Over the past 40 years of having to select a worthy student/athlete to be that week’s Athlete of the Week, first at the now defunct Hudson Dispatch and now for the last three decades with the Hudson Reporter Newspapers, there might have been a more difficult decision than picking one over two other extremely worthy candidates.
So we decided that it made sense to honor the other two fine student/athletes and recognize their incredible accomplishments last week.
First, there’s Snyder’s junior running back Hezekiah Daise-Adams, who led the Tigers to a thrilling 32-30 victory over Newark Central. Daise-Adams had 235 yards and two touchdowns in the victory, the first of the young season for the Tigers.
“He’s a prototypical [Delaware] Wing-T back,” Snyder head coach Matt Gallo said. “He’s highly intelligent and highly athletic. The first two weeks, he was on the verge of breaking through with some big runs. Then it finally happened. I’m so happy it happened for the kid.”
Gallo was asked what the key reason was for the breakthrough game.
“I think he stopped thinking out there,” Gallo said. “I think he just let it loose. He was worrying way too much and it was hurting him. He just became focused and let his athleticism take over. He produced in a big way.”
Gallo is certain that there are bigger and better days ahead for Daise-Adams.
“I think he’s getting more comfortable with the offense,” said Gallo, who like his alma mater Hoboken went back to the Delaware Wing-T offense this season. “He was a wide receiver last year, but we moved him to running back. He worked out the whole summer and he’s just getting acclimated to that position.”
The other worthy candidate this week is Hudson Catholic junior running back Kai’leel Jefferson, who had 20 carries for 210 yards and four touchdowns in the Hawks’ 41-12 victory over Morris Catholic to improve to 2-1 on the young season.
Jefferson scored on runs of 42, 45, nine and five yards respectively, all of which came in succession over the span of the first, second and third quarters.
Everyone knew that Jefferson has speed to burn, having won a series of indoor and outdoor track meets over the last two years, including the United States Athletic Track and Field Federation 100-meter championship in 2018. Jefferson also was second in both the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter run at the NJSIAA Parochial B indoor championships last season.
But this was his first time to shine as a football player.
“We knew that the kid had tremendous speed,” said Hudson Catholic head football coach Lou Zampella. “He’s elusive. He’s similar to the kids we’ve had like [Jaheir] White [currently playing football at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts] and [Isaiah] Decias [who had a great career playing football and baseball at Hudson Catholic]. We knew he would be like those guys. We thought that Kai’Leel could be very good. He’s not fragile. He’s well put together. He’s just a little short.”
Zampella can identify with Jefferson, considering that the coach doesn’t stand much more than 5-foot-8.
“He just has explosive gears and disappears,” Zampella said. “He may be the fastest kid I ever coached. He’s awesome in track and having him on the team gives us a threat. Every time he touches the ball, he’s a threat. He makes you look good as a coach. He can make plays on his own.”
Safe to say that both Daise-Adams and Jefferson are speedsters to watch for the rest of the football season…
Speaking of the grid season – if you need proof that the new Ivy League Division of the New Jersey Super Football Conference works, look no further than the Memorial Tigers, who improved to 3-0 for the first time since 1998 with a thrilling 14-13 win over Cliffside Park last week.
Think about that one. Memorial hadn’t been 3-0 in 32 years. That’s astounding.
What’s also astounding is that for the last nine of those years, the head coach of the Tigers has seen his last name misspelled over and over again on these pages.
His name is Stefano Calderara, not Calderana like that has appeared here without correction. He prefers to go by the nickname of Bear, which is – of course – easier to spell. See what happens when you go 3-0. People spell your name right.
How about this? In Hudson County, there are only two undefeated football teams — St. Peter’s Prep, which happens to be the top-ranked team in the entire state, and Memorial. How about those apples, Matt Damon?
We’ll have more on the Tigers in the coming weeks…
It’s still unknown what the real reason why the Ferris-Dickinson game was postponed from Saturday afternoon until Monday night. The two teams were ready to go Saturday at Lincoln Park’s football stadium, dressed and awaiting kickoff. But rumor swirled around the stadium that five Ferris players tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19. At least, that’s what the officials assigned to the game heard.
If that were true, it would have been front page news on every local paper known to man, as well as every television news crew. As it turned out, one Ferris player had a fever.
The two teams were in uniform and the National Anthem was played. But as soon as the anthem was played, the two teams were shuttled off the field and sent back to their respective schools.
Needless to say, it was a complete chaotic catastrophe, one remedied when the two teams eventually played Monday night, with Dickinson winning 50-7.
Remember the game of “Telephone” that was played when we were all youngsters, that one kid would start a sentence and pass the word along to others and by the time it got to the last youngster, the message was so totally mangled? This was Hudson County’s version of “Telephone.”…
Weehawken had a 2-0 record to start the 2020 football season, but the fun times ended when the Indians lost to Emerson Borough last week.
In boys’ soccer, Dickinson improved to 6-1 with wins over McNair Academic and Ferris. The Rams’ lone loss is to undefeated power Union City. We will have more on the Rams next week…
Hudson Reporter High School Football Top Five: 1. St. Peter’s Prep (3-0). 2. Union City (2-1). 3. Hudson Catholic (2-1). 4. Hoboken (2-1). 5. Lincoln (2-1)…
Hudson Reporter High School Boys’ Soccer Top Five: 1. Union City (5-0). 2. Dickinson (6-1). 3. St. Peter’s Prep (5-2). 4. Hudson Catholic (3-1). 5. Weehawken (5-1)…–Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at OGSMAR@aol.com
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October 23, 2020 at 06:35PM
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TASTY TIDBITS - The Hudson Reporter
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