Post by ThomasMerton on Feb 7, 2006 22:02:28 GMT -5
Read and let's make a serious run for Bob Hurley. This one's a no-brainer. Likely, he wouldn't consider us, why not try. Visit the Heart.From the Jersey Journal:
When his time at St. Anthony High is over, basketball head coach Bob Hurley says he wants to be remembered most for send-ing, up to now, all but one of his players to the next level in college.
"With further education they have the chance to have successful adult lives," he explained recently.
But soon, the blue-eyed boy from the Greenville section of Jersey City has admitted it will be time for him to move on as well and close the door on a high school career that inspired countless interviews, feature articles and even its own book in the process.
Hurley, who has led the storied program at the Downtown Jersey City school to 24 state championships over 34 years as head coach, told The Jersey Journal during two recent interviews that he plans on stepping down from his position at St. Anthony fol-lowing the 2007-2008 season to pursue other endeavors in the sport.
"I think it would be nice before I'm in a rocking chair to try something else in basketball," the 58-year-old basketball patriarch said last week. "I want to do something different. I've always set a high standard and I'm a workaholic but I find myself saying I really want to put a number on it."
So in recent weeks, Hurley chose 900 - as in 900 wins - for his resignation benchmark.
"That 900 number would make me the all time winningest coach in the state so when I found that out, that was pretty much it," said Hurley, who currently has 864 career victories. "I probably won't get it next year and it could be early in the following sea-son but I would finish out the year."
The premature announcement also has its advantages for the coach. By revealing his impending departure nearly two years in advance, Hurley admitted that he hopes to serve notice to basketball people throughout the college and professional ranks that he will soon be accepting offers for any number of less time-consuming coaching or scouting positions.
"In life, you have age discrimination," Hurley said. "I think I'm leaving high school where I'm still a good coach and I'd like it to be out there that I'd be interested in doing something different for a period of time and feel like I'm not over the hill."
During his time at St. Anthony, Hurley said he was offered head coaching positions at both Seton Hall and Rutgers universities and also had discussions with St. Peter's College, Fordham and Monmouth. He never could pull the trigger and leave, but now, as the years have slipped by and the decades-old inspirational stories he tells his players seem to go unheard, Hurley has de-cided it is time to move on.
"It's overwhelming for the kids to be hearing stories from 1981 that was seven, eight or nine years before they were born," he said.
Hurley said he's tabbed former St. Anthony stand-out and current assistant coach, Ben Gamble, as his replacement. He also defended Gamble's readiness while rejecting the idea that announcing his resignation this far in advance could hurt the school's chances of attracting some of the state's top middle school stars during the next two years who would know that Hurley would be leaving early on in their stay at St. Anthony.
"Ben Gamble coaches all of our out-of-season stuff and he won a national championship with our kids two years ago during the summer," Hurley responded. "He's been my right-hand man. He will have been here for 10 years. He's ready for this."
Hurley, who is also director of the Jersey City Department of Recreation, said he would retire from that position in 2009 at the conclusion of Mayor Jerramiah Healy's term in office.
