Scanning The Scene – 5/3/12

It's been a busy few weeks around the Shore. While everyone is focusing on baseball, softball and the rest of the Spring sports, there have been some football stories which has kept the great sport in the news.

Let's visit some of these stories.

The NFL draft was held over the weekend and another ex-Shore star has a new home. Vin Curry, former Neptune star became the 59th pick of the Philadelphia Eagles. The 6'6" 265lb. 2nd round pick out of Marshall University will join former Middletown South star RB Knowshon Moreno(Denver Broncos) and RBCs Ronald Brown, who plays for the Colts, as NFL players from the Shore Con. It should be quite a payday for Curry, as last years 59th pick got $3.3 million from the Cleveland Browns.

Monmouth University will add another former player to it's list of NFLers. Jose Gumbs was picked up by the New Orleans Saints as a free agent. Gumbs, a safety, was the NEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 and joins former Hawk stars, Miles Austin(Cowboys), John Nalbone(Seahawks) and Chris Hogan(Miami) in the NFL. Congratulations to Kevin Callahan and the rest of the Monmouth football family.

It will be a strange high school scene this year as 3 former star coaches will no longer be patrolling the sidelines. Joe Martucci(Matawan), Chris Barnes(Wall) and Corey Davies(Howell) have all retired. Martucci won 197 times and has 5 State titles in the trophy case. Barnes has115 in his career that spans 6 years at Jackson HS and 12 at Wall HS. He won the CJ III title in 2002. Davies was the head man at Howell for 21 years and won 105 games and a State title in 2007 in CJ IV. Of the 3 only Martucci will continue to coach, as he heads up to the college ranks and will coach at Kean University.

Barnes has kids about to enter HS and he plans to be there for them. Davies will most likely be traveling to Moravian College a few times this fall, as his son Ryan will take his all-shore QB talent to the college ranks. Replacements are now complete as John Kaye, an 18 year assistant coach at Matawan takes over for Martucci, Derek Reichenbecher, an 11 year assistant for the Rebels and former Howell grad, will replace Davies and Nick Gregorio comes down from Kean University(O line coach) to take over the reins at Wall. Gregorio is a former New Providence HS star football and track athlete star.

I could not forget to mention the passing of 48 year head coach John Amabile. A football "legend" in HS football around the Shore. John passed this past week after a short fight with pancreatic cancer at the age of 73. His career is most notable for his time at Wall HS and Neptune HS. He won 218 overall games and 5 state titles(2 at Wall and 3 at Neptune). A true legend among HS coaches, he joins Warren Wolf, Vic Kabu, Lou Vircillo, Chuck Donahue and Mike Ciccotelli as 200 win coaches. The last few years he served as an assistant at a few schools in area, after leaving Allentown as head coach. John was inducted into the Shore Football Coaches Hall of Fame last year. He will be missed.