SOUTH AMBOY, NJ–With the completion of play last Thursday night at the 2010 Raritan Bay Summer League, another summer festival of hoops completed at South Amboy Middle/High School. GMC Hoops has been covering this league for seven years now, and it has grown so much that the league co-directors, Tom Reilly and Gary Lange, have to turn teams away. Both do a great job of scheduling the games, and putting rules in place that make the contests competitive as possible.
This year, there wasn’t a 3rd and 4th Grade Division like there had been the past couple years, but there was still a plethora of teams spread across three different divisions determined by age group: 5th and 6th Grade Division, 7th and 8th Grade Division, and High School. There were a total of 30 teams that competed in this league in 2010. The best team in the 5th and 6th Grade Division was We Run, a squad from Roselle that is not afraid to play against teams with players much older than them. We Run competed in a national competition this summer in Florida, and soundly defeated the Old Bridge Warriors (7th and 8th Grade), Franklin Park (5th and 6th Grade), St. Stan’s (7th and 8th), and St. Matthew’s (7th and 8th). Franklin Park was probably the next best team in the division with a lopsided win over the Shore Blazers among others.
The 7th and 8th Grade Division was perhaps the most competitive with 13 teams in the division overall. The Carteret Pirates dominated early on, but didn’t finish out the season while Freehold, Manalapan, Franklin Park, Jersey Shoreshots, South Amboy, and Monroe all played competitively this summer. The site saw the Manalapan Assault the most this summer along with the Jersey Shoreshots and Monroe. Manalapan defeated Monroe, Milltown, and Old Bridge Warriors while losing to Freehold and Franklin Park. Freehold had been undefeated before falling to Franklin Park. This division is usually the most competitive of all the divisions year in and year out.
The High School Division saw some good teams this summer as Monsignor Farrell made a return appearance along with Union Catholic. The Vikings of Union Catholic had their best summer at the Raritan Bay Summer League this year. Meanwhile, Farrell was perhaps the best team in the division although it did suffer a rare loss at the hands of Metuchen on July 12th. The Lions rolled past the Old Bridge Knightmares in a game played on June 30th. Sayreville with the likes of Rob Ciragi leading the way, was another team that played well in this division this summer. Sayreville soundly defeated the Bulldogs in a contest played on June 14th. South Amboy with the likes of Aaron Radich, Daquan Davis, Steve Herdman, Nick Kales, Aaron Lewis, and Kyle Krzyzanowski played competitively in the division with victories over the Bulldogs on June 7th, and a win over the Old Bridge Knightmares before falling to Union Catholic in the finale on August 5th.
It was another festival of basketball this summer at Raritan Bay. There were 40 days of basketball action involving 30 different teams across three divisions. The officials also made things entertaining by giving Gary Lange a tough time about the refreshments. The world famous Lange Dogs gained their acclaim the past two summers thanks in part to the collaboration of the various officiating crews and the media. All kidding aside though, Lange and Tom Reilly have always been gracious hosts with perhaps the best hospitality of any summer league covered by GMC Hoops. The site is always treated to free refreshments including the world famous Lange Dogs, and a courtside seat to all the action. No other league does that for us. In addition, the site gets plenty of results from games it is not able to see during the course of the summer. On top of all that, the games are always played in the air conditioned gym at South Amboy Middle/High School. And, what would things be like without the presence of timekeepers and official scorers such as Mike Zammit.