A Day for Reaching Milestones

Random notes and thoughts on a Wednesday morning, a morning in which I wish we had a delayed opening.

These are rough days for school superintendents with just about everyone questioning their decisions when it comes to closing schools or opting for delayed openings or early dismissals.  The most frequent critics are parents who are of course most concerned with their personal situations when it comes to getting children to and from school and things like child care.
However, in fairness, the decisions that are made have to take everyone into consideration including bus drivers, teachers and support staff and safety has to be the top priority.  The decision to close a school or go with a delayed opening is not an easy one and often includes consultation with local police and public works officials.  In the end it makes sense to error on the side of caution and usually that’s what happens.

Congratulations to Brick High School Ice Hockey coach Bob Auriemma, who collected his 700^th career victory last night when his Green Dragons topped St. John Vianney 8-2 at Jersey Shore Arena behind a “hat trick” from Andrew Reiss.  The winningest coach in state history, Auriemma is in his 51^st season at Brick and his current group is now 13-5-2.

Today is National Signing Day and that’s when high school senior football players can sign letters of intent with the colleges they will be attending in the fall.  Monmouth University will host its 7^th annual signing day celebration during which Coach Kevin Callahan will announce the members of the Hawks incoming class.

Our Shore Sports Network will carry a one-hour special from noon to 1pm hosted by football broadcasters Matt Harmon and Eddy Occhipinti. You can hear the live stream at shoresportsnetwork.com.  I will be at Monmouth for signing day but will start my morning at Southern Regional High School where Mike Gesicki is to sign his letter of intent to attend Penn State.  He is one of two shore players headed to Happy Valley with Manalapan’s Saeed Blacknall to also sign today with the Nittany Lions.

The area’s most sought after high school recruit, Red Bank Catholic lineman Quenton Nelson is headed to Notre Dame.  We will be posting pictures throughout the day on shoresportsnetwork.com