Positives In Sports

There’s so much negative in the sports world so I thought it would be nice to mention a few good things today…at least from a local standpoint.
Randy Holmes was a former star basketball player at Lakewood High School and last night came up a winner in his head coaching debut at his alma mater. The Piners rallied from 5 points down to start the fourth quarter to win at Central 65-63 in a battle to teams expected to compete for the Class B South championship. Holmes, who played his college ball at St. Peter’s, returned to Lakewood as an assistant to longtime coach John Richardson and was promoted to head coach when Richardson retired after last season.

On the girl’s side Central’s Meredith Parliman also collected her first career victory as the Golden Eagles used a big fourth quarter rally to win at Lakewood 48-42. Parliman was the middle school coach last season and only found out she’d be coaching the varsity last month. I’ve known her for years as she spends summers as a lifeguard on the 2nd Avenue beach in Seaside Park….my personal beach of choice.

Toms River North linebacker Zach Kane capped an outstanding high school football career by earning first team honors on the Associated Press All-State team. Kane is planning to continue playing football at the University of Miami.
A pair of his Mariner teammates collected third team honors…defensive end Austin Kugler and quarterback Anthony Penna. Also named to the third team were punter John Smicklo of Toms River East and Toms River South kicker Jake Delvento.

Point Pleasant Beach took a huge step towards winning the Class B Central wrestling title by knocking off defending champion Shore Regional 38-25 last night. The Garnett Gulls got big wins down the stretch from flu-ridden heavyweight Zach Fioretti and his cousin Taylor Fioretti.

So there you have it….a little time today to salute good things right here in Ocean County.