Jackson Liberty Two days after helping Jackson Liberty High School’s boys basketball team to its best division finish ever in the Shore Conference — third place in the fiercely competitive C Central, the team’s high-scoring, 6-foot-3 forward, James Sofield, was preparing for baseball season as a pitcher and second baseman.
“It’s been a little rough because I haven’t seen live pitching since October, because I did not have a lot of time during basketball, and some of the other guys have been working out through the winter,” Sofield said. “It’s coming along. I’ll keep working at it. [My] pitching is coming along. It’s just location.”
Sofield, who throws a fastball, changeup and curve, helped Jackson Liberty to a 17-8 season in 2012. However, he saw the campaign end on an odd scheduling quirk in tournaments when the Lions lost on back-to-back days to the same Monmouth Regional High School team in the Shore Conference and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III tournaments. The Lions also lost in the Ocean County Tournament quarterfinals to Toms River High School North.
“The team is looking pretty good right now with a lot of guys returning,” Sofield said as the team prepares for its April 2 opener at home against Pinelands Regional High School. “It’s just a bunch of guys who like to work hard and work at getting better by making adjustments. That hurt us a little last season — making adjustments to situations. It’s not picture-perfect right now. But once we get there, we should be a pretty good team.”
It’s that sense of players believing in themselves that basketball coach Mark Lax said made this a memorable season. At 13- 11, Jackson Liberty’s season ended with a 51-44 overtime loss at No. 3 seed Northern Burlington County Regional High School in the first round of the Central Jersey Group III tournament after falling behind 10-0 off the opening tap and later missing some shots in the final minute that could’ve pulled out the upset.
Forward Alan DelValle, one of four graduating seniors, scored 15 points in that game and Sofield dropped in a dozen. Mike Healy, a junior guard, scored 11.
“It was their paying attention to the little things, the details,” Lax said of this season’s success. “It’s not just shooting threes and dunks, but getting kicked balls, getting up the floor and getting two hands on a rebound.”
Also graduating off the team are starters Roberto DelValle, Alan’s cousin, at a guard spot, forward Ryan DeBoer and backup guard Thomas “T.J.” Savona. Sophomore guards J’son Clark and Hasson Renos, who both got increased playing time late in the season, as well as sophomore forward Howard Taylor, will be working out four or five days a week in the school gym over the summer against former Jackson Liberty graduates and high school players from other schools. Lax said he has not yet decided on a summer league for his players.
“We have a really strong core coming back,” Sofield said. “Healy is a lockdown defender and without him doing that, we wouldn’t have had as much success. J’son and Hasson helped a lot, especially later in the season at the point guard position. And Howard Taylor gets a lot of rebounds.”
Although the team won its highest number of games in
2011-12 with 15, including a win against No. 1 ranked Lakewood High School, its 9-5 record in division play surpasses the four wins it garnered last season. The Lions made the Shore Conference Tournament for the second straight year and the state tournament for a third straight season. They beat Monsignor Donovan High School on the road for the first time and won the other game against the Griffins this season at home.
The Lions lost both games to Lakewood, the No. 1 team in the division, but they only lost 53-50 in the second meeting and took a three-point into the final quarter. Jackson Liberty also lost to highly regarded Point Pleasant Borough High School, the second place finisher in C Central, by just two points, 69-67, in their second meeting.
“I agree with my coach that this year was more satisfying, even though the record was better last year,” Sofield said. “We knew we could score, but all season we focused on defense and spent 75 percent of our practice time on it. It showed the second time we played Lakewood, a run-andgun team that pushes the ball and scores a lot, and we held them to 53 points.”
Sofield said he measured his contributions by his defensive play, as well — even more than in his scoring.
“It’s all building on success and working hard to stay successful,” Lax said. “Guys this past season who did not get a minute of playing time as juniors, like the DelValles and DeBoer, wound up stepping into the lineup as seniors. So we expect a lot of the junior varsity players to work hard and next season, we’ll have two starters who played as a juniors, which we hadn’t had.”
Lax, who also coached boys soccer at Jackson Liberty for the first time last fall, is also rebuilding a team that is wiped out by the graduation of several players, including midfielder Roberto DelValle.
“The kids are working hard on their own,” Lax said. “Hopefully that will carry over for next season.”