Sports

Sports & Recreation

WITH Jim Hague

ogsmar@aol.com

Harrison’s Sowe ready for big year with Red Bulls II

He’s still only 20 years old, but Omar Sowe is beginning his third year of professional soccer.

Sowe, the Harrison native and former two-time All-State performer with the Harrison High School Blue Tide, is indeed in his third year with the New York Red Bulls II, the franchise in the United Soccer League that serves as the main farm club – so to speak – for the Red Bulls of the Major Soccer League.

The Red Bulls II squad dropped its season opener last Friday night to Hartford, but Sowe, the team’s main striker, remains certain that this will be his best year as a pro.

“I think this is going to be a good year,” Sowe said in a telephone interview last week. “It’s actually my first full season. The first year was basically a month and a half and last year was hurt by COVID. And yes, I have another year of being 20. For a 20-year-old, it’s easy to say that I have a lot of time.”

Since this will mark Sowe’s first full season as a professional, he’s looking to expand on what he’s done over his short time with the Red Bulls II. Sowe scored two goals in limited action in 2019, but tallied a team-high seven goals in the COVID-shortened campaign, including the first hat trick of his career against the Philadelphia Union II on Sept. 9. Sowe also scored three goals in the Red Bulls II last scrimmage two weeks ago, proving he was ready for the challenge ahead in 2021. “I always have the opportunity to learn and get better,” Sowe said. “I love the sport and just want to keep getting better. All that matters is that I’m getting better. I want to show the Red Bulls that they did the right thing in signing me and hopefully the best is yet to come.”

Sowe said that he’s following the guidance given to him by his father Alhagi, a native of Gambia in Africa.

“My Dad always tells me that what you do tomorrow is the most important thing,” Sowe said. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about yesterday.’ I just want to be better than what I was. I want the third year to be better than the second year. I can’t brag on what happened in the preseason. It all begins with the regular season.”

Red Bulls II head coach John Wolyniec, a longtime member of the old MetroStars and later New York Red Bulls of the MLS, knows that Sowe can be a dominant scorer.

Vick named new Nutley football coach

Long-time assistant elevated after DiGregorio retirement

Photo by Jim Hague New Nutley High School head football coach J.D. Vick stands atop the gate to get into the Nutley Oval, which underwent a major facelift last year. Vick will replace Steve DiGregorio as the head coach of the Maroon Raiders for the 2021 season.

By Jim Hague ogsmar@aol.com

NUTLEY – The association between a proud and polite Southern gentleman from Alabama and the people of Nutley in northern New Jersey began so innocently in 2004.

At that time, J.D. Vick, a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and already the head football coach at his alma mater Tuscaloosa Christian High School, paid a visit to a church in Bloomfield for a seminar. On the advice of the legendary University of Alabama head coach Gene Stallings, Vick came calling to then-Nutley athletic director Angelo Frannicola, who earlier this year passed away after a battle with COVID-19.

Apparently, Frannicola and Stallings established a relationship a while back when Stallings brought his Crimson Tide football team north to Giants Stadium for a Kickoff Classic and needed a place to practice. Someone told Stallings to call Frannicola, who of course obliged and allowed the Crimson Tide to practice at the Nutley Oval.

From that point on, Stallings and Frannicola were like long-time bosom buddies, as long as Frannicola suggested a good restaurant in the area, which wasn’t hard for Angelo, who knew how to eat and knew how to frequent the best eating establishments in the area.

So Vick, a native of the football-driven hometown of Tuscaloosa, a place where people don’t say goodbye or farewell, but rather a sendoff of “Roll Tide,” in honor of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, made a courtesy call to Frannicola while visiting in Bloomfield.

“I showed up here as a kid from Alabama not knowing anyone except the name of Angelo Frannicola,” Vick said.