Among the North Jersey scholastic hoops stars to grace the hardwood of the historic Dunn Center in Elizabeth during the past two winters was now Duke-bound St. Patrick star Kyrie Irving (24). (Sideline Chatter photo)

Roselle Catholic, which captured the 2010 Elizabeth Summer Basketball League title, has its own rich hoops tradition, including the long tenure of now retired coach Pat Hagan and his staff. (photo courtesy of Roselle Catholic HS)

Elizabeth’s Dunn Center Hot Spot
For Summer & Winter HS Hoops
By Jim Whelan
For sidelinechatter.com

If Madison Square Garden is the “Mecca of College Basketball” then just cross the Hudson River, into the Garden State and in the City of Elizabeth to the Dunn Center, which can carry the label: “Mecca of High School Basketball.”

For over 30 years, if there has been a big game in state’s Northeast Region, odds are the address will be 600 Pearl Street in the heart of Elizabeth.

The gymnasium is a cavernous venue to play in, (If you ever sat on the wooden benches and enjoyed a highly anticipated hoops game) with cozy, anemic parking spots.

This summer, the fans were not packing the bleachers, but there was plenty of basketball in July’s “live” period of high school hoops.

Twenty teams participated in the highly-touted Elizabeth High School Summer Basketball League inside the Dunn Center. On Monday night, Aug. 2, it was head coach Dave Boff’s Roselle Catholic Lions coming away with a win over the host team, the Elizabeth Minutemen.

As a young man, Boff was one of the young spectators who soaked in more than a game or two on the hardwood painted black, red, with white outlines where Elizabeth High School has called home and many great coaches and players have paced or run the floor.

Entering into his fourth season at the parochial high school in Roselle, Boff always has had a connection to Elizabeth.

“My dad grew up in Elizabeth and played basketball at Thomas Jefferson High school,” recalled the Lions head mentor. “He always took me to games at the Dunn Center.”

RC and Elizabeth also squared off in last year’s summer league finale with Elizabeth emerging the the victor.

Of the 20 teams in the popular summer hoops loop, the top eight make the playoffs. Roselle Catholic defeated St. Joe’s of Metuchen and moved past St. Peter’s of Staten Island to move into the final, while Elizabeth defeated its Watchung Conference rival Scotch Plains, then Columbia of Essex County in order to earn the right to play Roselle Catholic.

A young Roselle Catholic team certainly wanted to change that outcome of the last two meetings.

Minus three starters who graduated from last year’s 18-8 team. Boff started two sophomores and two juniors and knew it would a tough task to upend the Lions’ Group 4 adversary.

The concentration for any Roselle Catholic opponent is on standout 6-foot-6 forward Jameel Warney, who emerged last year as a top sophomore in the state and was a big part of last winter’s squad which put together a 12-game winning streak at one point after stumbling out of the gates in December with a rather inauspicious 1-4 start.

Warney did his part on the offensive end in the recent Elizabeth Summer League playoff final, feeding passes to sophomore guards Steve Bush and Cody Delziel as RC’s young guards each drained three “3’s” as the Lions jumped out to a 13-0 lead out of the gates and a resounding 44-14 at halftime.

“Jameel always has been a great passer out of the post,” said an appreciative Boff.

The combo of Bush-Delziel had Elizabeth “on their heels” early on. Delziel transferred to RC after a productive freshman season at neighboring Johnson of Clark. Bush commutes from Brick City Newark to attend high school at RC.

The team’s lone senior, Kwaku Morgan, runs the point. Wesley Cherry, a 6-4 junior, rounds out the team’s starting five. Cherry’s brother, David, was a standout at RC under the legendary coach Pat Hagan. David Cherry played his college ball at Rutgers-Newark and had a very solid career at both levels. With college coaches attracted to Warney on a regular basis, Boff also enjoys the fact that Wesley Cherry has also has being getting interest from local coaches.

As far as the second half of the RC-Elizabeth summer loop championship tilt was concerned, it was no surprise to Boff that the hometown Minutemen stormed back to make the game very interesting.

“In a summer game in August down by 40, the Elizabeth kids could have packed it in,” Boff said “But, in the second half they came right at us and didn’t back down.”

Elizabeth’s 6-4 center Mallory Pringley came up big for the Watchung Conference squad collecing 25 points in the contest.

The Minutemen cut the lead to 10, but RC survived the run and came home with the victory 64-42.

The win puts Boff’s club on good footing as the summer “live” period comes to end. The summer league crown is like winning a Golden Globe Award when compared to an Oscar for the Hollywood actor,

It’s not an Academy Award, but could lead to the iconic trophy if the Lions can maintain their solid play next winter during the regular high school campaign.

A lot of the success at Roselle Catholic is attributed to the impressive head coach of the Lions and his star player Jameel Warney.

“Jameel Warney is the hardest worker on our team,” Boff said about his prized big man who resides in Plainfield.

Warney’s work on the court is creating interest from some mid-major programs.

“Rider is very high on the list for Jameel,” said Boff. “Akron, Iona, and St Joseph’s also have inquired about him.”

Last season Warney was already a good post player. This summer the RC junior has incorporated a 15-foot jump shot to his offensive arsenal.

His high school coach is also pleased with the young man’s continued development off the court as well.

“Jameel continues to improve in his academics, and his mom has been very pleased about his development at the school,” said the RC head mentor.

Warney is definitely someone you can build a program around for the next couple of seasons. Joe Skrec, the well-regarded RC girls hoops coach and the school’s athletic director, has raised two Union County Tournament championship banners inside the Lions’ den (the RC gym’s quirky nickname); now, hopefully, with the cast of Warney, Deziel, Bush, Cherry, and Morgan the young RC boys basketball team can also one day raise a banner in their Gym to put alongside those already achieved by the strong girls’ program.

2010-Elizabeth Summer League participating teams

Monday/Wednesday Teams

Elizabeth A

Elizabeth B

Bayonne

Carteret

Columbia

Moore Catholic-Staten Island

Nazareth-

St. Mary’s of Elizabeth

Westfield

Tuesday/Thursday Teams

Elizabeth A

Cranford

Hillside

Monroe

Monsignor Farrell-Staten Island

Sayreville

Scotch Plains

St. Joseph’s of Metuchen

St. Peter’s-Staten Island

Summit

Roselle Catholic News and Notes

Jameel Warney, Wesley Cherry and Dominic Gonzalez enrolled at Roselle Catholic as freshman with the hope of building something special. Gonzalez decided to transfer to Scotch Plains and will play for the Group 3 school this season.

Nico Velez transferred to Roselle Catholic from Hudson Catholic. The Hillside native was injured last season for Hawks. The 6-0 Velez is ranked as the 83 rd junior in the state by highly-regarded hoops scribe Jay Gomes of NJ Hoops Newsletter. Boff hopes Velez will help solidify the RC bench.

RC’s assistant coach John Giraldo, a former collegiate standout at Monmouth University, is working with the young Lion guards to help promote their quick ascension in the RC hoops program. Giraldo, who is a former assistant Bloomfield Tech, was a scholastic star at the other Marist brothers’ run Catholic High School. The Marist Brother Religious order –run both Roselle Catholic and Marist High school in Bayonne. Giraldo led Marist to a Parochial B State Championship under coach Mike Leonardo before embarking on his successful career at Monmouth. “John has been more vocal this year and he is a huge part of our success,” Boff said, raining praise about his top assistant. Boff and Giraldo took turns coaching this summer for Roselle Catholic.

RC 2010 graduates Kendall Henderson and Brian Petruzelli made their college plans as Henderson will attend Albright College in Reading, Pa., and Petruzelli will attend Neumann College in Philadelphia.

Projected 2010 Roselle Catholic Roster with hometowns

Senior

Kwaku Morgan-Roselle

Juniors

Jameel Warney-Plainfield

Wesley Cherry-Linden

Miles Clark-Roselle

Mike Crowley-Roselle

Justin Gartmond-Roselle

Nico Velez-Hillside

Sophomores

Cody Delziel-Linden

Steve Bush-Newark

Ed Harris-Newark

Ryan Quinn-Mountainside

Freshmen

Najee Lucky-Plainfield

Roselle Catholic was invited to this past weekend Summer Prime Time Shootout in Allentown, N.J. The Lions faced 2010 Tournament of Champion winner Trenton Catholic along with Lakewood, and Middletown North.

Along with Roselle Catholic the Prime Time Shootout participants were

Allentown, Coatesville, Cherokee, Cherry Hill East, Cherry Hill West, Ewing, Franklin, Lakewood, Piscataway, St Joseph’s of Metuchen, Ridge, Plainfield, Rutgers Prep, St Patrick’s, Shabazz, Middletown North, Point Pleasant Beach, New Egypt, Pennbury, Trenton Catholic, West Windsor-Paulsboro North, Robbinsville, Burlington Township, Notre Dame, Rancocas Valley, Paul VI, Hun and Middle Township.

Linden Summer League

St. Patrick won the 2010 Linden Summer League after defeating St. Joseph’s of Metuchen.

Linden lost to St Joe’s in the semifinal, 61-58. St. Joe’s met Plainfield native Quinton DeCosey. Jimbo Long led the way with a team-high 17 points for the Falcons in order to earn a match-up against St. Pat’s.

St. Pat’s upended East Brunswick 53-42 in order to earn the right to face St. Joe’s in the Linden summer league finale. The Celtics then beat their second straight Middlesex County powerhouse opponent, 54-38, in the title tilt.

Off-Season College Commits

Class of 2008

Desmond Wade-Linden-U of Houston to Fairfield

Darrell Lampley-Linden-LakelandCC to East Michigan

Travis Taylor-Union-Monmouth University to Xavier

Thomas Goubadia-Union-Owens Junior College to Globe Junior College

Brian Kelly-U of Delaware to College of New Jersey

Class of 2009

Ladonte Berry-White-Rahway/NIA Prep to Florida Memorial

Latif Rivers-Elizabeth/ Avon Old Farms to Wagner

James Frazier-Elizabeth/ NIA Prep-Norfolk State

Class of 2010

Kyrie Irving-St. Patrick-Duke

Isaiah Epps-Plainfield/Hargrave Mil. Academy-Pitt

Chase Plummer-St. Patrick-Univ. Maryland Baltimore County

Josh Daniell-St Patrick-Wagner

Pat Sabatino-Westfield-Stevens Tech

Quadeer Lewis-Linden-Montclair State

Jon Merceus-Union-Pace University

Ederson Exume-St. Mary’s of Elizabeth-Bloomfield

Will Green-Cranford-FDU Florham

Aishon White-Union-Evelyn Mack Academy-Chipola JC

Jahmil Jenkins-Elizabeth-Erie JC

Jarrett Calhoun-Linden-Lakeland JC

Class of 2011

Michael Gilchrist-St Patrick-Kentucky

Derrick Gordon-St Patrick-Western Kentucky

Tyrone Johnson-Plainfield-Villanova

Jarrell Lane-St Patrick-Univ.Maryland Baltimore County

Jack Cole-New Providence-Stonehill

Jim Whelan can be reach @ NJhoops@hotmail.com

One of the off-season transfers of note was former Linden star Desmond Wade, who has moved from Houston to Fairfield University in Connecticut after spending two seasons in coach Tom Penders' backcourt. The ex-Tiger star helped Houston reach the NCAA Tournament in 2010. (photo by corbosport)

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