The BRICK Times
Vol. 23 - No. 18
In This Week’s Edition
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Community News Pages 8-13
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 16
Inside The Law Page 18
Classifieds Pages 21
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
September 9, 2023
Little League Coach Fires 101 MPH Fastballs By Chris Christopher BRICK - The numbers are scary, frightening, staggering. One is 101 miles per hour. Another is 100 miles per hour. They belong to veteran Brick Township Little League coach Rob Semerano - even at the age of 42. “It is an incredible r ush mentally and physically to throw a baseball that hard,” Semerano said. “I have very strong legs and hands. That helps me generate and deliver power. The faster you pitch, the faster a hitter has to make a decision, which usually leads to bad decisions. When my fastball is at its best, it appears to have a rise or ride. I have good command. When the ball lands in the catcher’s mitt, it’s an explosion. My neighbor a few houses down from me says he always knows when I am pitching because the crack of the mitt is different. “It would take hours to go over everything I do, but in short it’s because of
Photo courtesy Rob Semerano Rob Semerano poses with his Pirates of the Brick Township Little League intense training, diet, biomechanics, visualization and ultimately faith.” His fastball blazed past the plate at 101 miles per hour on July 27 during a bullpen session filmed by Channel 2 News. It’s the lone time in his life his dreaded No. 1 reached 101 miles per hour. The pitch registered 100 miles per hour on two other occasions during the session. Semerano’s catcher is for-
Bus Routes Are A Moving Target By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK - The transportation needs of some 9,020 township students changes from week-to-week, dayto-day, and sometimes even hour-to-hour. Transportation Supervisor Dr. Peter Morris oversees an annual budget of about $9.8 million. In light of cuts to school funding under
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the S-2 bill, which reduced the district’s state funding by millions of dollars, the department is pressured to run as “lean and mean” as it possibly can, he said. Student transportation has a lot of nuances, Morris said. “It’s dynamic, it’s based on individual need, (Individualized Education Plans), programs, life cir-
cumstances…so as far as the role of transportation, everything that happens in public education starts and ends with quality transportation every day,” he said. Individual students have various needs. Some of the 423 special education students in the district need wheelchairs, some need (Bus - See Page 4)
mer Drew University player Dan Pfefforkorn. “He’s highly skilled,” Semerano said. “He wears normal catching equipment.” Semerano has not pitched to hitters since 2018. He increased the speed of his fastball with the help of Dr. Don R. Mueller, a physics professor who claims he can serve a tennis ball at 140 miles per hour. Semerano learned of Mueller through his dad. Semerano’s physi-
cal therapist, Mike Manso, put Semerano and his father in touch with Mueller about a year ago. Mueller said Semerano is the script for the movie “The Rookie II.” Mueller terms himself “The Nutty Professor of Sports.” Mueller said “I showed Rob how to throw the Neutral Wrist Fastball - derived of research into the fastest fastballer of all time, Steve Dalkowski, born and
raised in New Britain, Ct. (Mueller’s home). His story is tragic, but there is a new light shining from having studied the pitching mechanics of this nan, the Neutral Wrist Fastball.” Dalkowski (1939-2020) died of COVID-19 while living in a nursing home. “Most in baseball - players, coaches and fans have never heard of Steve and his 110 miles per hour fastball, but he was real,” Mueller said. “He hurt his arm in spring training in 1963 while striking out the New York Yankees’ lineup, including Roger Maris, on three pitches. Dave Johnson (a retired major-league manager and player) said he saw this happen.” Mueller has also examined the pitching of Japanese fireballer Roki Sasaki. “After seeing photos and watching video, it is clear to me that Sasaki is a Japanese Dalkowski, who throws his 102 miles per hour fastball with the neutral wrist,” Mueller said. “There is good reason to understand why he (Pitcher - See Page 4)
Student Redraws Barnegat Bay Watersheds
By Stephanie Faughnan BARNEGAT BAY - A 23-year-old Stockton University senior has successfully completed a groundbreaking project to redraw subwatershed boundaries throughout the Barnegat Bay Watershed Management Area.
Forrest Jennings of Lacey undertook the Barnegat Bay Subwatersheds Redelineation Project with the support of a grant provided by Save Barnegat Bay. Over the course of the project, Jennings committed a remarkable 180 hours in identifying and potentially
rectifying inaccuracies in the digital state GIS data. “Once the report is published by Save Barnegat Bay, my hope is the state will see it and use what I have to fix their own maps,” said Jennings. “Not only for Barnegat Bay, but for all the (Watershed - See Page 5)
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