An undersized and inexperienced New Providence team has had to fight hard every game, every quarter, every possession just to stay competitive throughout this season.
Even with optimal effort, this squad with no starter above six foot has found most opponents a little too big, deep and court savvy to overcome.
Seems fitting, then, in this challenging season that New Providence required a fierce fourth-quarter rally to overcome Rahway and present veteran head coach Art Cattano with his 600th career victory, 51-44, Tuesday night in a Union County Conference-Mountain Division clash in Rahway.
Senior guard Alex Zamora generated eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Pioneers (3-14) rallied from a 42-38 deficit to snap a seven-game losing streak.
Fellow senior guard Devin Cumiskey finished with a team-high 18 and seven rebounds while sophomore forward Luke Cifarelli contributed seven points and 10 rebounds and senior guard Grant Blankenbaker had four points, eight rebounds and five assists. Rahway (2-18) was led by Tayshaun Banks with 24 points and Marvin Dulorie with 15.
Cattano, in his 43rd season at his alma mater, became the state’s 25th boys head coach to reach 600 career victories.
At the top of that list is former St. Anthony coach and Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Bob Hurley with 1,185 wins. Just behind Cattano is Elizabeth coach Phil Colicchio with 598 wins.
Through all of his personal milestones, Cattano has preferred to remain subdued about the importance of the numbers.
“I guess people know this by now but I don’t say a word when something like this is approaching. Never,” Cattano said. “I’ve always just tried to sneak it in without anyone noticing.”
Well, then, Cattano shouldn’t have taken the time to build one of the strongest small-school public programs in the state during his tenure.
He directed the Pioneers to Group 1 state championships in 1999 and 2019, and his club has remained relevant in a county that houses perennial state powers such as Roselle Catholic, Elizabeth, Linden, Plainfield, Union Catholic and, St. Patrick/Patrick School prior to 2010-11.
The Simo brothers, Tim and Todd, Mike Machin, Mike Piccolo and Kyle Rust were standouts on that 1998-99 squad. Tim Simo is head coach at Summit, which is scheduled to play New Providence Thursday evening in Summit.
The 2018-19 team was led by Dylan Bedder, Greg Meyers, Brian Kelly and Sean Dillon, Richie Wawzycki and Stanton Leuthner.
“The biggest thing I’m proud of is that I’ve been able to do this 43 years as a head coach at the same school and in the place I grew up, the place where I live,” Cattano said. “And I always tell our kids that I consider it an honor and a privilege to be doing this.”
The thing about “doing this” in a small, suburban public school setting is that one has to roll up his sleeves pretty much to his shoulders some years when the talent pool is shallow.
But Cattano did not start his head coaching career aware of that. His inaugural 1983-84 squad reached the North 2, Group 1 final.
“We just made it in at the cut-off and won our last three games in the regular season,” Cattano said. “Then we win the first two in the section and lose to Mountain Lakes in the sectional final. I’m like, ‘This is kind of easy. We could do this every year.’
“The next time we got that far was 1999,” he said. “It wasn’t as easy as it looked.”
