New Look GMC Gold Has 9 Teams Led By Amboy Tech, Piscataway Tech, and Dunellen
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–On the eve of the start of the 2014-15 GMC Boys Basketball season, GMC Hoops took some time out to take a look at the GMC Gold, which has a new look this season. Â For the first time since at least this site has covered boys basketball, the Gold Division has 9 teams, which is perhaps the most ever. Â
Moving down into the Gold this year are Piscataway Tech, which is returning after a two year stay in the GMC Blue, and Highland Park, which is returning to the Gold after being at the top of this division back in the early days of the GMC. Â Then, there are the usual suspects of Amboy Tech, Dunellen, E.B. Tech, South Amboy, South River, Timothy Christian, and Wardlaw. Â
Right now, it looks like Amboy Tech, Piscataway Tech, and Dunellen will be fighting things out for division honors, but don’t overlook Timothy Christian, which won the division last year, and has contended just about every year since moving into the GMC. Â South River and South Amboy took some hits to graduation, but still have some firepower returning from last year while E.B. Tech has added some new faces. Â Let’s take a look around at the division.
Dunellen Destroyers
Last year was a rebuilding year for Dunellen, but it still remained competitive in a Gold Division that had solid teams from Timothy Christian, South Amboy, and South River. Â During the off-season, DHS lost point guard, Nick Petrozelli and forward Jay Fitzgerald. Â This year, Dunellen has a good nucleus returning led by standout player David Johnson, who is coming off a pretty good fall sports season, where he led the Destroyers football team to its first sectional final appearance since 2010. Â Johnson was the goto guy last season for the Destroyers. Â Towards the end of his sophomore campaign, he had a big coming out party in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 North Jersey Section 2 Group I playoffs against Ridgefield Park, where he scored 29 points to lead DHS into the semifinals. Â Last year, he had solid performances in defeat to the likes of Middlesex in the finals of the 2013 Shello/Santy Holiday Tournament, Perth Amboy, and Cardinal McCarrick in the play-in round of the 2014 GMCT. Â Johnson will have some help though. Â Returning with him are the likes of Al-Taron Fields and Dan Russomanno. Â With head coach, Bernie Buniak at the helm, Dunellen has always been very competitive. Â Despite the lack of size and numbers, the Destroyers have always played up under Buniak even against much larger schools such as South Brunswick and Perth Amboy. Â Expect Dunellen to be in the thick of things again this year in the GMC Gold. Â The Destroyers will once again be hosting their own holiday tournament at the Faber starting on December 27th.
East Brunswick Tech Tigers
Gone is the likes of Mark Alston, who was one of the top scorers in the GMC last year as well as a 1,000 point scorer for the Tigers.  However, E.B. Tech still has the likes of  Saadiq Riles, Lanier Smith, Enudy Jimenez-Hernandez, Joe Dowe, and Chris Martini returning along with some new faces in Connor Stratton and Noah Westbrook.  Stratton was a contributor to East Brunswick’s JV squad, which was seeded third and won the championship of the 2014 EB/GMC JV Tournament.  He had several key threes in the semifinal and championship game victories over South Brunswick and St. Joseph’s.  Noah Westbrook played on the Central Jersey Jayhawks squad over the summer at the Raritan Bay Summer League in South Amboy.  Westbrook has the ability to do many things on the court.  He can shoot, rebound, and most importantly, he is unselfish.  Riles was among the top scorers behind Alston last year.  Jimenez-Hernandez saw some varsity time as a freshman, and made some contributions, especially in a close loss to Amboy Tech at home during the middle of the season last year.  Look for East Brunswick Tech to improve this season.  The Tigers will once again play in the NJTAC Holiday Tournament.
Highland Park Owls
Highland Park moves down to the GMC Gold after struggling to compete in the GMC Blue for a number of years. Â Since the 2003 season, the Owls have been only .500 once, and that was when Mike Burwell was a sophomore in 2005-06. Â Highland Park’s most competitive team in recent years was in 2009-10 with the likes of Temple football standout Nate Smith leading the way. Â The Owls lost the likes of Harry Landis, Andy Powell, and Travis Leseur from last year’s team. Â However, HPHS still has big man, Will Jacob-Perez returning along with junior guard, Noah Pointer and sophomore guards Justin Simms and Nasir Boykins as well as reserve Will Chen. Â Simms and Boykins were standout players on the gridiron this past fall for the Owls. Â Last season, the Owls were winless, but the JV finished 7-11 so there is some promise. Â Moving down into the Gold Division and taking on schools with more similar school sizes will help the Owls move in a more positive direction. Â After going winless last year, there is no where else to go but up. Â Highland Park will open the season on the road on Friday evening against Perth Amboy Tech, and then will have its home opener on Monday versus Piscataway Tech before competing in the Shello/Santy Tournament in Dunellen over the holidays.
Perth Amboy Tech Patriots
Last season, Perth Amboy Tech showed some promise with the likes of 6’8″ big man, Jordan Little becoming the “center” of attention. Â Even though the Pats were sub .500 last season, they did compete against the likes of solid teams such as Timothy Christian, South Amboy, South River, and Dunellen, and still managed to qualify for the state playoffs. Â Then, over the summer, Amboy Tech made a nice move by competing in the Rahway Summer League. Â GMC Hoops happened to see tech play twice against Edison and Sayreville. Â Both times Little was not in attendance, but the Pats battled in both games thanks to the efforts of guards Noel Garay and Kyrie Byers and forward Lou Rodriguez, who has the ability to score both from the inside and the outside. Â Competing at Rahway was a step up for the Patriots since they played mostly schools that were bigger than them in terms of enrollment, and there was better quality competition. Â With the combo of Little and Rodriguez, Amboy Tech has a lot of length and scoring down low while the guard play and Garay and Byers provide some playmaking and additional scoring punch. Â Expect the Patriots to be in contention this year, especially if Little can put up big numbers scoring and rebounding.
Piscataway Tech Raiders
It was a bit of a tumultuous offseason for Piscataway Tech. Â After Karl Towns Sr. stepped down as coach, the Raiders made another coaching change during the summer to bring in former Plainfield hoops standout, Mike Gordon, who had recently served as an assistant coach to Jeff Lubreski at PHS. Â Gordon was a member of a solid 2003 Plainfield squad that battled the likes of Elizabeth and Linden. Â After a very successful high school career, Gordon went on to play at SUNY-Binghamton. Â As a member of the coaching staff with Lubreski at Plainfield High, Gordon helped guide the Cardinals to back to back T of C finals appearances in 2011 and 2012 before falling both times to St. Anthony’s. Â Now, he comes over to P-Way Tech to take over a program that had just finished competing successfully in the GMC Blue. Â Gone are the likes of Jordan Lackey (Franklin Pierce) and Inderpaul Pinghila. Â However, there is a good group of players set to come back led by Aziz Austin. Â Frank Howard, and Kyle Wider should also provide additional scoring. Â During the off-season, Piscataway Tech played in the Hamilton Park Summer League in Jersey City. Â The Raiders were one of three teams from the GMC in that league. Â Moving down to the Gold should make the Raiders a significant contender if not the favorite for division honors this season. Â The Raiders will play in the holiday tournament at St. Mary’s of Elizabeth over Christmas break.
South Amboy Governors
After a memorable season in 2013-14 that saw the Governors become the first 20 plus seeded team to reach the GMCT Quarterfinals since open tourney play began in 1994, there were a lot of changes. Â Gone is head coach Lenny Reyes, who is now an assistant at Woodbridge. Â He has been replaced by John Zammitt, who played on the 2007-08 South Amboy team that won its only division title in boys basketball, and reached the GMCT Quarterfinals before losing to crosstown rival and eventual champion that season, Cardinal McCarrick. Â The Guvs lost a lot to graduation including starters: Â Steve Herdman (FDU-Florham), Joe Fruncillo, Dan Murphy, and Nick Kales. Â In addition, South Amboy lost Sean Kudelka, who transferred to Bishop Ahr during the offseason. Â South Amboy still has some talent returning with the likes of Kehare Ford, Tim Kales, and Max Garcia returning from last year’s team. Â Julian Munoz also played some last year, and played well during the off-season. Â Nick Reagan is returning after missing all of last season with a knee injury. Â More help arrived during the off-season with the transfer of Ryan O’Leary from Cardinal McCarrick. Â South Amboy was only able to get into the Raritan Bay Summer League over the summer due to the late hire of Zammitt, but the Guvs did manage to get into the 2014 Hoop Group Headquarters Fall League, where they knocked off Asbury Park. Â One of Zammitt’s goals this season is to get this squad to play better defense. Â Expect South Amboy to improve as the season goes along. Â The Guvs will be opening the season at home against South River on Friday night and host McCarrick in an annual benefit game on Saturday night. Â South Amboy will then travel to E.B. Tech on Monday before playing in a holiday tournament.
South River Rams
The Rams were another Gold Division team that had a fantastic year in 2013-14. Â For the first time since the 2004-05 season, the Rams reached the Final Four of the Central Jersey Group I State Tournament before losing to sectional runner-up Shore Regional led by Dan Pillari, who is now playing at Monmouth University. Â Gone from that Rams squad is 1,000 point scorer Matt Martinez, big man Connor Devich, who both graduated. Â In addition, another player from last year’s team, Richie Leogrande, a football standout, decided to go out for the wrestling team this year. Â The Rams still have the likes of Sean Darrar, Mario Nigro (will be returning soon from wrist injury suffered during football season), and Patrick Genthe returning while Antonio Martinez, the younger brother of Matt Martinez comes up to the varsity. Â Darrar, the younger brother of 2013 graduate, Tim Darrar, has a chance to become the third South River player in as many seasons to score 1,000 points in his career. Â In addition to Martinez doing it last year, Tyler Harris reached the milestone two seasons ago. Â Darrar, who was a standout on the gridiron as well this past fall by just about doing everything for the team, has been a potent weapon from the perimeter throughout his high school career. Â His breakout moment though came in an overtime victory over Keansburg in the Championship Game of the Henry Hudson Tournament, where he knocked down the game tying shot at the end of regulationto cap a rally from seven points down with a little over a minute and a half left, and then connected on the game winner in overtime. Â Over the summer, the Rams played at the Raritan Bay Summer League. Â Recently saw South River in a scrimmage against Manville, and behind the efforts of Darrar and Martinez, the Rams were able to pull away for a 66-46 win. Â With the Rams up-tempo style of play coupled with the perimeter scoring of Darrar, a healthy Nigro, Genthe, and Martinez, they may not be as good as last year, but should still be competitive and fun to watch. Â South River will open the season against South Amboy and J.P. Stevens on 12/19 and 12/20.
Timothy Christian Tigers
Like South River and South Amboy, the Tigers took a hit to graduation with the losses of all of its starters Brandon Summers (Vally Forge Christian College), Zach Coyle, Matt DiLeo, Jarret Locke, and David Figueroa from its division winning team.  In addition, TCS also lost senior big man Matt Harris, who transferred to Franklin.  So, the Tigers will have to rely upon senior sharpshooter  Josh Decker to carry the load.  Timothy Christian also has a talented sophomore class that was a 16th seed in the Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament before losing to Edison in a preliminary round game last season.  GMC Hoops did manage to see Timothy Christian’s JV squad several times during the season, and they were competitive in every game despite losing.  Over the summer, the Tigers competed in the 2014 Bound Brook Summer League, and took some lumps, but had a nice moment with an overtime win at the buzzer over Immaculata on a three ball by Decker.  The Tigers may take some lumps early on, but with a solid coach in Chris Hobbs inspring and pushing them all season long, expect this relatively inexperienced group to be competitive and improve as the season goes along.  Timothy Christian will open its season with games at home against Dunellen on Decmeber 19th and Doane Academy of Burlington County on December 20th followed by a road game at Wardlaw on Monday afternoon, December 22nd, and the Cairn Holiday Inivitational Tournament over the holidays on December 29th and 30th.
Wardlaw-Hartridge Rams
The Rams struggled last season under first year head coach, Eugene Maxwell, but will be looking to improve in 2014-15.  Wardlaw lost most of its frontline with the graudation of Mike Anastasiou, Shareef Ibraheem, and Ish Menns to graduation.  Wardlaw still has the likes of John Pohopin and Mike Newman in the backcourt as well as Nick Palko and Brendan O’Brien returning in the frontcourt.  Sophomore guard Jordan Rose is back as well as Raphael Genty.  Newman is athletic while Pohopin is a good shooter.  Palko is a player that can be overlooked by teams, but makes them pay by scoring inside and  rebounding well.  O’Brien played well in the game against E.B. Tech back in February.  Wardlaw was only 4-19 overall last season with a 2-10 mark in divisional play.  Both wins were over East Brunswick Tech including a contest covered by GMC Hoops in North Edison.   So, the Rams also have no where to go but up.  Wardlaw will be opening the season against Belleville on 12/19 before having its home opener against Timothy Christian on 12/22.  Then, the Rams will host its own holiday tournament with its first game against North Warren on 12/26.
There will be much better competition in the GMC Gold during this current two year alignment cycle. Â With 9 teams in the division, that will make play continue to improve in what was one of the most competitive divisions in the GMC last season. Â Look for Amboy Tech, Dunellen, and P-Way Tech to contend for the title while Timothy Christian, E.B. Tech, South River, and South Amboy to be competitive and improve as the season goes along. Â Wardlaw and Highland Park will be better than last year. Â Players to watch will be South River’s Sean Darrar, Timothy Christian’s Josh Decker, Dunellen’s Dave Johnson, Amboy Tech’s Jordan Little, Piscataway Tech’s Aziz Austin, Highland Park’s Will Jacob-Perez, South Amboy’s Kehare Ford and Ryan O’Leary, East Brunswick Tech’s Connor Stratton, and Wardlaw’s Nick Palko.