SJR

The origins of what has become one of the greatest high school baseball programs in all of New Jersey, began in 1978 when first year head coach Greg Carney took over a team that had gone 2-18 the year before. In the six years prior to the ’84 season, Coach Carney built what the Record called “a superpower”, amassing a 93-27 record from 1978 through 1983.

With a host of returning seniors, expectations for the ‘84 squad were sky high. The team was cruising along in top form with a 10-2 record in late April when Carney suffered a heart attack that resulted in triple by-pass surgery. Brother Thomas Lydon, the JV coach, took over the coaching reins and guided the team to a seventh seed in the Bergen County tournament.

“It was not easy for Brother Tom, because he stepped into a “no time” situation and had to prove to the kids that he could do for them what they felt I was doing for them,” Carney said.

“He did a great job in my absence and the boys were able to put it together to give both themselves and me the opportunity to be with them one more time.”

The Green Knights’ run to the county final did nothing to help to their coach recuperate from his heart problems. In the first round, SJR eked out a 7-6 win over Lyndhurst scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. In the quarterfinals, the Green Knights defeated #2 seeded Emerson 3-2 on the strength of two runs in the top of the seventh. And in the semis, Joe’s defeated New Milford 3-2 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

And that enabled Coach Carney the time he needed to return to the dugout for the final game of the season. The Green Knights scored a run in the first when Mike Neglia walked on a 3-2 count, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and tagged up and scored on a foul pop. Mark Walter’s two run triple in the fourth gave SJR a 3-0 lead and when Rutherford put up a run in the fifth, Carney and Lydon relieved ace Keith Connelly (8-2 on the year) with co-ace Brian Brannigan (8-2 as well). Two innings later, the Green Knights were county champs.

“As the game began, I realized that I had everything going for me, and win, lose or draw, I had already won the biggest battle,” said Carney after the game. The Record summed it up like this: “Call it a team comeback, a stellar job by substitute Coach Lydon or an inspirational victory for Carney. Whatever it’s called, one thing is certain: everybody at St. Joseph - players, assistant coach and coach – know what it takes to win.”

We recognize a special team, a remarkable season and a beloved coach, a team whose success confirmed, for all the years that have followed, SJR’s status as an elite baseball program. It wsa the team that secured the first of SJR’s ten county titles, a Bergen County baseball record.