By Jim Hague  LEBANON TOWNSHIP – The brown sign off the eastbound lanes of Route 22 reads “Baptist Camp and Conference Center,” but in reality, it’s the home of Camp Fatima, a safe haven and makeshift Shangri La, nestled in the lower hills of Hunterdon County, a place where, for two weeks, nearly 100 [...]

  By Jim Hague If you think Michael Phelps was impressive in collecting medal after medal at the Olympic Games, then wait until you hear about the exploits of 15-year-old Steve Koziel. The soon-to-be Kearny High School sophomore followed up his impressive performance at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions with an even more eye-opening week [...]

  By Jim Hague When Ed Abromaitis was a teenager growing up in Kearny in the early 1970s, he had to make a very tough decision, one that would affect him for the rest of his life. Abromaitis decided to go to Queen of Peace High School instead of attending the hometown Kearny. “I took [...]

Sept. 8 battle with Walker an afternoon production   By Jim Hague NEWARK – Tomasz Adamek knows that he’s not getting any younger. The Kearny resident and top heavyweight boxing contender will turn 36 in December. He understands that he cannot be a boxer forever; that the window of opportunity to fight again for the [...]

    By Jim Hague After spending the last four years as the boys’ head basketball coach at Becton Regional High School, Bill Schoener was looking for a new challenge in his coaching career. Enter Kearny High School. It’s definitely a huge challenge, going from a successful program at Becton to a struggling program like [...]

  By Jim Hague Danny Beltran is a native of Colombia who arrived in the United States, settling in Kearny several years ago to get an education at Rutgers- Newark. As any native Colombian, Beltran first grew up playing the sport of soccer. So when he moved to Kearny, he had something to relate to, [...]

  By Jim Hague Ryan Miller is a 12-yearold Kearny resident and a big sports fan. The soon-to-be eighth grader at Lincoln School is a fan of the New York teams, namely the Mets, Jets and Knicks. “I really get into it,” Miller said. So when he saw an advertisement on television for the Bruce [...]

  By Jim Hague When Mike Voza took over the head coaching reins of the Lyndhurst Post 139 Senior American Legion baseball team last year, he wanted to be able to uphold the rich tradition of the Post 139 program. After all, it was only four years ago that Lyndhurst Post 139 won the New [...]

  By Jim Hague When Bob MacDonnell was beginning his basketball coaching career some 30 years ago, he was coaching CYO basketball at Our Lady of Mercy in Jersey City. One of his first pupils was a young point guard named Joe Macchi. “He taught me two principles back then,” Macchi said.“He taught me discipline [...]

By Jim Hague HARRISON – After getting off to a blistering start in his first season with the New York Red Bulls, scoring seven goals in the first five matches, Kenny Cooper tailed off a bit recently, failing to score a single goal in seven straight contests. As the Red Bulls played their third home [...]