McCarrick Becomes Third Non-Public School in GMC to Close Since League’s Inception
| Cardinal McCarrick’s boys basketball team huddles during a timeout against Wildwood Catholic in the 2015 Non-Public B South Quarterfinals. |
SOUTH AMBOY, NJ–With the busy schedule that I had this spring and summer, I didn’t have much of a chance to talk about the recent closing of Cardinal McCarrick High School. When news first broke of the school’s closing in May, there was some shock, but if you have lived in South Amboy over the last 15 to 20 years, there wasn’t much surprise. Talk of the school’s demise had been going on for years.
It is still a shame though. For the third time since the inception of the Greater Middlesex Conference for the 1985-86 Winter Sports season, three Non-Public Schools have closed: St. Pius of Piscataway (1990), St. Peter’s of New Brunswick (2007), and McCarrick this year. The closing of the latter two schools had a great impact on the GMC in terms of boys basketball. St. Peter’s had been a very dominant program in Middlesex County boys basketball from the 1940s and 1950s until 1999.
Meanwhile, Cardinal McCarrick, previously St. Mary’s of South Amboy, was a program that had struggled from the time of the GMC’s formation until the arrival of legendary coach Joe Lewis for the 1995-96 season. Prior to Lewis taking the helm at McCarrick, the Eagles were a team that many schools looked forward to on the schedule. For South Plainfield fans such as myself, McCarrick/St. Mary’s had special meaning that first GMC boys basketball season since it was the place where 1986 SPHS graduate, Joe Thompson broke Wally Cirafesi’s scoring record to become the Tigers all time leading scorer. Thompson would hold on to that mark until 2005 when Marquis Jones shattered the mark.
When teams saw St. Mary’s of South Amboy on the schedule, they knew that they had a good chance of getting a victory. All of that changed in 1995 when Joe Lewis became head coach. From that point on, the Eagles gradually rose to prominence in GMC boys basketball. By the 1997-98 season, the Eagles reached the GMCT Quarterfinals where they lost to neighborhood rival, Sayreville. The following year, McCarrick reached the Elite Eight again, but ran into a juggernaut in top seeded St. Joseph’s, which was led by Jay Williams, and had a supporting cast that included Brian Wilson, Ryan Uszenski, Paul Bocage, and then freshmen, Eric Wilkins, who turned in a highlight reel dunk in the lopsided Falcons win.
Despite these quarterfinal setbacks, Lewis and the Eagles were still on the rise. McCarrick was dominating the GMC Gold with five straight division titles between 1998 and 2002. The Eagles were also taking steps forward by taking on some of the big boys like 2002 GMCT Champion, Carteret in GMC crossovers. Then, prior to the 2002-03 season, the Eagles moved up into the GMC Blue. They also had a solid crop of players such as Mike Garcia and Billy Wagner coming up from a JV squad that took St. Joseph’s to the wire before losing 46-39, in front of a enthusiastic crowd in the Championship Game of the 2002 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament at EBHS.
Added to the mix was a transfer from Rahway, Mika Wilson, who became the final ingredient to a memorable McCarrick squad that defeated Blue Division favorite, New Brunswick twice, won the GMC Blue, defeated a Jonathan Dixon, Calvin Cannon, and Tom Scott led St. Joseph’s squad in the 2003 GMCT final at South Brunswick, and downed Wildwood Catholic in the Non-Public B South Championship at Lakewood. It was the first sectional title for the Eagles since 1980. The GMCT Championship was the first county/conference title for the Eagles as well. Both McCarrick and Joes survived epic GMCT semifinal games against South Plainfield and New Brunswick at East Brunswick two nights earlier.
The 2002-03 Cardy Mac Eagles won the first of two GMCT titles. The other one was won in 2007-08 when McCarrick, led by Mike Burwell, Julio Rosario, and St. Peter’s transfer, Dominic Appiah, defeated St. Joseph’s in an exciting GMCT Championship at South Brunswick. It was the first of eight straight GMCT finals appearances for Dave Turco and St. Joseph’s. McCarrick also reached the GMCT final in 2007 after avenging a 20 point regular season loss against then top seeded South Brunswick with a come from behind victory in the semifinals at Middlesex County College. The Eagles, which were led by all time leading scorer, Vince Rosario, went on to lose to Piscataway in the title game at Rutgers. McCarrick went on to win sectional titles in 2005 (defeated Holy Spirit) and 2011 (defeated Gloucester Catholic).
The Eagles of 2004-05 were led by Kevin Olivieri and had a supporting cast that included Steve Liberty, who had a memorable moment in the GMCT Elite Eight that year against St. Joseph’s when he drew a charge on eventual NBA lottery pick, Andrew Bynum, to foul him out of the game. The Eagles rolled to the Blue Division championship that year after blowing out South River on the road after the Rams had started the season at 8-0. The Rams did manage to reach the Central Jersey Group I semifinals before losing to a Metuchen team led by Marqus Blakely and DeJuan Miller. In the state tourney, McCarrick defeated Sacred Heart of Vineland, Moorestown Friends in the semifinals, and Holy Spirit in the Championship. The Eagles then had a dry spell in sectional championships for six seasons. Wildwood Catholic and the re-emergence of Trenton Catholic had a lot to do with that.
McCarrick had some memorable games against Trenton Catholic, formerly McCorristin in the Non-Public B state tournament. In 2003, the Eagles traveled down to Trenton, and defeated the Iron Mikes on their home court en route to the first sectional championship. TCA returned the favor by bouncing the Eagles in the 2007 state tourney, and then again in the sectional finals at Jackson Liberty in 2009 and 2010. Cardy Mac would get its revenge in the 2011 tourney though. Thanks to the arrival of Ahmid Williams, who transferred in from Monroe, and the arrival of talented freshman, Marques Townes, the Eagles were able to break through against the Khalid Lewis, Brandon Taylor, and an Iron Mikes squad that had won the T of C the year before.
Townes played another year at McCarrick before transferring to to St. Joseph’s, and win two GMCT titles, two Non-Public A state titles, and a T of C Championship with Karl Towns, Wade Baldwin, and the Dave Turco coached Falcons. Alonzo Hamilton was another talented youngster on that 2011 McCarrick team, who also transferred after the 2012 season to play for Linden. Hamilton ended up on the Linden Tigers squad that won the 2014 Group IV State Championship, and then lost to former teammate Townes and St. Joseph’s in a thrilling NJSIAA T of C Semifinal at Monmouth University. In addition to Townes and Hamilton leaving, Joe Lewis also stepped down at McCarrick during the summer of 2012. For two the next two seasons, the Eagles, had two different head coaches, and finished below .500 with a 7-19 mark in 2012-13, and a 6-16 record in 2013-14. Then, former St. Anthony’s assistant coach, Ben Gamble took the reins with the hope of bringing the Eagles back to prominence in 2014-15.
Gamble, who had previously coached at Hudson Catholic, had a plethora of new talent to work with such as Gilberto Cue, NyQuan McCombs, Hodari Bazemore, Elijah Mitchell, Ralph Menar, Josh Green, Santiago Dervishaj, and Bryan Harris. The Eagles started the season by winning its first 19 games en route to its first division title since 2009. McCarrick then was upset in the GMCT Round of 16 by 14th seeded Sayreville in South Amboy. The Eagles then finished the season at 21-4 after losing in the NJSIAA Non-Public B South Quarterfinals to long time nemesis, Wildwood Catholic in South Amboy. It was the last game ever played at Cardinal McCarrick. GMC Hoops was present for this game as well as the final two games ever played at St. Peter’s High School’s gym, also known as the Red Tile Palace. Seeing these schools close their doors, and these programs fade into history, has been sad for me, but both the Cardinals and the Eagles will live on here at GMC Hoops with many great memories.