By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
Ask the leading rusher in the Colonial Valley Conference what he thinks of his left guard, Tom Hines, and his center, Joe Giacalone, and he will give an enthusiastic answer.
In fact, he’ll give it more then once.
”I love ‘em,” Princeton High running back Doug Borchert said. “On and off the field, I just love ‘em,”
Borchert then paused for a second, mulled it over, and smiled.
”Seriously, I just love ‘em.”
OK big guy, we believe ya!
And what’s not to love when it comes to the two juniors from Cranbury, who squat side-by-side on the Little Tigers strong offensive line.
”It’s good for us that those two guys are the heart of our offensive line,” coach Steve Everette said. “What’s even better is they’re only juniors, so they’re only going to get better. We’re looking forward to them the rest of the season and the rest of their high school careers.”
Friends since sixth grade when they met at the Cranbury School, Giacalone and Hines were both thrust into the starting lineup before their time. They had some experience as Giacalone played Pop Warner football in Monroe and Hines did the same in East Brunswick.
But varsity football is a whole different dog, especially for underweight, inexperienced kids.
The two started on both the freshman and JV teams as ninth graders. They figured on mostly JV action as sophomores, with perhaps some work on special teams.
Some bad early losses, however, changed that scenario quickly.
”Our first game was a big loss, just terrible,” Hines said. “Me and Joey got in the lineup in the second week and have been there ever since.”
Princeton lost that second week as well. The next game found the two in the starting lineup.
”Once we lost those first two and the o-line wasn’t doing well, we kind of figured they were going to make some changes,” Giacalone said. “At practice we went really hard and it turned out we were starters.”
It didn’t help much at first, as Princeton lost its next two and dropped to 0-4. Since then, the Little Tigers have gone 7-4 and are 3-2 this year after thumping Hopewell Valley last Saturday.
”As sophomores starting, we got the brunt of all the attacks from the defenses in the first few games,” Giacalone said. “Then we started getting on a win streak and really matured.”
”It wasn’t fun . . well, it was fun, but we got battered because we were so young and small,” Hines said.
Everette remembers it all too well, but went with the old “size-of-the-fight-in-the-dog over the size-of-the-dog-in-the-fight” theory.
”Last year, they took a lot of lumps,” the coach said. “When we were 0-2, we put those guys in there when they were 165-pound kids. The reason they went in there is because they were just, fighters. They gave us an opportunity, they made us play better.
”Now, they’ve lifted their weights. They’ve got some seasoning and they know how to be varsity players. Joey makes all of our line calls. It makes it easy when you’ve got some experienced guys there that are willing to fight and scrap for you every single down. They’re tough kids.”
That could be why Borchert loves them so much.
”They’re great guys, they block well, and they have great attitudes,” the running back said. “All they do is come to play every day.
”Our line is deceiving. They just work very hard in the off-season, and during practice, and they bring it. They want it in here,” he added, pointing to his stomach.
Thanks to a healthy diet of Primanti Brothers sandwiches from Pittsburgh (where brother Vince plays tight end for Carnegie Mellon University), and rigorous weight room training, Giacalone has gone from 175 to 195 pounds. Hines is up from 170 to 185 and sees triple duty at linebacker and on kickoff return teams.
”Tommy Hines loves kickoff, we can not take him off the kickoff team if we tried to pay him,” Everette said. “He wants to do kickoff team live in practice, he wants to always be out there in the mix of things.
”Tommy’s one of our spirit guys. He’s an emotional kid. He just likes to fly around and always be in the middle of things.”
But it is his contribution on the line, along with Giacalone, that has been a driving force in Princeton’s turn-around over the past year. And the two love playing side by side once the ball is snapped.
”You trust him a lot, you’ve played with him since you were little kids, so you trust him,” Giacalone said.
The two are not the only Cranbury guys helping out up front. Joe D’Eramo and Alex Bozich both see time at tight end.
And while Borchert is the man getting the recognition, the linemen know it’s merely a reflection of themselves.
”It’s always been like that,” Giacalone said. “Linemen never get stuff like this. We know that. All Borch’s success comes from the o-line, so when he gets a shout-out and he gets a name in the paper, it’s like it’s us.”
It’s that kind of attitude that Borchert loves about his lineman.
Just ask him.
