Whining & Winning

Let the complaining begin. Today as temperatures soar into the 90’s combined with increased humidity it will clearly be uncomfortable for most and we will be whining and complaining. We being the same people who vowed during a snowy winter they we would not moan and groan when summer-like weather sent the mercury rising. Of course we tend to have short-term memories. By now you know that many schools will be operating on shortened-days today, especially those with buildings and classrooms that do not have air conditioning. Central Regional High School will mark the end of its school year with graduation ceremonies tonight at 6pm. Central is finishing up a week earlier then most of the other public schools because they had a shortened spring recess and did not take some of the smaller holidays off. The motivation behind that was to save on money on energy costs, which skyrocket once air conditioning use increases which it certainly will over the next several days.

Brick beat Jackson Memorial 10-7 in the championship game of the Ocean County Baseball Tournament last night at Toms River East. Green Dragon senior Tim Carney capped a tremendous season by homering twice and pitching a complete game for his 10th win. Brick jumped out to a 7-0 lead over a Jaguars team that had lost in the finals of the Shore Conference Tournament just 24 hours earlier. Jackson rallied to make things interesting before Dylan McDonnell belted a two-run homer in the top of the 7th to give Brick some breathing room. The OCT title was the fifth for the Green Dragons, who finish a 22-6 season which also saw them claim a shore of the Class B South title. Meanwhile an emotional season ends for the A South champion Jaguars, who were rolling along on top of the world until an auto accident in mid-May claimed the life of senior James Volpe. Teammates rallied in his memory and every game was a tribute to Volpe but you have to wonder about the toll it took as Jackson came up short in all the late-season tournaments. However these young men learned the hard way that it’s not always about winning.

The Southern Regional Boys Volleyball team is just a win away from their third consecutive NJSIAA Championship after outlasting St. Joseph-Metuchen in three games in last night’s semifinals. 6’5 freshman Mike Gesicki, who had an impressive basketball season, keyed the Rams effort and helped Southern advance to tomorrow’s final against Fair Lawn at South Brunswick High School.