The Shore Daily, 2/5/15
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There is a lot to get to after a busy National Signing Day and the inspiring effort to save the school by the students at Mater Dei Prep kicked into gear yesterday.
I'll start with Mater Dei Prep, which was an emotional place on Wednesday, one day after the stunning announcement by the school's leadership that it will be closing its doors in June for good after 50 years of existence due to financial difficulties. The students have started a #SavetheSeraphs hashtag on Twitter to rally for financial support while also creating an online donation page and selling T-shirts to raise money. Students have also appealed to prominent alumnus Brian Williams, the anchor on NBC Nightly News, for assistance.
Matt Manley took in the scene yesterday at their boys basketball win over Keansburg on their home floor, capturing the inspiring efforts, the uncertainty for the future, and the close-knit bond of the students and athletes at the school.
The announcement of the closing said that the loss for the current school year is a million dollars, so seven figures would need to be raised just to cover this year's bills before even getting to next year. The biggest challenge is finding a sustainable solution if the students are able to raise that much money to keep things going in the short term, and given their passion, they certainly could pull that off. It's all about enrollment in the coming years to raise the money, so that is a tricky situation because I'm guessing parents of middle school kids who were considering Mater Dei may have crossed them off the list once they saw that formal announcement that the school is closing.
Still, it would be surreal to see Mater Dei Prep close, and I applaud the heartfelt efforts of everyone in that community to save it. The last local school I can remember going away was Admiral Farragut Academy in Toms River back in 1994, but it wasn't a longtime member of the Shore Conference like Mater Dei Prep has been. Memories of playing hard-fought basketball games against tough Seraphs' teams in their gym back in the 1990s when Keith Glass was coaching definitely still stand out for me.
Hopefully some type of solution can be found, obviously to save the jobs of everyone who works there and the school that the students clearly love, and also before the surrounding schools really start circling like vultures for the Seraphs' top athletes, which I've heard has already begun.
FOOTBALL
Now, on to a recap of National Signing Day.
There were no major surprises in the Shore, as the six FBS recruits signed their National Letter of Intent with their intended schools. Toms River South senior quarterback Tymere Berry made the announcement on signing day that he committed to Monmouth University, and Lakewood defensive end Datrell Reed announced that he was signing with Villanova University. There also was a late commitment on Wednesday night, with Middletown North tight end/linebacker Troy Thompson, an All-Shore selection by SSN, signing with Marist College.
The Shore player heading to the highest-rated class is Barnegat offensive lineman Sam Madden, as the University of Georgia's incoming group was ranked No. 5 by Scout, No. 7 by Rivals and No. 10 by 247 Sports. Madden's Barnegat teammate, four-star linebacker Manny Bowen, signed with a Penn State class that was rated from 13-15 in the country by the three main services. Head coach James Franklin was pleased with the haul for the Nittany Lions. The Miami class featuring Red Bank Catholic linebacker Jamie Gordinier under RBC grad Al Golden was ranked anywhere from 26-35 in the three main services.
At the local college level, it was interesting seeing the interview between our own Kevin Williams and Monmouth University coach Kevin Callahan as far as the level that Monmouth's recruiting has now reached. Coming off their first season in the challenging Big South Conference, he believes this is the most athletic class he has ever had as the only coach in program history.
The days of Monmouth recruiting Shore Conference players who mainly have interest from Northeast Conference schools like Wagner and Bryant, who signed multiple Shore players yesterday, are probably over. In addition to expanding their recruiting base to fertile states like Florida, which they clearly continue to do, the Hawks now have to go after the local fringe FBS players (like star freshman Mike Basile of Brick Memorial was a year ago) and compete with high-level conferences like the Colonial Athletic Association for recruits in order to be able to compete with the Coastal Carolinas of the world in the Big South.
Case in point is Berry, who had offers from the University of Rhode Island and Maine, a pair of CAA programs, as well as Army, an FBS program. To get that level of local player is a good sign for the Hawks.
One other quick football tidbit: Jay Graham has stepped down after one season at Holmdel in which the Hornets finished 2-8. They will now be looking for their third coach in three seasons. Their last winning season came in 2007 under former coach Andy Carlstrom.
BASKETBALL
Hoops has taken a little bit of a backseat the last two days because of the Mater Dei story and Signing Day, but there has been some developments to watch.
Neptune continues to stay hot as the Shore Conference Tournament looms closer as the Scarlet Fliers added another Top 10 victim to their resume by beating RBC 59-48 on Tuesday behind 16 points by Micah Kerr and then rolling over Monmouth last night for the Scarlet Fliers' seventh straight win. Long Branch, which entered the game 1-13 for the season, stunned first-place Wall behind 15 points by sophomore Raheem Carter to put the Crimson Knights back into a first-place tie with Red Bank in the loss column. Matawan also knocked Colts Neck out of a potential first-place tie with a one-point win.
In Ocean County, Toms River North took a big step toward the Class A South title by beating Toms River South for the third time on Tuesday, while Southern remained undefeated at home and avenged an earlier loss to Brick Memorial. Also, Pinelands upset Manchester in Class B South thanks to 19 points by Dave Lunn to get to 8-7 on the season and stay right in contention for a rare SCT berth.
On the girls side, the big story in the last two days was the Manasquan girls, who had an eye-opener on Tuesday in routing No. 1 St. John Vianney 64-39 to avenge an earlier loss. The RBC girls also knocked off previously unbeaten Neptune. The main question is whether anyone else will get between a third meeting between St. John Vianney and Manasquan in the SCT final at this point.
More on Thursday:
- A top recruit flipped a coin to decide between Texas and Washington.
- A high school coach in South Carolina has banned Louisville's Bobby Petrino from recruiting anyone on his team.
- Snoop Dogg's son will join P. Diddy's son at UCLA.
- BYU signed a 6-foot-7, 410-pound kid from Tonga who has no recruiting profile.
- Chargers' O-lineman Nick Hardwick, who suffered a season-ending injury in September, showed up to his press conference yesterday 85 pounds lighter.
- One school in the Jacksonville, Florida, area had 12 players sign with FBS programs.
- TCU may not get the recruits with the highest number of star ratings, but they make them into stars.
- Auburn's Gus Malzahn celebrated Signing Day by going to Waffle House.
- Penn State coach James Franklin accidentally FaceTimed a Nittany Lions fan when he was trying to call a recruit yesterday.
- You said it, brother.
- Some genius got a tattoo of the now-famous Left Shark from Katy Perry's halftime show.
- When all your passwords get stolen in a security breach, the guy who finds them is a Ukrainian from Milwaukee. I knew it.
On tap for tonight:
In boys basketball, No. 6 Manasquan heads to Shore Regional in a bid to take a big step toward locking down the Warriors' third straight Class A Central title.
Colts Neck heads to No. 7 Red Bank Catholic to try to sweep the season series in a game both teams need to keep their division title hopes alive in Class B North. First-place Wall also has a tough game at Matawan in order to stay at the front of the pack.
Barnegat is at Point Boro in a bid to get back to .500 with the SCT cutoff approaching at the end of next week.
Some Freehold Township royalty will be in the house tonight at the Patriots' nondivisional game against Holmdel at 5:30 as Baltimore Orioles pitcher Brad Brach will make an appearance at his alma mater with his wife, Jenae.
In wrestling, Southern heads to Brick in a Class A South match between Top 10 teams that has been bumped a couple times because of weather.
I'll leave you with the best and most ridiculous signings of yesterday, featuring babies and miniature bulldogs.
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