Sports

Sports & Recreation

Sean Dolaghan replaces Huaranga as Harrison High School’s Athletic Director

By Jason Bernstein

jason@theoserver.com

When Sean Dolaghan stepped down as Harrison’s head baseball coach due to his growing family, he anticipated the possibility of returning to high school athletics when his two children got older.

Nine years later, that opportunity presented itself for the Harrison native. On June 23, Dolaghan was formally approved as the school’s athletic director. Dolaghan officially took over the job this past Friday, replacing Kim Huaranga, who after 10 years in the position, became a vice principal in the town’s Early Childhood Program.

“I was always interested in finding my way back to sports,” Dolaghan said. “I always hoped that maybe when the kids got older, I would come back to coaching. But once Kim let us know that she was taking a different position, I jumped on the opportunity to be the next AD.”

As a math teacher at Washington Middle School, Dolaghan has remained quite familiar with the athletics program and the coaches and players that have been a part of it. His first order of business is reaching out to those coaches as summer leagues and offseason practices start in earnest.

“I definitely want to get in touch with my coaches after the Fourth of July. I’m going to reach out to all of them,” Dolaghan said. “I know almost all of them. Ray Lucas, Mike Rusek and Nick Landy I’m very close with. Jose Camano, Barry Mattern were former players of mine.”

Dolaghan, a Lyndhurst resident, has remained involved in athletics on the youth level during this time, coaching his 10-year-old son Jake’s Little League baseball and travel basketball teams, while also helping out as a soccer coach for his 8-year-old daughter Quinn.

“My kids were probably more excited than anybody,” Dolaghan said. “I think my two kids wanted me to get the job more than anyone I know.”

Before stepping aside as head baseball coach, Dolaghan led the Blue Tide to consecutive Hudson County Tournament quarterfinals appearances. During that time, they upset perennial power St. Peter’s Prep in the first round in 2011. Then, a year later, Harrison knocked off defending champion Hoboken, which was led by First Team All-State pitcher Kenny Roder, 1-0, in the first round.

Despite going to Queen of Peace High School, Harrison athletics were a key part of Dolaghan’s youth. He always made an attempt to see his friends in action and remembers watching Ray Lucas and Jody Hill play basketball in front of sold out crowds.

“Even though I didn’t attend Harrison High School, all of my best friends still lived in Harrison so I went to all of their games when I could,” said Dolaghan. “They’re all reaching out to me, supporting me, saying anything I need, they’re going to be there for me.

“Former students of mine who now play in college or played in college I want to bring them all back and get them involved. I want to get the whole community involved. I want to work closely with the rec center and I want to get the whole town involved.”

While the boys’ soccer and boys’ volleyball teams remain among the best in the state, many of the school’s other programs have struggled in recent years. In addition to building relationships with the town’s rec programs, Dolaghan plans to place an emphasis on generating interest and enthusiasm within the building.

“I want to try to get more kids in the high school to play sports and be more involved. I just want to get the kids excited about sports again,” he said. “Even the kids who don’t play sports, I want the students to come out and support the student-athletes. Just bring more positivity, have more kids coming to the games.”

Photo courtesy Kim Huaranga

Several local high schools take part in Bloomfield summer basketball team

By Jason Bernstein

jason@theobserver.com

As a boys’ basketball coach in Bloomfield for more than a decade — first as an assistant and then the last five years as head coach — Mike Passero knows the value of summer leagues in preparing players for the high school season.

“Whether you have guys returning or you have a new group, there’s always things to work out. And the summer time is the best time for kids to develop,” Passero said. “That’s the biggest thing in the summer. I think every team, including ours, you really start to see kids take that next step in the summer time to prepare themselves for the winter.”

Fortunately for Passero, he doesn’t have to leave Bloomfield to get his players some of those much-needed reps. For more than 15 years, the Bloomfield Summer League, at the high school’s main and upper gyms, has been one of North Jersey’s better summer leagues.

Area teams Bloomfield, Belleville, Nutley and Kearny are once again among the 20 participating in the league this year. In addition, for the first time, Harrison is participating in the league primarily composed of schools from Essex County. The league also features schools from Bergen and Passaic counties as well.

Other top teams in the league are Glen Ridge, which won the North 2, Group 1 title this past March, sectional finalists Caldwell and Newark West Side, as well as also challenging foes like Montclair, Wayne Hills, Verona and Seton Hall Prep, which sends its talented JV team every year.

“We lost a lot to graduation over the last two years, so we’re definitely a new team,” said Passero, who went 19-7 last season. “We’re a young team so this is really, really great for us because a lot of our kids are getting varsity level competition for the first time. We’re seeing what they’re capable of doing and it’s also opening their eyes in terms of what they need to do to get better.

“You can talk to them about it and practice, but until you play other varsity level teams, sometimes you just don’t get how physical or how fast the game is and what really goes into it until you get experience.”

Among the benefits of such a large league is that participants get to see all different types of competition during the five week season. Whether it be quick-paced guard oriented teams like Newark West Side, teams boasting impressive size in the paint like Newark Tech, or schools like Millburn and Verona, which are more than comfortable in a grind it out defensive slugfest, teams are guaranteed to see many different styles and talent levels over the course of the season.

“We think that’s one of the best parts of our league. There’s something for everybody,” Passero said. “Everybody in the league, all 20 teams, gets something out of it because you get to see different styles. You’re going to see different styles throughout the season as well, that’s a big benefit.”

Play began June 20 with each team getting eight regular season games. Games Monday through Thursday at both gyms in the school, starting at 5 p.m. The playoffs start Monday, July 18 and conclude on the 21st with the semifinals at 5:00 and 5:55 p.m. with the final following immediately after at 6:50.

Promotions and new provisional chief at Harrison FD

By Ron Leir

For The Observer

Four members of the Harrison Fire Department have been promoted to captain as the ranks of the HFD continue to rebound as the town tries to keep pace with recent population gains.

The town governing body voted June 21 to elevate Michael J. Granato, Eric S. Hausmann, Kevin T. DeGaetano and James K. Patterson to their new rank, effective Aug. 1. All had been working as acting captains assigned to Engine 3 for the past two years, but they’ve now been made permanent in that slot at an annual base pay of $115,754, plus longevity.

They’ll be sworn in Aug. 3 at a 5 p.m. ceremony at Fire Headquarters, Seventh and Sussex streets.

The new captains aren’t replacements for retirees — they’re key ingredients that allow the HFD to “place an additional company in service, now that we have permanent supervisors,” Fire Chief Henry Richard, who was named provisional chief in mid-February, pending a determination by N.J. Civil Service as to whether the town has to call for a competitive examination for the position, said.

Harold Stahl, meanwhile, remains as a part-time civilian fire director.

Richard said the HFD has four firefighters in the process of academy training scheduled to graduate in November and three other new hires waiting to start their training.

By year’s end, Richard figures to have a roster of one chief, four battalion chiefs, 12 captains and 28 firefighters for a total of 45 fire officers — which, by his calculations, should be sufficient to assign one battalion chief, three captains and seven firefighters per shift.

“That’s the highest we’ve been since 2010,” Richard said, when the state ordered Harrison to trim its civilian and uniformed personnel force due to deficit spending by the town.

Since then, however, the town has seen a tremendous surge in population, growing by nearly 43% since the 2010 Census to more than 19,000 residents and realizing a comparable uptake in ratables resulting from the redevelopment of the waterfront area where empty, inactive industrial structures gave way to new residential towers and midrise dwellings, along with new retail shops.

“The future looks good,” Richard said, “realizing that with the growth of the town, we have to grow, too.”

Here are brief profiles on each of the new captains: n Michael Granato served with the Jackson Fire Department eight years before shifting to Harrison six and a half years ago. He was named a Hometown Hero in 2018 for lifesaving action applying his abilities as a trained EMT. n Eric Hausmann has worked 27 years with the HFD after spending one year with the West Orange Fire Department and four years in the Navy. He’s a two-time winner of Firefighter of the Year — in 2007 and, again in 2016 — when he applied his skills as an EMT in coming to the aid of a construction worker who had fallen five stories at a project site. n Kevin DeGaetano was a Navy veteran before joining the New Brunswick Police Department, where he served five years. He’s spent the past 17 years with the HFD. n James Patterson has been with the HFD for 16 years. He’s a trained counselor with the New Jersey Critical Incident Stress Team, whose members work statewide to aid fellow firefighters deal with psychological trauma. Patterson has been cited three times as Firefighter of the Year — in 2015, 2019 and 2021 — when he applied his EMT skills to aid a fallen cyclist in the annual Torch Run.

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