Sports

Scholastic Roundup: for Brooklyn Tech Hoops, just what they needed

January 5, 2024 Andy Furman

Last year’s edition of the Medgar Evers College women’s basketball team. Photo: CUNY athletic conference

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The Brooklyn Tech basketball Engineers’ three-game basketball losing streak came to an end last Friday.

They came out on top against John Jay, 61-51. The win was just what Tech needed coming off a 68-35 defeat in their prior meeting.

Baseer Mirza scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds with three blocks for the Engineers. That was the first-time this season Mirza posted two-or-more blocks. The team also got some help courtesy of Chadwyck Beckford, who scored 13 points along with nine rebounds.

Tech’s win bumped their record up to 6-4. John Jay fell to 4-5.

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The 41st Annual Original South Florida Basketball Fraternity luncheon — staged last month at Deer Creek Country Club — named Jack Kaminer the recipient of the Marty Groveman “Good Guy” Award.

Kaminer played basketball for Eastern District High School and attended Long Island University on a basketball scholarship. He taught at the elementary school level at three New York City high schools and at CCNY.

Jack Kaminer, who coached at the high school and college levels for 32 years.
Photo: screengrab

His coaching resume includes 32 years at the high school and college level, including successful stints at Wingate High School, Franklin K. Lane, Truman and Scarsdale High School. He’s been inducted in three Hall of Fames and was named “Coach of the Year” 14 times in his career. In 2002 he was inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kaminer and his wife Paula founded and directed Focus for a Future which provides scholarships for young boys and girls from under-served communities to attend for-profit summer camps and experience the unique benefits gained by attending such camps.

Last year he placed 391 children in 126 summer camps — which translates to $3,268,000. Focus for a Future has awarded almost $34 million in scholarship assistance.

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“We’re considering changing the name of this award to the Marty Groveman “Mensch of the Year” Award,” notes Mike Saunders, the Newtown High School grad who was named Trainer of the Year in 1994 and was the NBA All-Star trainer in 1986 and 1998, while working for seven New York Knickerbocker coaches who are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Saunders has since become an author. His book, “Life Sentence,” filled with quotes, is available from Amazon.

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Spencer Ross remembers former St. Francis-Brooklyn basketball coach Danny Lynch. “Those weekly coaching luncheons at Mama Leone’s were great,” Ross wrote after reading about Lynch and the quest for a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “It was great stories told by great people. and no one took command of the floor, or got more laughs. than Danny Lynch. He talked hoops, but could have been a star stand-up comic.”

Ross says he vividly remembers some of his players. among the best in the city at the time: Hank Daubenschmidt, Ron D’Elia and Lester Yellin.

“I watched their games on Channel 9,” Ross continued, “And remembered they played their home games at the 2nd Corps Artillery Armory and later at the 69th Regiment Armory, also home to many Knicks games.”

As for Ross, a New Utrecht grad, he received a basketball scholarship to Florida State but turned pro behind a microphone in 1967 as the very first announcer for the New Jersey Americans in the American Basketball Association.
Former Boston Celtics Hall of Fame coach Arnold (Red) Auerbach (Eastern District High School) lured the kid from 1335 50th St. in Borough Park to Boston to call their games in 1995.

Daniel J. (Danny) Lynch, former St. Francis College basketball coach, as seen in his heyday.
Photo: Daniel Lynch Jr.

Ross has done play-by-play for the New York Stars (World Football League) and New York Sets (World Team Tennis), won the first Emmy Award for any New York Yankee announcer, and called pre-season on television for both the New York Giants and New York Jets.

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

Former St. Francis College-Brooklyn women’s basketball coach Dianne Nolan — who was hired by Lynch when he served as both basketball coach and athletic director at the school — had this to say after reading about the former coach:

“A fantastic article about a remarkable man,” she wrote. “Hopefully the powers to be (Hall of Fame) are listening.”

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It was a dominating performance for Medgar Evers College sophomore Sheily Quezada. She scored game highs of 20 points, 15 rebounds, six blocked shots and two steals as the women’s basketball Cougars upped their record to 4-3 with a 55-46 win over the Panthers of Old Westbury last week.

The Medgar Evers College men’s basketball team dropped a pair of games in the 2023-24 Dr. Carol V. Decosta/Go 4 the Goal Tournament last weekend, falling to the Spartans of Castleton University, 97-65, last Friday and dropping an 88-83 decision to the Mount Aloysius Mounties in the consolation game a day later.
SUNY Purchase won the tournament, picking up a dominating 74-52 over Castleton in the championship game on Saturday.

Medgar Evers freshman Nicholas Guillen scored a team-high 20 points in the Castleton game. Three Cougars scored 16 points or more in the loss to the Mounties. Veteran Joshua Jean Pierre finished with a team-high 19 points; Guillen scored 16, and Andre Evans Jr. added 16.

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Senior guard Ericka James scored a game-high 21 points for the Brooklyn College women’s basketball team, but it wasn’t enough to knock off host Nazareth University, falling to the Golden Flyers in the final game of the Sandy DeWolf McCormack Memorial Holiday Tournament, Saturday, 65-46. Brooklyn moved to 6-5 overall with the non-conference loss.

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Tindra Hom made a season-high 55 saves, but the LIU women’s hockey team fell to No. 8 Quinnipiac, 7-0, Saturday. LIU still remains unbeaten in conference play at 14-0.

Second-year head coach Kai Dugquem and the LIU men’s volleyball team are looking to repeat their successes from last season when they won the inaugural NEC men’s volleyball championship.

Key players for the Sharks — who received five first-place votes and were picked first in the preseason coaches’ poll released by the Northeast Conference — include Gio Collazo, Kassey Clouet and Jack Sarnowski.

Collazo was the team’s MVP last season at outside hitter. He tallied a team-high 170 digs, 48 kills and 20 aces in 27 matches.

Clouet, a 6-6 middle blocker, led the NEC and ranked 10th in Division I in blocks per set with 1.046. In 27 matches. he recorded 64 kills, 41 digs and a team-high 91 blocks.

Sarnowski is a key transfer from Division II King University in Bristol, Tenn. In his four seasons at King, he tallied 2,163 assists, 286 digs, 79 kills and 111 blocks in 62 career matches.

The Sharks open their season January 10 at Concordia.

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