Spotswood High School’s boys basketball team finished last year with a lot of almosts.
Spotswood High School’s Tom Pareti drives to the hoop, guarded by Metuchen High School’s Elijah Sellers, Monday night. The Chargers enjoyed a convincing 66-39 victory over Metuchen in the home opener, bringing their record to 2-0. CHRIS KELLY staff The Chargers almost won the Greater Middlesex Conference Blue Division, but finished second to Bishop Ahr, a team that inflicted half of the six losses (won 20) suffered all year. As the top seed in Central Jersey Group II, Spotswood almost made it to the sectional finals before being upset by Middlesex, another team that had beaten the Chargers earlier in the year.
This year, Steve Mate, in his 15th season as head coach, hopes — make that expects — his team to win some of those games that cost them a title or two.
While 1,000-point scorer Ross Gerhart has graduated and is now at Ramapo College, Spotswood is rich in experience with the added bonus of a transfer from Virginia, Allan Kaiper. It is he who may enable Spotswood to become a viable competitor, not only in its division, but the GMC overall.
James Pareti works the ball around a Metuchen guard. “Kaiper is 6-4 and gives us our first bona fide big man presence I’ve had in my tenure here,” Mate said. “He has made us modify our offense from an open post to compensate for his ability inside. We’re hoping Allan becomes an integral part of our team.”
The rest of the Chargers are predominantly made up of guard-types who transition well from defense to offense and can score inside and outside. Senior Cody Pace, who will likely be a Division I baseball shortstop, is an adept scorer and will be next to top the 1,000-point plateau sometime this season.
Tyler Osofsky, another senior, is lightning quick and will see major minutes from his guard position. So too will the Pareti twins, James and Tom, who are part of the rotation. Finally, athletic Mike Liming was also part of last year’s team and will be counted on to provide valuable minutes. Finally, Garrett Walters, a junior, is the other returning guard, who will be among the first off the bench.
The rest of Spotswood’s roster includes a mix of firstyear players along with those who played on the junior varsity last year. They include Steve Manahan, a junior forward; Jeff Coy, senior center; Kevin Dehan, junior guard; Anthony Berg, sophomore guard; Delante Grant, freshman guard; Corey Brown, freshman guard; Jamal Lewis, freshman guard; and Tom Soulis, sophomore guard.
While Pace is the one who will be receiving the plaudits for his scoring exploits, Spotswood is particularly dangerous when Mate employs his forces in the Chargers’ relentless transition game, which can wear out teams with better individuals. The Blue Division will present its usual challenges, but games with expected quality foes like Monroe and East Brunswick will provide a good measuring gauge as to how the Chargers fare once the GMC state tournaments roll around in February.
The Chargers kicked off their season with a win in the opener, 70-55, over South River on Friday night. However convincing the margin, Mate was not pleased with the team’s effort.
“We didn’t play our game,” Mate said. “There were too many missed shots, and our offense didn’t have any flow to it. When we’re clicking, we’re a pretty good team.”
Spotswood resumed action Monday night with a convincing 66-39 victory over Metuchen in its home opener to run its record to 2-0. Then, during the holiday break, the Chargers will participate in the Crusader Classic on Dec. 28 when it meets Somerset Tech.