Stunning Upset Win Over Fourth Seeded North Brunswick Tops Remarkable Year For Banos And JFK Mustangs
ISELIN, NJ–There was a vote for Coach of the Year in the GMC recently. The vote came along with votes casted for All Greater Middlesex Conference and Division teams. Long time East Brunswick head coach, Bo Henning got the well deserved nod. Prior to taking the coaching reins at EB in the 1988-89 season, Henning was the head coach at Kennedy.
Henning has done a remarkable job at EB in just the past three years. Back in the 2007-08 season, the Bears were only 4-18. Since then, East Brunswick has qualified for the state tournament in each of the past three seasons, finished second in the GMC Red last year, tied for first with Piscataway and St. Joe’s this year, and reached the GMCT Elite Eight two years in a row. In addition, the Bears have been cultivating good talent down at the lower levels.
However, East Brunswick is one of the largest schools in the conference, and have been a perennial contender for the conference championship. True, there were also some lean years from the Final Four berth in 2001 to the Elite Eight berths in 2006 and 2007, but overall from 1986 to 2001, the Bears reached the GMCT Final Four eight times, and won the tourney in 1987 and 1996. Meanwhile, Kennedy has not been to the GMCT Semifinals since it stunned Perth Amboy in the 1990 Championship.
Which leads us to Chris Banos, the fourth year head coach at JFK. Previously an assistant to Jamie Panko at Kennedy, Banos took over the program in the 2007-08 season, and in those three years, the Mustangs have compiled double digit wins in three of those seasons, and qualified for the state tournament two straight years including this season. Prior to Banos, Kennedy had not had a 10 plus win season, or a state tourney berth since 2002 when St. Joe’s AD, Jerry Smith was coaching at the school.
Banos, the son of long time basketball official, George Banos, and brother of Tim Banos, who teamed up with Thomas Johnson and Frankie Eckert to lead the Edison Eagles to one of its best season’s ever including a win over previously unbeaten St. Joe’s back in 2001, was not only 4-17 two years ago, but had his two top scorers from last year’s team, Joe Marciano and Rasheed Howard, graduate. I had the Mustangs pegged for a fourth place finish in the GMC Blue this year, which was still an improvement over the sixth place finish in 2009-10 with a 3-9 mark.
Kennedy exceeded those expectations though with a crossover win over crosstown rival Woodbridge (51-46), and an early season division win over Carteret (62-53) on top of a 7-4 Blue Division mark for third place. In addition to its shocking win over fourth seeded North Brunswick (68-58) after only beating South Plainfield by two (55-53) in the Preliminary round, JFK recently gave Bishop Ahr a fight right down to the wire in a 54-51 loss on February 7th. The Mustangs have already clinched its first winning season since 2002 this year with a 12-6 overall mark.
The Mustangs also had to endure a tough winter with many of their games early on snowed out. Over a span of 25 days, JFK only played three games. Kennedy had only played 11 games by the end of January. Banos also had to dismiss one of his top returning players prior to the start of the season. Yet through it all, Banos and his team are playing in the school’s first GMCT Quarterfinal since that memorable year of 1990.
With all of that said, my vote goes to Chris Banos for Coach of the Year in the GMC.