Mustangs will be young next winter
By: John E. Powers
Marty Geiger was brought up in a basketball passionate family.
He and his brothers and sister grew up in Bridgewater and went on to play high school basketball at both Immaculata and Bridgewater-Raritan East. His sister, Katie, made the University of Scranton Wall of Fame and is listed as the school’s seventh all-time leading scorer.
Marty Geiger’s love for the game has benefited the Manville High School basketball program over the years. He has been a volunteer assistant coach under former Mustang coaches Bill O’Hea, Paul Lenihan and Larry Blasi, who retired earlier this year.
Geiger has made sure that the program continues as the Board of Education considers who will replace Blasi. It could be Geiger.
During the summer, Geiger has made sure that the team kept close to the game as it participated in a league at Middlesex County College in Edison and over this past weekend at Marist High School in Bayonne.
"It really takes a lot of effort to get the kids to come out during the summer with everything else they have going," he said. "You really have to push them. You have to get them to join and have a team ready to play. Then they’ll come. I thought it did a lot of good for the kids that came out."
The team didn’t win any of its games in Edison, but Geiger said the boys played well against teams from Franklin, Kenilworth and Sayreville.
"It was a good experience for the kids," Geiger said. "Those teams were very, very good."
Pawel Maziarz, Dennis Petrone, Billy Fisher, Anthony Palovick, Matt Zangara, Ryan McKee, Doug Bradley, Glen Hall, Danny Pierrot and Adam Hardgrove participated in the summer games. Hardgrove, who hasn’t played since his sophomore year because of surgery on both knees, will return to a team that graduated a core of solid players like Mike Knitowski, Kyle Sopko, Tom Rock and Robert Wood.
"We were working Adam back into shape," Geiger said. "His problem was just that he’s been out of shape. He said his knees feel fine."
Geiger said the team was unselfish during games, a good sign.
"I just hope they come out," Geiger said. "We can’t afford to lose any of them. We need young kids to help. We really have no height to speak of."
The team finished last year with an 8-13 record after starting out 0-8 in Blasi’s last year.
"Next year’s team is going to be wide open because of how many players we lost," Geiger said.

