what they saw in Wise, the pure athleticism, the ability to run and throw. That’s the name of the game in football these days. It’s been proven at places like Oklahoma, which produced two Heisman Trophy winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray and almost had a third in Jalen Hurts.

A quick glance around NFL rosters and you’ll find people like Patrick Mahomes of the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, Deshawn Watson of the Houston Texans, not to mention Mayfield (Cleveland Browns), Murray (Arizona Cardinals) and reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens.

“That’s my guy,” Wise said of Jackson.

Wise has been working diligently with respected quarterback trainer Lamar McKnight, who has a stable of 75 prospective signal callers nestled in his resume. McKnight believes that Wise has the talent to make it big time in college football.

“I’d say he’s a lot like Pat White (the former West Virginia quarterback),” McKnight said. “Zamar has that ‘It’ factor. He can do it all. He’s electrifying. He’s a game changer. He will shine in college.”

So last week, Wise put his signature on the national letter of intent he received from UMass. If the pandemic subsides, then Wise is ready to jump right into contention for the starting QB spot with the Minutemen in the fall.

“I’m ready to go,” Wise said. “It’s a new chapter in my life. I feel like I can make a major impact.”

McKnight, who also doubles as the offensive coordinator at Union City High School, likes Wise’s choice.

“I like the fact he’s going to UMass,” McKnight said. “It’s the kind of offense that he can thrive with. I think it’s a great opportunity. He’s going to get a chance to prove himself. I’m excited for him.”

Wise will major in sports management in Amherst. UMass has one of the top sports management programs in the nation.

Wise said that he wanted to thank everyone in his hometown of Newark that helped him along the way.

“I want to thank everyone in Newark who helped me out,” Wise said. “I wouldn’t have made it without them.”

And as for Williams?

“If he didn’t do what he did, I’d probably headed to a JUCO (junior college) now,” Wise said.

So what could have been a total disaster has worked out well for Zamar Wise. He could have had nothing. But as it turns out, UMass may be a better destination than the one he thought he was headed to for the last three years.