Rutgers Prep Athletics

written by Richard O'Connell  

  In the winter of 1951-52 I coached swimming at the Pingry School in Elizabeth. This was before Pingry moved to Hillside and then to Bernards township.

      I heard that Rutgers Prep was looking for a baseball coach for the spring of '52 and I applied and got the job. I was starting my graduate studies at Rutgers University that semester.

     We were getting through baseball fairly well without much talent. Rutgers Prep School was part of Rutgers University at that time as it was in 1766. Rutgers was then Queens college and Rutgers Prep was Queens Grammar school.

     We practiced baseball on a field up by Rutgers football stadium and played our games in Johnson Park on river road. The Headmaster, Stan Sheppard (the first of 9 headmasters I worked for) asked me If I would take over the athletic direcors duties as John Housman had to leave to become the Vice Principal of the New Ewing High School. He also said he wanted me to join the staff as head coach of soccer, basketball and baseball as well as teach 2 classes of biology during the following school year. I agreed, and got my graduate studies for free because we were part of the University.

      Rutgers Prep had dropped football two years before and I would start soccer which I played at Bergenfield High School and 4 years at Rutgers University.

     I spent the spring of 1952, trying to get a schedule of soccer and basketball games for the upcoming seasons. I had some problems in both sports.

#1 In somerset County, there was only 4 Public high schools; Bound Brook, Somerville, North Plainfield and Bernards. No Bridgewater No Hillsborough, No Watchung, No Ridge, No Immaculata. That was it, only 4 high schools and none of them had soccer.

#2 In Middlesex County, there were only a few high schools. No North, South or East Brunswick, No Edison, No Woodbridge and I could go on and on. Only Jamesburg had a high school soccer team. So scheduling was a problem especially when you don't know what level your program will be playing at since we were just starting the sport.

#3 Basketball was a different story (only boys because we did not have a girls program in the upper school until the next year). Prep had won 3 games in the past two seasons and schools were calling me everyday looking for a game. I could have scheduled a game everyday, six days a week for all of December, January and Febraury.

     The year '52-'53 was the beginning of my basketball coaching career. Rutgers Prep had post graduate students and my first year we had Lou Borbely. Lou was about 6'3", 180 lbs and a very girfted athlete. We had a few athletes and a couple of 6'4 kids. I built our team around Lou at the high post or where ever you could get him the ball. We had a fun, high scoring team that ended up with 12 wins and 8 losses. There was no private school state tournament until 1956 and no county tournament until 1970.

     Lou Borbely was also a great baseball player, a fine hitter and solid glove. He could play anywhere I wanted him to play. We had a good baseball season. Toward the end of May I received a call from the Dodgers baseball organization about Lou. At 23 years old I was not prepared to anwer questions or make major recommendations about a kid to a major league baseball team. I told the man from the Dodgers that I thought his father wanted him to go to college but you better speak to him. I gave him Lou's number and I was right, Lou's father wanted him to get a college degree before anything else. Lou went to Washington College in Maryland to play baseball and basketball and after graduation he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Great Athlete.

      When Al Murasko of South River left South River High School at the end of his junior year to come to Rutgers Prep, a flow of basketball players followed. They came to Prep to improve their academics and ready themselves for college as well as basketball. Al was first team all state at South River as a junior and he led prep to a great season. Bill Kurtz, who later played basketball at Lafayette, College was a great point guard. Len Bartlett and 6'7", 240 lbs Don Hughes made this the best prep team in the state. Al went to Hofstra to play for legendary coach Butch van Breda Kolff. He broke the freshman scoring record. Gerry Gorczyca came to prep the following year and made us even better than the team from '54. Gerry was about 6'2" and had great jumping ability to play above the rim. He went on to play for Fordham in the years when New York City college games in Madison Square Garden were the best in the country.

     The '55- '56 team was a real team, winning games over teams that were better than we were. I remember losing to the Pingry School 26-23 with them holding the ball to slow us down. High School rules that year stated that if you got fouled you could either take the foul shot or take the ball out of bounds. I was very upset and started to work on a press and trapping the ball the very next day in practice.

     In the semi- finals of the state tournament at St. Benedicts Prep we were scheduled to play Pingry. I started yelling at my team to press and "get the ball." We continued to do this throughout the hame and at the end of the third quarter, headmaster David Heinlein, tapped me on the shoulder and said "dont you think you should take off the press?" I had no idea what the score was but then looked up and saw we were ahead by 30 points. That weekend we beat Bordentown Military Institute of Pine Beach, who had 3 division I football players and 2 division I basketball players, for the Championship of the first Independent School Championship. Led by 6'4" Marty Metzger who played at Oklahoma and Monmouth College, George Friedlander, Bill Uher, Stan Ross and Bob Torrone. They made this a great season.

     The season of '56-'57 was the last year we took in post graduates at prep. The school was growing with both girls and boys. Ron Jackowitz was the last post grad to play for us. Ron was a 6'3" small forward and an excellent passer. We had a fine season with Ron the scoring leader for Middlesex County. Two Sophomores that season turned out to be outstanding players at prep, Arthur Feldman and Bruce Gunkle led the team through the end of the 50's. Bruce was one of the outstanding well rounded athletes in prep's history, he went on to play 4 years at the naval academy. He was also the number 1 pitcher and hitter on the naval academy team his final two years.

     The early 60's we did not win any championships but played well. Marc Turtletaub, a 6'3" small forward was the outstanding player during this time and he went on to play at the University of Pennsylvania. The classes of '65 and '67 were the kids that kept us competitive in both basketball and baseball in the later part of the 60's. The Lampen boys, David 6'8" class of '65 and Peter 6'5" class of '67 gave us a lot of size. 6'6" Hal Spiegel and 6'8" Steve Steingberg bridged the 60's into the 70's. We also had great student athletes like Bill Landau '65, Joe Jacobs '67, Frank Cipot '67, Roy Mittman '67 who all played basketball and/or baseball at colleges like Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Montclair State and Princeton. The season of 1967 we were champions and had a 23-2 record.

     Steve Steinberg a 6'8" - 225 lb shooter dominated with junior Ray Miklos one of the top scorers in our history and 6'6" freshman Paul Smith. Steve played at East Carolina University and Ray at Lehigh University. Paul Smith '73 scored over 2800 points in his four years at prep. His Junior year we not only won the State title but also won New York City's Collegiate School  post season tournament, representing New Jersey and beating teams from Connecticut and Long Island. Walt Rockhill '72 , who went to delaware, was named tournament MVP. Paul, one of the most recruited athletes in prep's history because he was an honors student and a 6'8" all american high school player, chose to go to Fordham because he wanted to go away to school yet be close enough to get home to his mother who was ill. After Paul graduated, two local boys Todd Milligan and Nate Mullens came to prep ad 6'6" sophomores. They teamed up with Rory O'Connell, Bob Vosbrink and Dan Howell to have a great season but were upset in the finals of the state tournament.  The next two seasons when Nate and Todd filled out their 6'8" frame, prep was a real force in the county and against other private schools. Jeff Miklos, Tony Scialabba and John O'Connell were the supporting class on these championship teams.

     The '75-'76 season with O'Connell at point guard and Nate and Todd up front, we played very well and beat Lawrencevill, Peddie and the Hun School who all had division I post graduates. Nate Mullins went to play at Penn State and Todd Milligan played for Rutgers University in the "glory days."  During Johnny "O's" senior year he had some help from emerging Juniors to keep prep basketball at a very high level. Matt Lytwyn 6'4", Don Ballai 6'0" and Jim Becker 6'3". When O'Connell graduated and went on to play at Rutgers, I called him the best point guard I never missed. This is because Walter "Dinky" Proctor a 6'8" sophomore transferred to prep from Long Island. He was a younger version of Magic Johnson. With him running the fast break and Matt Lytwyn and Don Ballai flying down the court, we had a very high scoring team. In the county finals, we played a great Franklin township team with many national class track athletes on their team and 6'9 Ray Hinson who played at Rutgers and many years in the NBA. In those years, the county tournament was held over christmas break. I liked that better than the end of the season because if you were good you did not know how good you were and if you were poor you didn't know how poor you were. It was great competition.

     I saw Franklin play in the semis and thought we could not beat them unless we got Hinson off the court. I told Dinky "you have played some street ball so when we get up the court, give it to Matt or Becker and get in the low post. You don't have to score, just fake Hinson and go under him when he tries to block your shot." I told the other guys to hold the ball until you can get it to Dinky.

     The first three times down on offense Dinky got Hinson to touch him. It was tied 6 to 6 with Dinky making all his foul shots and Hinson came out of the game. By the time he came back in toward the end of the 3 quarter, we had established a 12 point lead. After trading baskets in the 4th we beat them by---- points. A great win against the most athletic team I have ever seen in Somerset County. In February, we played them in a regular season game and Hinson would not make the same mistakes. They beat us by 15 points. We lost four players to graduation and Matt went on to play at Central Connecticut.

     Dinky, Tom Watts, and Robert Tucker gave us great basketball in the early 80's. Watts was one of the top 3 athletes in my 45 years at Prep. Robert Tucker was the strongest player I coached at about 6'3" 225 lbs and a great leaper. I saw Robert dunk on Charles Barkley when he was a freshman at Richmond and Barkley played for Auburn. It was the early rounds of the NCAA tournament Richmond beat Auburn. Dinky was the first recruit for Jim Valvano at North Carolina State and played on the National Championship. Tom Watts played baseball and soccer at Washington College in Maryland.

    The '82-'83 season was the beginning of another great group. We were 18-5 with Jeff Hennesy, Tom Balsamides, John Sierotro and other contributing upper classmen. Freshman Stacy Adams would take over the starting point guard job by the end of the season and would become the best true point gurard in my 45 years of coaching. Bill Dixon came on strong as a junior and by the time he committed to Tufts College he was 6'11". He went on to play for the Washington Generals tour and then tour in Europe with the Globetrotters. Between '83 and '86 the game plan was to give the ball to Stacy Adams and let it happen. Prep won many State, Conference and County Championships in those 3 years. 

     John O'Connell, then coaching in Boca Raton, Florida, got us in a christmas tournament in Boca. His team was not good enough for that tournament and I was not sure we were. Stacey Adams, Dean Starker, and Bill Coyer were seniors and all under 5'10" and 6'3" Jason Tucker 6'4" David Dixon were juniors. We played a big catholic high school , Pope John Paul in the first round and they were really good. I honestly did not think we could beat them but I forgot we had Stacey. Headlines in the Miami Herald and the Fort Lauderdale Sentinel read "Showtime for Stacey." The next game, we played one of the biggest teams in south Florida, Coconut Creek High School. They had a big team and the center was from Camden, NJ. Jason Tucker was a real athlete and quick off the backboards and David Dixon was strong and a great rebounder. Coyer was a little gym rat, stealing passes and getting to every loose ball. Starker was a great shooter, when Stacey made a move, he was always doubled  and Starker would be clear for a jumper or have a lane to the basket. They all played well together and got another great win for prep.

     After the game, The local Miami T.V. broadcaster interviewed Stacey and he said " we really enjoyed watching you play the last 2 nights." A soft "thank you" barely came out of Stacey's mouth. "You must have a good coach," he said to Stacey " with all the backdoor plays and defensive traps, he must teach you and your teammates a lot, right?" After thinking a moment Stacey said "I guess so, all he really teaches us is how to win." That was probably the best compliment I received in 45 years.

      In the winter of '86-'87 juniors Rick Lloyd , Chris Miller and Bill Slackman came to prep and joined Tucker and Dixon. With the addition on junior Sean Lewis, we had a great team winning the conference, county and state titles. We were 26-3 that season and had a group I really enjoyed coaching. It was one of the best teams I coached. Senior, Dave Dixon went to Lafayette and Jason went on to play at Nicholas College. I remember Jasonscored 33 points against L.S.U. that year, against Shaquille O'Neal. After the game he said they got 20 points after they took Shaq out.

      The next year we also had great success winning the conference, county and state championships and finishing with a 27-4 record. All county and all state player Rick Lloyd teammed up with BIll Slackman to be the top scoring guards I coached. Sean Lewis Darryl Breyer, and Chris Miller took care of the rebounds. Chris just knew how to play the game. Bill Slackman played point guard for me and went on to play off guard at Tufts and became one of the top 3 point shooters in division III. Rick Lloyd went to Brown where he ran the point and was all Ivy League. He played a year in Europe after graduation.

      I had Rick at the shooting guard and Bill at the point. After they played in college someone said to me "if you had them in the right position you would have been 28-3 instead of 27-4."

      The 90's started with the same success as the 80's. Brian Lloyd came to prep as a junior and joined Paul McLaughlin to form another high scoring back court. Both scored their 1,000th point during this season. Colin Simons was a strong post player, Doug Brown and 6'5" Tim Ruiz were tough inside defenders. We were 24-7 that year. In the county tournament against Immaculata, we won my 626th career game to break New Jersey's state record for number of wins at one school.

     We went to Florida to play in a Christmas tournament at St. Andrews where Johnny "O" coaches. It was a very competitive tournament with Prep playing St. Andrews in the finals. They had a thin 7 foot center and I felt sorry for him because Colin Simons beat the kid up. With Colin handling the big kid and setting up screens for Paul and Brian, we won. Brian Lloyd was a pure 6'4" shooter , one of the best. He went to Brown, was all Ivy League and played pro ball in Europe for a year or two. To finish the first part of the 90's we had pretty good teams with some great wins.

      In '94-'95 we had some talent with Jamie Jeminez a 6'5" 230lb kid with great skills, hard working Scott Sienkiewicz and two sophomores Jason Maikos and Joe Ziznewski. Jamie played at Boston University and Scott played at Brown. Joe, as a sophomore had great talent and great jumping ability to go along with a 6'6" frame. I thought I had a real division I player on my hands. Unfortunately he got lyme disease that went undiagnosed for too long, he could never perform at the level expected.

     We all had a good run and the over 1,000 games I coached, I had a good time. I enjoyed coaching kids to push the ball up the court with no turnovers and get a good shot. Most of the teams knew they had to score 80-85 points to beat us and almost 300 did, but over 700 did not.