Summer's Return

A little of this and a little of that after the most sensational October weekend I can ever remember at the shore.

As a matter of fact it was so nice I had to get my wife’s beach chair out of storage so she could go yesterday to the beach in Seaside Park. I had other things to do but Jane went with a couple of friends and said it was hot and crowded and the water was incredibly warm. The mild weather was a real boost to the Columbus weekend festivities in Seaside Heights as the traffic at times looked like a summer weekend. The October “heat wave” will break tomorrow and in a few days we’ll be pretty much in the 60’s which is more like it. The warm weather has been a dilemma for those who put away all their summer clothes but yours truly was not caught off guard…I have shorts on today.

Some 150 people were on hand Saturday night for a “Retirement Roast” of Denny D’Andrea at the Brick PAL building. D’Andrea recently retired from teaching at Brick Memorial High School and during much of his career he was a highly successful head and assistant wrestling coach. The tight-knit wrestling community was on to hand to pay tribute to him Saturday including many of his former wrestlers, among them state champs Bob Martin of Brick Memorial and Cary Broad of Manalapan. The diminutive D’Andrea was head coach at Freehold Boro for 5 years and then 5 at Manalapan before spending two decades at Memorial.
While no longer coaching he remains involved in the sport and is a goodwill ambassador. The retirement roast was organized by former Memorial head coach Tony Caravella.

I’ve broadcast a lot of high school football games over the years but few can match the excitement of Central’s dramatic come-from-behind 21-20 victory over Manchester Friday night which we carried on our Shore Sports Network. The visiting Hawks jumped out to a 20-0 lead behind the play of running back Joe Johnson and quarterback Tim Rogers and it looked like they would spoil Hall of Fame night at Joseph J. Boyd Field. However that was when Kalyph Hardy took over and put on a show few there will forget. He scored three touchdowns, including the game-winner from 8-yards out with 32 seconds left. Hardy, who might be the best athlete in the shore finished with 222 yards rushing…ten more than Johnson. The two met at midfield after the game and exchanged handshakes knowing that while the scoreboard didn’t say so…both were winners.