Middlesex Boys Hoops Standout Battled Knee Injuries to Compete in Basketball and Tennis This Past Season
Middlesex’s John Dickey fires up a three pointer in the second half of the Blue Jays wild overtime contest at South River on January 18th. Earlier this year, Dickey announced that he will be going to Drew University to play tennis starting this fall.
MIDDLESEX, NJ—Earlier this spring, GMC Hoops learned that Middlesex boys basketball standout, John Dickey will be attending Drew University in the fall, where he will play men’s tennis. Dickey is not the only GMC hoops standout to play tennis at the next level. Former Timothy Christian hoops standout, Dan Decker played tennis for Baptist Bible College, which became Clarks Summit University in Pennsylvania.
Dickey earned GMC Hoops All Comeback Team Honors by battling to return to the Blue Jays lineup this season after dealing with his first knee injury. Dickey suffered a second knee injury prior to tennis season, and battled back in time to play for the team this season as well. Originally playing at Rutgers Prep as a freshman, Dickey transferred to Middlesex for his sophomore season, and made an impact.
Over his three seasons with the Blue Jays boys basketball team, Dickey played in 67 games, and scored 840 points, or an average of 12.5 points per game. His best season overall was a year ago during the 2017-18 campaign where he played in 25 games and tallied 317 points. While he played in fewer games this past season, Dickey still managed to score 288 points, or about 15.2 points per contest. Dickey was selected to represent Middlesex in the 2019 GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game, but did not play due to his second knee injury.
During his hoops career at Middlesex, Dickey scored in double figures a total of 43 times or nearly two-thirds of all the games he played in for the Blue Jays. Of those 43 contests, Dickey scored at least 20 points in ten of those games including a career high of 33 points in Middlesex’s 83-81 victory over Piscataway Tech in triple overtime on January 29th. For Dickey this was a tremendous accomplishment since he did not play for the first three weeks or so of the season.
When Dickey returned to play against Metuchen on January 4th, and Carteret three days later, his minutes were limited so that he could adjust to playing following the first knee injury. Later on in the season, Dickey added 26 points in a 62-49 win over Timothy Christian at home on February 20th, and then scored 24 points in a 72-56 loss to eventual Group I State Finalist, Burlington City in the Quarterfinal Round of the 2019 Central Jersey Group I State Tournament on February 28th.
This past season, the Middlesex Blue Jays did surprise some people despite losing the likes of Jake Robel (Wilkes University) to graduation following the 2017-18 season, and with Dickey out for the first few weeks of the season. Middlesex still managed to get the 7th seed in Central Jersey Group I, and finished at 10-16 overall including a 4-8 mark in the GMC Blue. Over his three years at Middlesex, the Blue Jays were 35-43 overall including a 15-21 in Blue Division play.
Dickey has played tennis the past two years at Middlesex as well. This past year, Dickey managed to play in 12 singles matches for the Jays tennis team, and still managed to go 7-5 despite battling tough injuries. In 2018, Dickey competed in 17 singles matches, and went 15-2 overall. Drew University, which is located in Madison, New Jersey, competes in the Landmark Conference, and has a solid academic program as well as a men’s basketball team that just had its best season ever.
Congratulations John, and a salute to you for persevering through difficult injuries to come back during the season in both of your sports, and still be quite successful. Your character is your greatest asset. Best of luck in your future endeavors.