And suddenly, the sports world stopped

 

All week long, it felt like the world's walls were closing in on anyone involved with sports.

The year 2020 had so much promise to it, and when the spring season began in Putnam County, there were those individuals and teams who had a chance of taking the county -- all of us, really -- on a long adventure.

One of those teams was the Palatka High School softball team. The Panthers were dynamite ready to explode on the rest of their competition that season after coming off a 19-8 year that saw them reach the state tournament for the first time in six years and give the No. 1 team in the state, Eustis, a run for its money before falling in the opening round of the state tournament on Eustis' field, 1-0.

Most of the pieces of that incredible team were back in 2020. The battery of senior pitcher Brittney Funk and junior catcher Carlie Drew returned. The team's main power supplier, senior first baseman Kortney Booth, was also back, as was senior shortstop Jaden Musgrove, senior third baseman-outfielder Jesenia Feggins, senior outfielder Julia Hudson, sophomore outfielder Makenzie Clemons, and pitcher-third baseman Aubrey Brown.

This team was loaded. Coach Brandi Malandrucco, the first former player in the program's player (as Brandi Holley) to ever coach the Panthers, was the Palatka Daily News' Coach of the Spring honoree in 2019. She knew how good this team was, but there was one obstacle in the way in the Panthers' new District 5-3A. That was a very good and established Pierson Taylor team.

The season, though, did not get off to a good start. I was there at Palatka when the Panthers made too many mistakes in the field and didn't get the job done in an 8-5 loss to Keystone Heights. But after that loss, they got rolling. The Panthers beat Menendez and Clay. The next week at home against Eustis in the rematch of that regional first-round game, they were down 4-0 after three innings, but chipped away while team newcomer and North Marion High transfer Amy Kennedy was making her way back from Arizona earlier in the day. She got into the game late, pitched scoreless relief, then delivered the game-winning double in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Eustis, 6-5.

The Panthers were on their way to big things. That weekend, they won the county tournament by beating Peniel Baptist Academy, Crescent City and Interlachen. Then on back-to-back days, March 10-11, they slaughtered Menendez and Yulee by a combined 27-1 score.

Their win streak was at nine games and they sat at 9-1 going into their final game of the week -- and this one was going to test how far the Panthers could or might go in the state tournament. They were facing district rival Pierson Taylor at home.

Good times never seemed so good, once sang Neil Diamond in "Sweet Caroline." But all that week, what was happening outside of this little cocoon was pretty ugly.

The COVID-19 pandemic had started in late January in this country, began spreading throughout the U.S. in February, but it didn't have a grip on us just yet. However, there was no denying the numbers were growing. And with the apathy being paid to it by a presidential administration, calling it nothing more than a "Democratic hoax," there was no telling how bad this virus was going to get.

Then came the night of Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The bulletin had come over our newswire that night -- Utah Jazz star player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. Suddenly, the Jazz's game with the Oklahoma City Thunder was canceled. So were other games. And suddenly, March Madness was coming to an end in the snap of a finger with conference tournaments being canceled.

Major League Baseball put its operations on hold, which absolutely positively sucked because I had invested in over $100 in tickets to spring training games THAT UPCOMING WEEKEND in Fort Myers with games involving the Red Sox and Twins at two stadiums I've never seen games at before.

The only pillar that seemed to not be crumbling was involving high school sports. The softball game between the Panthers and Pierson Taylor's Wildcats was still on that -- ironically -- Friday the 13th.

So I had planned to write my Saturday column on the pandemic and it's plight among our county high school and college teams.

As I arrived at Palatka for this pivotal softball battle between the two best teams in the district, nothing about the mood changed much. Fans were still engaged on what was happening between the white lines on both sides. I got the rosters upstairs and saw our freelance photographer, Greg Oyster, before the game. We had done away with full-time photographers as of October 2019, a move that I still look upon as brilliant for a newspaper like us (THAT was said with sarcasm and I still don't hold back on my criticism of that matter).

I jotted down the lineups upstairs above the softball field, then went outside onto the deck to cover this game. Immediately, the Wildcats of coach Richard Gonzalez were scheming on how to put the Panthers in an early vice grip against Funk. It started with leadoff hitter Deana Cunningham. She singled to left and stole second base on the very next pitch. Karen Kelly walked. Avery Harcus fouled out to Hudson in right field, but on the play, Cunningham sped to third base. Kelly would steal second to put two runners in scoring position.

Ava Ramos, whose mom Tonya I've known for years as Pierson Taylor High volleyball coach, lofted a single into right field to plate Cunningham and send Kelly to third. Kailey Poole delivered a sacrifice fly to Clemons in center field to bring in Kelly to make it 2-0.

Harcus was the hard-throwing junior hurler Gonzalez had, but he chose to throw a seventh-grader named Hailey Whidden instead. Whidden could mix and match off-speed pitches and have Panthers hitters chasing the entire evening. And she did for the first three innings, not allowing the Pamthers anything good to get a bat on.

However, the Panthers had a rally in the fourth that was about to make things interesting. They had runners on first and second with two outs, but Kennedy hit a soft pop up to second baseman Hannah Worden to end the threat.

Just looking at the body language of Malandrucco, I could see a tinge of frustration since Whidden was not giving her team anything good to get a hold of and that it was a matter of time before Harcus came in to end the game early if Gonzalez wanted to.

Funk pitched 3 2/3 innings, but now gave way to Kennedy, who could challenge opponents with her heat and riseball. Taylor, however, was about to challenge Kennedy in the fifth inning, threatening to put the game away. Kelly hit a booming triple to right field, Harcus was hit by a pitch and Ramos walked to load the bases. However, Kennedy gained her composure and struck out the next three hits she faced to get the Panthers out of the jam and keep hope alive.

But once again, Whidden frustrated Panthers hitters. In her five innings of work, Whidden finished with four hits allowed, one walk and one strikeout. It was time for Harcus to finish things up. She had little trouble with the Panthers in the sixth.

After Kennedy finished up a two-hit effort in 3 1/3 innings with one walk, one hit batsmen and eight strikeouts with a flawless top of the seventh, it was now down to Harcus to finish it out.

Then again, these Panthers showed how resilient they were, starting with last season. They had the first two batters make outs, but Musgrove, who had two hits on the evening, walked. Drew hit a groundball that third baseman Ramos flubbed for the Wildcats' third error of the night, and suddenly, both runners were in scoring position.

The Panthers' faithful were up and cheering loudly for its team. This group had nothing to be excited about all night against a Wildcats club that got the job done. And now it was up to Booth to deliver the hit and tie this game.

But she fell behind Harcus. Then on a 2-2 pitch, she hit an easy grounder to Worden, who threw her out at first base to end the game, scoring the 2-0 shutout and ending the Panthers' nine-game winning streak.

That, though, was secondary. Malandrucco and assistant coach Mindi Buckles were talking to the team afterward. It was there she had to deliver the bad news to her players that did not know beforehand that a trip scheduled for the next day to Orange Park to play Ridgeview High School was canceled.

When she finished talking with her team, her players began tending to the field as they normally do. I can see the look on Malandrucco's face was glum. I had a feeling I knew why.

She showed me her phone and the email Palatka High athletic director Bobby Humphries had sent. It basically read that all sporting events as of that night (this game was allowed to be played) were postponed due to the growing pandemic.

Reality was slowly setting in and not only did I have a story to write on this game, I had a column to bang out and have everything done in 90 minutes after I arrived back at 8:45 p.m. from my game. I found Musgrove. One of their team leaders, she tried to paint a picture of optimism and of hope, like this will go away in a short time and all will be back to normal.

But when it came to this subject and not having a game the next day, you can see her mood and face changed. She said, "We were just talking before the game about the fact that tomorrow's game was canceled. I was really upset about it. I looked at coach Mal and said, 'Our game's canceled tomorrow,' and she said, 'Don't talk to me about it. I don't want to talk about it.'"

Then she continued on by saying, "This is the moment I've been waiting for since freshman year. Senior year was going to be my time and the seniors' time to shine. And that's all we really wanted. If this was our last game, it would be devastating to us because this year is so important to us."

And she was right -- this isn't college where you can redshirt your way to another senior year. High school, it's black and white -- you get it one time and one time only. That slumping, ugly feeling was beginning to come splashing over this talented group of Panthers.

At 9-2 -- and even after this loss -- they were still prime to go places when the postseason began. The mistakes they made on this Friday night were fixable. Malandrucco said so. If you saw this game, you'd agree. Give Pierson Taylor its props. The Wildcats wanted it a little more on this particular night.

But as far as keeping a stiff upper lip and remaining positive that this was temporary, the truth was right there upon everyone. No vaccine to stop this and the death toll was about to rise from the coronavirus. 

"I have to sit back and impatiently wait on what I can and can not do," Malandrucco said. "As of right now, we can not be near the girls if they want to go to practice. It's like back to preseason where they can't be on the campus, can't use the facility and if they want to go play or throw or hit, they have to be at a whole different place to go that isn't PCSD (Putnam County School District), and the coaches can't be anywhere near them."

But the coach remained optimistic.

"I don't see this being our last game. I don't. If (the state) get ahead of this and tries to squash this as early as they can and keep everyone in spot and try to keep everyone in their homes and hope (the virus) doesn't spread, maybe we can play again. There's a lot of uncertainty. I'm trying to be patient."

And so I left with a lot of people back at that field wondering if they should say, "See you later," or "Good luck next year." It was sobering.

But in my heart of hearts, I knew I was never returning to this field for another game this year.

I wrote the column and story for my boss, Andy, and we got the paper out as we normally did that night with few local games being played on this day (Interlachen and Crescent City baseball played that night, too).

Now with my original vacation plans with my better half gone, Kamesa and I decided we should go north instead of south. Instead of Fort Myers, we chose Savannah to do a two-day, one-night trip that Sunday and Monday since I took the day off from work on that March 16. But even in Savannah, we knew all the possible St. Patrick's Day plans were about to be put down by this virus no one had an answer for other than masks or just staying home.

Social was now no way to go. I had to prepare for a new way of sports thinking without any action going on.

The high schools were now not only on spring break, but they were on sports hiatus. St. Johns River State's baseball and softball seasons were both gone and never returning that spring.

Andy and I made the decision that instead of having our All-County winter teams come out in May like they normally do, we would run them starting the following week. And so we did. Girls basketball, which Andy wrote, was first up. They went into the paper on March 25 with the girls player of the year (Interlachen's Malea Brown) and the girls basketball player of the year the following day.

But it was that Thursday, March 26 that I walked into the Daily News building and saw Andy come out of our editor's office and walking to me to tell me I was in charge now. The paper decided to furlough him.

I won't lie -- I was bitter and I was pissed off that my partner in crime of 17 1/2 years was being sent away, but in fairness, he was not in the best of health. Suddenly, I had no time off because, well, I WAS the sports department.

As for the state high school sports world, it became official on Monday afternoon, April 20, 2020 -- the FHSAA shut down all athletic competition until the following year. Just as I expected it would happen. And those seniors who were hoping to have a final year to enjoy and make a final name for themselves ... that was gone. Other than being born between late 2001 and the first seven or eight months of 2002, it was not their fault that a virus screwed them completely over.

Before long, I had one-page sports sections and had to basically come up with sports stories to have something local on a regular basis.

Eventually, I got two weeks off in the Summer of 2020 and went back to New Jersey as Andy did return for one last time to lay out the paper and help me out. He would pretty much be my assistant and even take charge on some nights between August and October before his health was grew worse.

Then on my birthday in 2020, I got the greatest gift of all -- I found out I tested positive with COVID. Without Andy around regularly anymore, it was left to me to lay out the sports section from the confines of MY OWN PLACE the following week!! I got through that and on December 15, 2020, I officially became sports editor.

Eventually, Andy passed away on August 17, 2021. I've had two assistant editors/writers since then.

Things changed dramatically, and I can pinpoint that night -- that Friday the 13th -- for when they did.

I think about that transitional time. I think about what happened to my boss. I think about those seniors that had the carpet pulled out from under them.

And I think of the Palatka High softball team and how so much greatness that was put in front that team got taken away from the Panthers that night. All of it could have been avoided, but it wasn't. I'd understand the anger and the hurt.

Nonetheless, the walls and pillars crumbled and no one could do a thing about it.

An Ocean County kegler's delight

 

One of the best gigs I ever had covering high school sports was bowling.

Yes, I did not stutter with my written words there. For the most part, the best part for the 15 years I did it was getting the results from the two bowling houses I used to deal with every week during the winter -- Ocean Lanes in Lakewood and Thunderbowl in Berkeley Township in a strip mall that no longer exists. Steve Vandegrift was wonderful to talk to in getting results every Wednesday.

That, honestly, was about 90% of the work. The rest of it really was postseason stuff. There was the Shore Conference Tournament for the top teams in each division from Ocean and Monmouth counties. There was the NJSIAA sectional tournaments for which if you finished Top 3 as a team, you qualified for the biggie every year -- the NJSIAA championships.

Over the years, the site for the championships moved around quite a bit. My first experience of covering the state final was in 1988 at the old Showboat in Atlantic City. On the surface, the idea to hold the state final in New Jersey's playground was intriguing and enticing, but when kids were sneaking out of the bowling house in between games to go next door to play slot machines, the NJSIAA had to reconsider this idea.

So in 1989, they moved the event to Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick alongside Route 1. The house got a big reputation, so much so that it was hosting the Johnny Petraglia Open there -- and where ABC would bring their cameras and crew and shoot the event live every year. I know -- in 1991, I had to step over some the thickest cables I ever laid eyes on to get through the front door to cover the NJSIAA championship, which started at 9 a.m. and needed EVERYONE out of the building by noon for the 1 p.m. telecast on ABC because BOTH events were being held that day.

Interestingly, that was the one year between 1987-92 that Ocean County did not walk away with a state title of some kind. In 1992 at Carolier Lanes, it was Lacey High newcomer Danielle Davis winning the girls overall state title. In 1987, Southern Regional's Debbie Freeman won the overall girls state championship and the Toms River High School North boys won the state team title. In 1988, North's Jay Stanton, who had a gaudy 220 average at Ocean Lanes that year, won the boys individual state title. And in 1989, a Lakewood High sophomore named Addie Dix won the girls state individual title.

And there were other things I witnessed after I started covering the state championship -- in 1988, highly touted Toms River North's boys team, coached by beloved band leader Frank Hughes, came up short in repeating as a state champion, taking second place, though Stanton won individually. The following year, Brick High's boys team coached by the wonderful Al Grove came up second, even with a star-studded pair of seniors Gabe Kamphausen and Kevin Musiakiewicz. 

But 1990 had the makings of one of the best bowling seasons Ocean County ever saw. Though Kamphausen and Musiakiewicz were gone and in college, Grove's team was not depleted by any means. He had two senior mainstays back in Mike DeTata and the young man who I called the "bowler's bowler" in Anthony Bilello, a longtime kegler who would go on to coach college bowling one day. DeTata and Bilello were the Mutt and Jeff of the team, DeTata being shorter and stalky and Bilello taller and lanky.

Still, you need a supporting cast to take you places and Grove's Green Dragons had that in Mike Ulrich, Tom Lucas and Tony DiGironimo, It was as if this team did not miss a beat week after week.

The Green Dragons had been the county's best bowling team in the six years I had covered the sport on the boys side. The best team on the girls' side? That was Brick Memorial, who was coached by Marie Kobilnyk. She took the program over the year I started covering the sport in 1984. And her teams were always consistent and had reached the state finals a few times. But something would always happen and the hopes of a state title died on those oiled-up alleys.

Except for one girl who graduated the year before, Dawn Hess, Kobilnyk had her whole team returning. This group of Mustang girls was led by Tracy Whitman and Eileen Ruddy, the team's lone seniors. They, like the Brick boys, had a strong supporting cast in Paula Yancis, Stephanie Sabatino and Gina Gioia, a freshman, putting them in the conversation to compete for a state championship.

Both the Brick boys and Brick Memorial girls were coming off stellar performances at the South Jersey championships in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken. Now could they finally duplicate that into state championships?

Saturday, March 3, 1990 was going to be the telling tale. I woke up very early -- like 7:30 a.m. early -- and was on the road by 8:15 for the 10 a.m. start to the NJSIAA finals at Carolier. Thankfully, I had been there the year before, so I knew once I got to the ridiculously cluttered intersection of Route 18 and Route (OK, US-) 1 in Middlesex County, I had to be in the right lane to make the jughandle to head south on 1 until I saw the house on the opposite side of the highway. Then I'd have to find the first jughandle and make a U-turn to head in the other direction to pull into the parking lot, which was barely sufficient for parking, but it worked on this day.

This is why you show up early for these big events!

I found out on this particular day from Grove, one of the most recognizable people you will ever meet with the Jerry Garcia-like glasses and long beard, that his team shared a yellow bus with the Brick Memorial girls to get to Carolier Lanes. On the other side of the house where the girls competed, I saw Kobilnyk, asked her how she was doing. After answering me, she nudged her head slightly to the crowd behind her team. Let's say Brick Memorial brought a large representation of fans to this event.

"We're going to be fine," she said.

The third person I needed to find was Dix, who was back to defend her championship. She was bowling with her Piner teammates and her coach, Madli Monesson, was watching intently behind her. You could sense some nerves there, but coach told me she had seen her star pupil, now a junior, do this plenty of times.

There was plenty of representation from the county at this large house on this cool March morning. Even among the talented North Jersey bowlers there, I was comfortable among the people I was there to cover that day.

Somehow, I had a feeling we were going to win a state title. What happened next, I didn't expect.

I positioned myself behind Brick's bowlers, who were rolling against a North Jersey team, though the school name escapes me. Brick High's boys did not bring a large contingent compared to their sister school's girls team, but they were loud. And the Green Dragons were on a roll. DeTata, DiGeronimo and Bilello were unstoppable. They rolled a 210, 208 and 202, respectively, in that first game. It was one strike after another.

When the game was done, I looked up at their screens above the ball returner.

Brick -- 1,001.

Sadly, I had been here before with North in 1988 and with Brick in 1989. My attitude was "Show me more." So I told Grove I'd return to him for Game 3 when I got the chance and that I was going to be over watching the Brick Memorial girls bowl.

Turns out, I didn't have to relocate them -- I just followed the noise their fans brought. They had to be loud for a reason and they did have a reason. In their first game, the Mustang ladies had bowled an 856 first game. They were well ahead at this point, so I wanted to hang around to see what the second game would bring.

By the middle of the second game, I was in need of earplugs ... desperately. EVERY strike the Mustangs girls nailed or even a simple spare was met by loud cheers. They followed the 856 first game with an impressive 890 second game. That put them up at 1,746 and over 170 pins ahead of JFK-Iselin. Unless they forgot how to bowl or JFK-Iselin put on a show that left jaws dropped in the third game, Brick Memorial was winning their first state title in the sport.

I took a quick walk down to where the Brick boys were. they followed 1,001 up with a 995 and at 1,996, it was still hit or miss, even if the Green Dragons had a 200-pin lead. Remember as I said -- I'd been here before.

I said I'd return again, but this time I wanted to watch Dix bowl with her Piner teammates. They were in the hunt for a top three placement because they weren't winning as a team. As mentioned, unless Brick Memorial went sleep-walking, the Mustangs were on their way to a championship. But after two games, Dix was leading the girls' individual competition. She had been consistent in rolling a 425 through two games, compared to Pascack Valley's Janine Cauwels, who had a 397.

Was I really dreaming this day? In one day, I would have been covering THREE state champions out of four opportunities at this event.

However, things changed for Dix. Suddenly she wasn't figuring out the alleys like she had in the first two games. She left frames open and had finished with a 172 final game to roll a 597. Cauwels, meanwhile, got going and nothing could stop her at her end of the alleys She bowled a 236 and ended up taking the state title away from Dix with a 633.

The calm, cool and laid-back Dix liked how she did on the day, but you can tell the disappointment on her face. It didn't end the way she was hoping it would end,

Meanwhile, the Brick Memorial fans didn't stop screaming every time one of the Mustangs did something. The third game ended with them rolling an 863. They put JFK-Iselin away by nearly 300 pins in the end with a final pinfall of 2,609. The numbers they put up on this day were insane, and here's the tragedy -- none of the Mustangs' quintet had qualified individually from the previous week's South Jersey championship. Yancis would have finished third with a 594 total.

Gioia, the freshman, rolled a 529. Sabatino finished at 511, Whitman at 503 and Ruddy had the low total of 472. I surely would have loved to average 157 per game each time I bowled.

"I had a lot of confidence in this team," Kobilnyk said afterward. "This was a team effort."

And over on the boys' side, Brick was finishing off its day to remember with its best game of the day -- a 1,021 to finish at 2,977, well ahead of second-place Linden. And two other county teams I was there to cover on this day -- Lakewood and Toms River East -- finished third and fourth, respectively.

Bilello finished third overall with a 635 pinfall, while DeTata was sixth individually at 626.

"Last year's team had mega-talent and we should've won the title," Bilello said. "This year's team is full of spirit. Everyone's bowling for the team, not for themselves."

Grove was playing the championship moment cool for he had one more surprise for his team -- and I knew what it was going to be. He had always told me over the years that the day his bowling team would win a state title, he'd shave his trademark beard off. It may have taken him 11 years as coach, but he kept a kit in a bag he brought with him to matches. There was the razor and there was the shaving cream.

And with his bowlers watching -- they may have been accurate on bowling lanes, but he wasn't trusting him with his whiskers -- Grove shaved off the beard as promised.

"I'll feel it when I go outside and the cold breeze hits me," said Grove. "I've wanted to shave it for years, but I needed a reason to do it. My wife likes the beard."

It was a different look I had to get used to at that point, especially covering softball that spring where Grove was head coach. He would coach both the boys bowling and softball teams until retiring in 1994. Sadly, we lost this wonderful man to cancer in 2011. He will always be one of my favorite coaches.

Oh, and that bus ride home -- I am sure that had to be the loudest-sounding bus in central New Jersey with two state champions aboard. 

I left after getting all the information I needed from that day and headed back the other way, though for some silly reason, I wanted to have lunch at the Big Boy's restaurant at the rest stop just over the Garden State Parkway. I did and headed back down the Parkway south to Toms River to get back to the Observer building to write about this amazing day.

Amazingly, a front-page story of not one, but TWO state championship teams ended up on the THIRD page of the sports section. I know .. WTF?! Don't ask me why ... I can't answer for my sports editor's decision then.

That

day at Carolier Lanes is still one of the most amazing ones I've ever witnessed. It was an Ocean County kegler's delighr.

If all days were quite like that one.