Scholastic Roundup: Hey Utrecht, don’t forget Spencer Ross

June 2, 2023 Andy Furman

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It’s time – for Spencer Ross.

The New Utrecht High School alum is a member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame; the New York State Baseball and Basketball Halls – and soon-to-be inducted in the Brooklyn Sports Hall.

But not in Utrecht’s Hall of Fame.

Spencer Ross has called play-by-play for every professional New York metropolitan area sports franchise, including the Yankees of MLB, the Nets and Knicks of the NBA and, in the NHL for the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and New York Rangers.

Ross turned pro in 1967 as the very first announcer for the then New Jersey Americans in the American Basketball Association.

And one season with the Boston Celtics – that was 1995 when the kid from 1335 50th Street in Borough Park was lured to Boston to call their games thanks to Celtics Hall of Fame Coach Red Auerbach and broadcasting legend – and Ross’s friend – James Madison grad Marty Glickman.

“I would very much like to give the commencement address at a (New Utrecht) graduation ceremony,” Ross told the Brooklyn Eagle.

Ross was a basketball star at New Utrecht. “As a junior, we should have won the City Championship,” said Ross, a member of the Utes’ class of 1958. “We lost to Thomas Jefferson, at Madison Square Garden in the Opening Round of the playoffs, 82-58.”

Utrecht led 28-27 at the half. Ross earned a basketball scholarship to Florida State University.

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Lenny Hershkovitz, a linebacker and tight-end who captained New Utrecht’s football teams from 1961-1963 – he was a 2022 Hall of Fame inductee — played the role of the proud grandpa, Monday.

His granddaughter Ava banged out three-hits – including the winning run – as her Archbishop Molloy High School Stanners softball team topped Xaverian, 3-2 at St. John’s University in the GCHSAA Brooklyn-Queens playoffs.

Nazareth High School’s boys varsity basketball moves from the CHSAA’s ‘A’ Division into the top-ranked ‘AA’ division next season. Gary Ervin’s Kingsmen finished last season with a 26-1 record – 18-0 in league play – and were runners-up to Msgr. Farrell High School for city champions.

Ervin played his high school basketball at Brooklyn’s Robeson High School, went to Notre Dame Prep (2002-02) where he helped Bill Barton’s team go 30-9 with a national top-eight finish and a pair of tournament titles – the Maine Central Institute Classic and the War on the Shore Tournament.

Ervin averaged 17 points and seven assists per-game during his senior year. He played college basketball for Mississippi State University and the University of Arkansas. He last played for the Chorale Roanne Basketball of the French LNB Pro B.

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St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Greenpoint has started their first girls’ volleyball team in parish history this spring.

Frank Carbone, the school’s president initiated the move from a club team to CYO competition – and he now serves as the head coach.

Carbone is the former athletic director and women’s basketball coach at St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn.

Juliette Gorczyca, the team captain, is an eighth-grade middle hitter. The team is comprised of girls from grades five through eight and competes in the CYO Intermediate Division.

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The San Jose Barracuda, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, announced that LIU standout Anthony Vincent has signed a contract for the 2023-24 season.

Prior to turning pro, Vincent skated in 36 games with LIU in 2022-23, tallying 37 points – 17 goals, 20 assists.

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Sheily Quezada, a 5-7 Medgar Evers College basketball freshman is the NCAA statistical champion for blocked-shots-per-game. The EBC High School for Public Service, Bushwick, graduate averaged 4.3 blocks-per-game during the 2022-23 season (23 games).

In addition to Quezada’s 4.3 swatted-shots-per-contest, she also tied Haverford’s Cortlyn Morris for the NCAA Division III lead in blocked shots, as they both swatted 102. Quezada needed just 23 games to accomplish the feat, while Morris did it in 26.

Quezada’s season-high for blocked shots in a game was eight – a feat she accomplished three times, all against CUNYAC opponents (CCNY twice, and John Jay). She also totaled seven blocked three times, against USMMA, Baruch and Lehman. She’s already second on Medgar Evers’ all-time blocks list for her career. She sits just 10 blocks shy of surpassing the school’s all-time record-holder, Shauntelle Nelson, who blocked 111 shots over a four-year career as a Cougar (2005-2009).

“Sheily Quezada is an exceptional basketball player, and she represented our program sensationally last season,” Coach Rodney Carr said. “This is an incredible feat for her. We’re very proud.”

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The bubble burst for Kingsborough Community College’s baseball team when they dropped the Northeast District championship to Northern Essex Community College with a two-game series sweep by a score of 5-2 Sunday morning.

Northern Essex CC is headed back to the NJCAA World Series for the second-consecutive season and ninth-time overall.

St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn graduate student Louis Lombardi – a St. Edmund Prep grad – represented the Bears baseball team on the All-Skyline Conference Second Team as a utility player.

Lombardi made 10 appearances on the mound, pitching for a total of 44.2 innings, leading the side with 46 strikeouts while averaging 9.27 strikes-per-nine-innings. In March, Lombardi struck out a combined 20 batters in games against Framingham State and Yeshiva en-route to his second-career Pitcher of the Week award. Lombardi added to his cause in both of his appearances with three hits including a triple.

Offensively, Lombardi finished second on the team with 28 RBI and a pair of homers – thanks to a four RBI game against Manhattanville and three-RBI against USMMA. He finished the season with a .425 slugging percentage.

Lombardi concludes his collegiate playing career with 98 hits, 69 RBI, 42 runs-scored and a .416 slugging percentage. He also totaled 129.2 innings-pitched in five seasons in a Bears uniform with 130 strikeouts.

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Senior Maeve McKeon of the St. Joseph’s University softball team was named First-Team All-Skyline Conference to lead five all-conference selections for the Bears.

Juniors Bella Gomez and Arianna Heinsch – Fontbonne Hall Academy – sophomore Lauren Van Der Kamp and freshman Brooke Horn were all named to the conference’s Second Team.

McKeon finished the regular season with 25 hits and a .352 batting average. She had a .427 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .451.

Gomez, a second baseman, placed second in RBI (22) and runs scored (27) and third in hits (36) while batting .333 and posting a .439 on-base percentage. Her team-leading 12 stolen bases placed her fourth in the conference.

Heinsch earns her second all-conference selection. She opened the season with a four-for-five game against Crown College and concluded the regular season on a seven-game hit streak with three-for-three games against Yeshiva and Sarah Lawrence. In 109 at-bats, the junior produced a team-leading 43 hits, 32 runs and a .468 on-base percentage. She was second in batting (.394) and slugging (.541).

Van Der Kamp joins Heinsch in the second-team outfield. The sophomore led the team with a .424 batting average while ranking second with a .449 on-base percentage – good for sixth in the Skyline – and 39 hits. She also slugged at a .489 clip and drove in 16 runs.

Horn rounds out the Bears’ five all-conference selections as a second-team pitcher.

Tossing 97 innings, the rookie finished the season with an 11-4 record. She posted a 2.60 ERA with 101 strikeouts – the first Bear since 2012 to strike out north of 100 batters in a single-season. She yielded 36 earned runs. In fact, she struck out 12 batters against Yeshiva and 11 against Lehman en-route to her first collegiate perfect game.

As a team, the Bears finished with a 25-14 record and a 13-5 mark in league play. Their third-place finish in the conference standings, along with their .641-win percentage were both the best in Danielle Fazzolare’s eight-year coaching tenure.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR