Boys Basketball – Ben Gamble Takes Over Mater Dei Boys Basketball Program

One day after informing its coach that he would not be hired back for his 19th season at the helm, Mater Dei Prep has officially hired former Cardinal McCarrick head coach and longtime St. Anthony's assistant Ben Gamble as its next boys basketball coach.

"Ben is a highly accomplished coach who will elevate the level of our basketball program," Mater Dei Prep athletic director Dennis Tobin said in a statement on the school's website. "It is very rare to find a coach of this level who possesses the values we stress at Mater Dei Prep. Ben shares our culture of community and he will have an immediate impact in our school. I am looking forward to working with a coach who will dedicate 100 percent of himself to Mater Dei Prep.”

"I think it's a tremendous environment," Gamble said. "It's a beautiful campus for a high school and as someone who coached at a national program and who has been a lot of places, it's really different from anything I've ever been around."

After 15 years as an assistant under Hall-of-Fame coach Bob Hurley at St. Anthony, Gamble spent one season at Cardinal McCarrick before the Dicoese of Metuchen announced the school was closing its doors for good after the 2014-15 school year due to financial hardship. Gamble led the Eagles to a 21-5 record last season after a 19-0 start and is expecting to have at least some of the returning players from that team join him at Mater Dei.

"I felt like I was going in the right direction at McCarrick, and I think this opportunity allows me to do some of the same things we were doing there as far as summer camps and personal instruction, which is what most of my background is in," Gamble said. "The academics at the school are very good and that's going to make it a good environment for anyone who wants to come play in the program."

According to a report on APP.com, Cardinal McCarrick athletic director Gill Pritchard said eight-to-10 members of last year's Eagles basketball team will be attending Mater Dei during the 2015-16 school year, and although Gamble was noncommittal about how many of his former players he expects to be there, he said most of them attended Mater Dei's open house and came back with a strong impression. McCarrick, which is in South Amboy, is approximately 11 miles north of Mater Dei.

"The kids didn't have an impact on my decision," Gamble said. "A few weeks ago, when everything went down at McCarrick, I told them and their parents to start looking at other schools and we'll see where I land. Other coaches called me about players, and I encouraged them to have conversations with each other because I didn't know what was going to happen. I know some of the McCarrick kids have talked about enrolling at Mater Dei, but I still have to talk to the parents. Most of the calls I've had have just been congratulations."

Incoming seniors Nyquan McCombs and Gilberto Cue, as well as junior Elijah Mitchell, were three of the top four scorers on last year's Cardinal McCarrick team and all are eligible for high school basketball next year.

Gamble said he was in talks with Plainfield High School and Bishop Ahr, as well as "heavy" talks with the Patrick School. Plainfield is regarded as a basketball hotbed, while the Patrick School is perennially ranked among the top teams in the state. Gamble said he first contacted Mater Dei last week.

While there will likely be some new talent on the way to Mater Dei, Gamble is hoping to get off to a good start with the program's returning players, which includes one starter in junior Shane Mastro.

"The thing I'm most looking forward to is meeting with the kids who are already in the program," Gamble said. "When I took over at McCarrick, there were guys who left before they even met me for various reasons, and then I had a lot of kids transfer in because of my reputation as an assistant to coach Hurley and the different things I had done coaching in camps and clinics and things like that.

"I just hope the kids at Mater Dei give me an opportunity to see what direction we can go in."

Gamble's hire comes one day after Tobin informed previous coach Bob Klatt that he would not be re-hired as the coach of the Seraphs, ending Klatt's 18-year tenure as the head coach of the program. According to Gamble, he first reached out to Mater Dei after hearing positive feedback from some of his players who were looking into attending.

"To be honest, I really didn't know what the coaching situation was there and I wasn't familiar with (Klatt)," Gamble said. "In my discussions with Mater Dei, there was never any talk about another coach. It's not the practice of any coach to try to push somebody out of a job and that certainly wasn't my intention."

Mater Dei finished the 2014-15 season with a 10-15 record and a 9-5 mark in the Shore Conference Class B Central division. The Seraphs will have to contend with three-time defending division champion Point Beach, who will be led by senior guard Jimmy Panzini, who played at St. Anthony during the 2013-14 season while Gamble was an assistant. Class B Central also features a consistently competitive St. Rose program and a Ranney team that is welcoming in a class of freshmen expected to make an immediate impact.

"I had Jimmy two years ago when he played at St. Anthony's and he's coming off of a great season as a junior last year," said Gamble, who led Cardinal McCarrick to a 62-61 win at Christian Brothers Academy last season and also lost to Red Bank Regional in match-ups with the Shore Conference. "I've seen the Ranney group play about six times at different events and it's a special group. There is a lot of good competition in the Shore Conference and I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Gamble also said he hopes to enter Mater Dei into two showcase events that he was expecting Cardinal McCarrick to participate in during the 2015-16 season. Cardinal McCarrick was slated to play Notre Dame in the Prime Time Shootout at Roselle Catholic and St. Peter's Prep at the Dan Finn Classic in Jersey City.

"When I took the McCarrick job, I knew we'd be better than the team was the previous year, but I didn't think we'd be good enough to start 19-0," Gamble said. "My expectation was that it would take five or six years to get to the level I wanted to be and I'm coming into this job expecting to start over with the same expectation."

Mater Dei Prep nearly suffered the same fate as Cardinal McCarrick and announced in February that it would be permanently closing its doors in June. A co-op of students, faculty and alumni, however, raised more than the $1 million necessary to covering the operating deficit and keep the school open. Mater Dei will re-open as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization going forward.

Gamble said he felt assured that Mater Dei is on stable enough ground to take the job with the Seraphs without any reservations.

"I'm pretty confident," Gamble said of Mater Dei's new model. "That was more of a concern with the Patrick School. Even at a public school, there is always going to be a concern that you're going to be gone before you get a chance to accomplish the things you want to accomplish. I felt like this was the best place to give myself a chance to reach my goals."