It’s mandatory for all journalists not to do any work at the end of the holidays and produce any original content. Just in case you were wondering.
Last year, 2012, I did 3 separate “Lists” at the end of the year showing the most read stories on our humble little blog, listing the Top 40 Power Players in North Jersey athletics, and making predictions for 2013. I even got one right.
Anyway, incredibly, the Power Players list was such a success (well, the boss liked it) that they wanted it in the paper for 2013, same thing for the predictions.
But I still have lots of things to say.
First, we start with the Top 10 most viewed posts on Varsity Aces in 2013.
10. The Aceys: Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Breakthrough team
The Story Now: One night in July, rock star JJ Conrad texted me an idea for an awards show we could do on Twitter and on Varsity Aces as an end of the year thing. I liked it right away, the only thing I didn’t like was it was July, and the season ended in early June for everybody. But, his idea was on the money. We came up with categories, put it out to a vote, and we even filmed an awards show. It was such a success, that we are thinking of more and better in 2014. Can you say live awards show?
Anyway, this was one of the categories, and I hate to say it, but right now, I have no memory at all of who won.
9. The Aceys: Best Student Section and Best Coach
The Story Now: This one, I do remember, because The Black Hole from Hasbrouck Heights won the Best Student Section in a vote that was somewhat controversial, but I swear was on the level. Dave Bell from Bergen Catholic was the winner, and all we had was a stock headshot of him, we need to do better than that.
8. Splash Talk: Who is this year’s Girls Swimmer of the Year
The Story Now: The winner of the vote was Katie Murphy from Ramapo, and in his post JJ talked about how hard it is to pick anyone. This story was actually one of the biggest reason for the creation of the Aceys award. Why? Because we love knowing everyone’s opinion and getting people to vote, but in the end, the decision really belongs to us, the writers. That’s why the Aceys awards were so cool because it was strictly a vote by the people. Christina Paspalas of Demarest was the North Jersey Swimmer of the Year, she was 3rd in the vote. 2nd in the vote was Caitlin Grady from Northern Highlands, but I don’t think Caitlin was too mad, her family sent me a Christmas card this year (and I didn’t send one back). I also want to point out though that back in the day, this blog had and still has a huge swimming community following.
7. Wrestling: BCCA Tournament first day results
The Story Now: Well, gee, this post is only like 3 days old, so obviously it is pretty relevant. I will say this though, I was talking to someone earlier this month about the whole Football Vote thing, and I said to this person (a prominent football coach), you know, I’m not so sure that New Jersey isn’t a wrestling state, meaning, wrestling is the most popular sport in New Jersey.
6. Football: St. Joes 27, Paramus Catholic 14, final
The Story Now: Well, this was the Football Game of the Year….except, well, it wasn’t that good of a game. It was supposed to be the battle of the No. 1 and No. 2 team in New Jersey, but PC got beat by Bosco the week before which took away some of the luster. Then, the game itself wasn’t that close as Joes got an early turnover and led 17-0. The Bosco/Bergen game, and the Joes/Bosco game, and PC/Bosco II ended up being much closer. But this was a game that had national poll repercussions, and basically, since PC went on to win Group 4, and Joes went on to win Group 3, this is the game that sewed up the No. 1 ranking for St. Joes in NJ.
5. Aces Poll: Who had a lucky ’13?
The Story Now: This one is all Greg Tartaglia, who I’m so glad is a Varsity Ace. I’ve known Greg for years, and, well, I don’t quite know how to describe it, but he’s got some real interesting interests. Like the Jets, and like high school bowling, and VW Bugs, and left-handers. But one of them is the number 13, and it was all his idea to put together a fun ranking/poll of HS players who wear 13. Because let’s face it, when you wear 13, you’re obviously either superstitious, or not superstitious, but you know the significance of the number.
4. Hockey: Who is the Player of the Year?
The Story Now: The winner of the popular vote was Alex Linquito of Indian Hills, the actual winner of the award was Ramsey sophomore (now a junior) Alex Whalen, who only got 111 votes out of 2600 cast. Come on Alex! You have to rally the troops next time.
3. In Memory of Megan Macaluso
The Story Now: The first thing I see when I look back at this post is what time I wrote it, 7:14 a.m. it says, which is pretty early, even for me. But I had gotten a text from Mondo maybe overnight telling me about former St. Mary softball player Megan Macaluso passing away. Without much time (I actually liked the story I wrote for her in the paper much better) I cobbled together a few notes and then re-posted the story I wrote on Megan from 2011.
And listen, I don’t want to get all preachy, but as 2013 ends, just remember that life is short and you should be thankful for all the days we have here because it can all be taken away so quickly.
I do hope we get the Ricker/Macaluso softball tournament in the spring.
2. Wrestling: BCCA Finals recap
The Story Now: Remember what I said about New Jersey being a wrestling state? The guys live blog from the Jockish finals is only 2 days old, but the 2nd most viewed story we printed all year. There are probably a few reasons for this, first, the weather Sunday was abysmal, so people probably stayed home. Two, I know the Rockland CC gym is nice and suitable and big enough, but the place has no juice whatsoever. I’m not saying it’s bad in any way. It serves its purpose, and there really is no other place to have the event in North Jersey, but the stands are far away from the mats, and it’s almost like Giants Stadium, bring 10,000 people in there and it feels empty. You watch all this great wrestling and the atmosphere is kinda blah. I also think that you lose some crowd who just doesn’t want to go all the way up Route 17. Anyway, we hope our coverage kind of fills in the gap. The BCCA people can’t be any more helpful and I think the organizers like it there.
1. Football Live: Mission Viejo 28, Don Bosco 25
The Story Now: I think I realized how popular this particular blog was when I had multiple people ask me about getting kicked out of the press box…and sneaking back in. It’s totally a true story. Real nice folks out there in California (sarcasm). I also read this blog though and think how I totally botched the ending. Basically I wrote this:
Its 4th down and 1 at the 16. This could be the game. MV tries to draw Bosco offsides. No luck. MV calls TO.
They try a FG, bad snap!! But kicker throws the ball to the wingback for 5 yards. He almost scored. Bosco coaches begging for flag.
1st and 10 at 13, power left. gain of 2.
2nd down…TOSS LEFT…TOUCHDOWN…11 Yard gain.
FINAL MV 28, Bosco 25.
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And that was it. I never got the name of the kicker, or the wingback, at the time, I didn’t know why the Bosco coaches wanted a flag. Of course, now….well, I still don’t know the name of the kicker or the wingback, but I did see the film on the bus of the last play and the men downfield for Mission Viejo (should have been a flag). Because it was a total botched play, field goal….bad snap…I mean, Bosco had the game won, then, just like that they didn’t. You know what else gets lost in this game? Bosco K Cameron Baels made the big FG in OT to put his team ahead. I know people remember the kick he missed against PC, I will remember the kick he made out in California and the one against Bergen Catholic in OT.
But it goes in the books as a Bosco loss. The game started at 11:30 p.m. eastern time and ended around 2 a.m. The other kicker, I sat down to write my story next to the fan bus the sprinklers went off and soaked me.