The Shore Daily, 1/26/15
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Two of the Shore Conference's top remaining uncommitted seniors came off the board on Sunday in making their college football commitments, and Christian Brothers Academy's Pat Andree put himself in some rarefied air in reaching 1,000 points as a junior for the Colts.
Andree threw one down on a breakaway to hit 1,000 in a nondivisional win over Central at CBA on Sunday. He is the first junior to hit 1,000 for the Colts since the legendary Bob Roma in 1974. If your name is getting mentioned in the same breath as Roma, who is the school's all-time leading scorer, you're doing something right. Andree now has the chance to make a serious run at Roma's record of 1,671 career points. Talk to the old-timers who have followed Shore basketball forever, and Roma's name always comes up as one of the greats.
Andree was CBA's best player when he was a freshman, so it's not really a surprise that he is on this track. Still, with a program that has the history of CBA, to put yourself above some of those other names on the list is awfully impressive. I liked Andree's comment about how the numbers are great and all, but if you don't win at least one Shore Conference Tournament title or more at CBA, you can't be put into the pantheon for the Colts because it's ultimately about team success.
He joins Matawan senior guard Jason Dunne, Southern senior swingman Jake Logue and Lacey senior center Chris Iapicco as players who have hit the 1,000-point mark this season. Next up will be Toms River South senior guard Tymere Berry, who is only four points away, and Shore Regional senior Kevin Bloodgood, who is 13 points away. The next junior to join Andree in the club looks to be Southern's Peyton Wejnert, who is 33 points away.
In football, Manalapan senior kicker Mike Caggiano and Barnegat senior lineman Sam Madden each announced their choices on Sunday. Caggiano is headed to the University of Massachusetts, while Madden has become the first Shore Conference recruit since Middletown South legend Knowshon Moreno to commit to the University of Georgia. Their commitments now give the Shore Class of 2015 six FBS scholarship recruits, as they join Barnegat linebacker Manny Bowen (Penn State); Red Bank Catholic linebacker Jamie Gordinier (Miami); Lakewood running back/linebacker Chapelle Cook (Temple); and Manasquan linebacker/tight end Tanner Cowley (Virginia).
The recruiting for an up-and-coming talent in the Class of 2017 is also starting to take off, as St. John Vianney sophomore lineman Micah Clarke picked up offers from Rutgers and Penn State at the end of last week, according to coach Mark Ciccotelli. Clarke, who is already 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, also has an offer from Syracuse. He is part of a Lancers team that has three players with FBS offers, joining junior quarterback Anthony Brown (Northwestern, Old Dominion, Syracuse, Wake Forest) and junior cornerback Khalil Haskins (Utah).
Also this weekend, Lakewood senior defensive end/tight end Datrell Reed took an official visit to William & Mary. He has multiple FCS offers and is expected to announce his choice on National Signing Day on Feb. 4. Reed's commitment will make it two scholarship players from the Piners' senior class along with Cook, and junior linebacker Amir Tyler already has an offer from Temple.
More on Monday:
- Little League superstar Mo'ne Davis, who plays varsity basketball for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philly as an eighth-grader, paid a visit to Holy Spirit in South Jersey with her team on Sunday.
- A linebacker from Washington state went from a zero-star recruit before the season to committing to Oregon on Sunday thanks to his Hudl video blowing up and getting nearly 500,000 views, the most of any video on Hudl.
- A high school wrestler in South Carolina has persevered through being homeless and living under a bridge, and also having his stepfather locked up for selling cocaine, to keep his college dream alive.
- A look at how the Miami recruiting class featuring RBC linebacker Jamie Gordinier is shaping up.
- A girls basketball team in the Bay Area walked off the court with a minute still left in the game because the coach said she heard opposing fans using racial slurs.
On tap for tonight: First up will probably be throwing haymakers at total strangers to get the last loaf of bread from the grocery store, and then lining up my Netflix and Amazon Prime queue for the next two days. Time to see what all the fuss was about with True Detective. Don't expect to see any Shore Conference sports until at least Wednesday and possibly Thursday.
Suffice it to say that the start of the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament, which is scheduled for Tuesday, is going to get pushed back at least a day after the Snowpocalypse hits.
Let's end with something more positive, like Pat Andree's 1,000th point.
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