Sports

Sports & Recreation

WITH Jim Hague

ogsmar@aol.com

Nutley’s Delanzo had memorable summer

As the summer months began, there was the Garden State Underclassman Games, the get together for the top baseball players in the state that will return for the 2022 season.

It meant that Nutley’s Joe Delanzo would get one final shot at playing high school baseball for the summer.

“I was just happy to be out there,” Delanzo said. “It didn’t matter what position I was going to play.”

Last spring, Delanzo was a standout pitcher and shortstop for the Maroon Raiders. He made enough of an impression that Stony Brook University offered him a scholarship, even before he played an inning of his senior year.

Former Nutley standout Josh O’Neill is currently at Stony Brook.

In college, Delanzo will be strictly an infielder, but he could very well pitch again for Nutley in the 2022 season.

“I’ve committed to be a middle infielder at Stony Brook,” Delanzo said. “It’s the best feeling in the world. I know I’m going to have to step up my game a little bit to reach the next level.”

But Delanzo gladly accepted the invitation to play in the Underclassman Games with the top 50 underclassmen in the state.

“It meant the world to me,” Delanzo said. “It was such a great honor to play with the other top players. We got the chance to talk baseball.”

Delanzo was also selected to participate in the Home Run Derby before the Underclassman Games.

“I was fortunate to be picked for the Home Run Derby,” said Delanzo, who was the only player from Essex County to participate in the pre-game festivities. “It was a lot of fun.” As for the game itself, Delanzo had two hits in three at-bats, including a double.

One of the other participants in the game was Nico Ong of Bloomfield.

“I played on the same club team with Nico,” Delanzo said. “That made me feel more comfortable. I had someone to talk to.”

By the end of the week, Delanzo was talking to practically everyone who was willing to listen to him.

“I definitely became more outgoing,” Delanzo said. “I respected everyone there. There were a lot of good guys. It was very cool to be part of it. I think we all had the utmost respect for each other.”

Learning the basics of football at Lyndhurst camp

Photo by Jim Hague Ariana Soto was one of the most impressive participants at the Golden Bears Football Camp recently. It didn’t matter that Soto is a 12-year-old girl.

By Jim Hague ogsmar@aol.com

Sure, there may have been 50 or so other boys on the new field of the Lyndhurst Middle School recently, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of 12-year-old Ariana Soto.

Plain and simple, Soto was there among the boys to learn one thing – to learn about the game of football.

“I watch football all the time and I just wanted to learn how to play,” said Soto, who will enter the seventh grade at the Middle School in a few weeks. “My Dad was against it, but my Mom said it was a great sport and I should learn. She knew I wouldn’t get hurt. I made her a promise that I wouldn’t, because I never get hurt.”

Needless to say, Soto was happy to be part of the Golden Bears Football Camp, spearheaded by the town’s Department of Recreation and headed by the coaching staff at Lyndhurst High School.

“I was really excited that there was a camp this year,” Soto said. “I’m having a lot of fun. I’m really enjoying it.”

Soto certainly made her presence felt.

“I wasn’t surprised that girls were here,” said Lyndhurst High School head coach Rich Tuero, who coordinated the activity at the camp. “I actually expected girls to be here. Girls play in the Lyndhurst Recreation league. Ariana more than held her own.” Soto knew exactly how to get in a three-point stance at the line. She participated in all the drills and games. She might have been outnumbered, but she certainly wasn’t outmanned.

It was the first year in about a decade that Lyndhurst held a football camp. Having a worldwide pandemic last summer that forced everyone inside probably helped the decision to have a camp this summer.

More than 50 youngsters from second through eighth grade participated in the camp, with the Lyndhurst football players and other assistant coaches serving as counselors.

“We had about a half-hour instruction in the morning, then we finished it off with about an hour’s worth of games,” Tuero said.

The campers all learned the different terminology that is used by the Golden Bears during their regular season, which begins next month.

“The goal is for all of them to be ready for when they come to play for us in high school,” Tuero said.

There was also a guest speaker. Local football hero Petey Guerriero spoke with the campers before he headed off to camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Guerriero, the former Lyndhurst High All-State performer who had an All-American career at Monmouth University, is trying to hook on in the NFL

See FOOTBALL, Page 10