Welcome to the GMC Hoops Notebook section on the Elizabeth Summer League. This is a new feature that we are presenting here on our web site in response to all the team camps and summer leagues that are being run. This is basically going to be a section, where we'll talk about some of the goings on in the league as well as some games or players that have stood out during the course of the season.

GMC HOOPS NOTEBOOK: JULY 26, 2004--ELIZABETH SUMMER LEAGUE

This summer has been quite a good one for the folks at South Brunswick. That is including the Vikings' hard work at the Elizabeth Summer League that is being held at Jefferson House, and the Dunn Sports and Recreation Center in Elizabeth. South Brunswick recently finished the regular season with a 10-1 mark including wins over Rahway, Hillside, Summit, and Elizabeth. Their only loss came at the hands of the Minutemen.

In addition, South Brunswick has managed to do this without the full services of its star center, Dan Stonkus, who is one of only three players from the main varsity rotation this past year. The other two, Tommy Hill, and Coron Short are either injured (Hill), or playing another sport this summer (Short). However, that has given a lot of the young and eager talent that has had tremendous success these past two years to step up.

This group of players include: Mike Zwiren, Joe Clancy, Nick Fazio, Mike Micheck, Martin Soaries, Malcolm Soaries, Brian Morgan, and Devon Young. These players either played on the South Brunswick JV team, which was the top seed in this past year's GMC/East Brunswick JV Tournament, or on the South Brunswick Freshman team, which went 22-1 on the year this past season, was the top seed of the GMC/Perth Amboy Freshman Tournament, and ended up winning third place. The JV squad reached the Championship game, where they lost to host school, East Brunswick.

These kids have also played everywhere this summer. In addition to participating in the Elizabeth Summer League, the Vikings also have a very rigorous off season program, and are participating in a number of team camps and tournaments including Kean Team Week, which was back in June, Eastern Invitational, which was held two weeks ago at the College of New Jersey, the AND1 Tournament at Seton Hall, and the Metro Classic and the Summer Primetime Shootout. Not to mention individual camps for guys like Stonkus. Quite a summer for the Vikes. We feel that all this work is really going to pay off when the season gets underway in December.

Well, our other GMC team, the J.P. Stevens Hawks have had their struggles at Elizabeth this summer, with only a 3-7 record going into the last night of action on July 22nd. However, they have had some bright moments this summer including a seven point loss to a very talented and athletic Hillside team. In the game against the Comets, J.P. Stevens got 27 points from Andrew Biancosino, who is returning this coming season along with Ryan Washington, who is looking to improve over last year's fine season, Jason Callender, and Kenny Melford. Callender has been playing baseball with the American Legion season still going on while Melford has been playing AAU somewhat this summer.

The Hawks, which went 11-13 last year, beat Perth Amboy three times, and reached the GMCT Quarterfinals before losing a heartbreaker to Cardinal McCarrick, a team that they lost twice to last season, have also participated at the Kean Team Week back in June. While South Brunswick gets a bye in the first round, Stevens will be playing against Rahway in the nightcap of first round games. Speaking of Rahway, the Indians have gotten themselves together somewhat with four wins in their last six games to end up 4-6 on the summer, which earned them the 7th seed in the tourney. Three teams got byes: South Brunswick, Summit, which has another solid team returning including Wellington Smith, and Hillside, which looks to be a contender in both Union County and Group II.

South Brunswick is scheduled to play on Tuesday against the winner of the St. Joseph's vs. Westfield game. Westfield has gotten back on its feet after a slow start while St. Joseph's has had some good moments including a tough loss to Rahway, and a lopsided 56-34 victory over Stevens. If the Vikings win that one, they'll move on to the semis to perhaps take on Elizabeth, who plays Roselle in the first round, and then the winner of Curtis of Staten Island vs. Immaculata in the second round.

Greg Machos
Webmaster/Owner
GMC Hoops

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