Wednesday, July 27, 2022
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Sports & Recreation
Belleville resident coaching for the Giants — and she’s still playing tackle football
It’s the 5th season for Harrison High School’s Summer Boys’ Volleyball League By Jason Bernstein jason@theobserver.com
Photo courtesy Kevin Meyer, USA Football
Angela Baker
By Jason Bernstein jason@theobserver.com
This year, Angela Baker was presented with two football opportunities that were too good for her to pass up. Fortunately for her, she will be able to do both. In February, Baker, a Belleville resident, started as an offensive quality control coach for the New York Giants as part of the team’s Rosie Brown Minority Coaching Fellowship. But before joining the Giants for training camp in East Rutherford, Baker will be in Vantaa, Finland, representing the U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team in
the IFAF Women’s World Championship. For Baker, a 5-foot-4 wide receiver, it will be her second time playing for Team USA in the IFAF Championships, which go from July 27 through Aug. 8. Baker and director of coaching operations Laura Young hold the distinction of being the first two female coaches in Giants history. “I’m fortunate for the support of (general manager) Joe Schoen, the Giants organization and Coach (Brian) Daboll,” said the 29-year-old Baker. “When I interviewed for the position with the Giants, I was upfront with them and told
them that I still wanted to try to make this team, I aspire to make this team. I asked if that was something I’d be able to do. They assured me it wasn’t a problem. “I’ve gotten nothing but support from all of them. Some of the coaches have messaged me and wished me luck and told me they want to tune in. I’ve been fortunate to have nothing but support from all of them.” Baker’s journey into tackle football began during her freshman year at Slippery Rock University. A basketball and softball player at Carlynton See BAKER, Page 11
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When Nick Landy and Anthony Sabia first started building up the Harrison boys volleyball program into one of the top programs in the state, there weren’t many options for their players to play organized volleyball during the summer, especially compared to their counterparts on the girls side. “When I was coaching the girls, Lyndhurst was running something (for the girls) that I guess was like a summer league, but they didn’t keep standings so it was more like summer scrimmages,” Sabia, the Blue Tide’s longtime assistant and former head girls coach, said. “When they weren’t able to run it anymore, we were like, ‘we should try and run it.’ We have the air conditioned building and the two gyms. And because I coached on the boys side too, we were like, ‘why don’t we try and see if we can run a boys league?’ “We do the best we can to try and stay competitive with everyone around us. We have the athletes, we have the interest so we just try to give our players as many opportunities as possible to put their hands on a volleyball and work together.” Fast forward to today and the Harrison Recreation Summer Boys Volleyball League provides a truly unique opportunity for area teams. Now in its fifth season, the league is believed to be one of just two high school summer leagues for boys volleyball
in the state and the only one in North Jersey. The boys’ and girls’ leagues both play on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Harrison High School’s two gymnasiums. Games played in the main gym are live streamed on YouTube. “When we first did it, the girls always had something going on. There were a few different summer leagues run for girls volleyball,” Landy said. “We put it out there and we get the usual people (locally) like Kearny and Bayonne and St. Peter’s and Hudson Catholic (among others). It’s a lot of time for us, but it works out.” “At first it was just us, Kearny, Bayonne and Memorial. That was it,” Sabia said. “I think once teams started to realize what we were doing, it started to grow.” This summer, nine teams are in the summer league, four of them — Kearny, Harrison, Bayonne and Union — finished in the final NJ.com Top 20 rankings this spring. In addition, perennial state power St. Peter’s Prep, local HCIAL rivals Hudson Catholic and North Bergen, and Essex County’s West Caldwell Tech and Payne Tech round out the field. The rest of the state’s volleyball community has taken notice of the hard work by Landy and Sabia with the league. Last year, St. Joseph of Metuchen, one of the state’s premier programs, came up from Middlesex County and won the league. Before the summer, other coaches from some of the state’s top See VOLLEYBALL, Page 11
