Basketball, football, baseball notes

News on the ABCCL baseball all-star game, the Shore 44 Football All-Star game and summer basketball tidbits

    The Atlantic Baseball Confederation Collegiate League all-star game will be held at FirstEnergy Park at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 12, following a workout for the players in front of a host of major-league scouts at 3:30 p.m.
    The ABCCL is an eight-team wood bat current college players that is now in its seventh season of existence and features numerous former Shore Conference standouts and players from programs ranging from locals like Monmouth University, Seton Hall and Rutgers to Florida, LSU, Virginia and Rice.
    The proceeds from the game will go to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which promotes opportunities for minority players. This is the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the MLB color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
    The game features 50 players selected by league coaches and split into the Yogi Berra All-Stars and the Larry Doby All-Stars. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is suggested.
    Featured players on the Larry Doby All-Stars include former Raritan standout Mike Nunes (Montclair State), Freehold Township’s Damian Csakai (Wagner), Toms River North’s Chad Sloboda (Brookdale) and Mike Casale (Monmouth U), Toms River East’s Scott Fisher (Seton Hall) and Jackson’s Dan Morvay (Wagner).
    The Yogi Berra All-Stars include Wall’s Derek Beckman (Princeton) and Chris Collazo (Monmouth), Manchester’s Travis Musolf (Marist), and Red Bank Catholic’s Casey Walko (Central Connecticut) among others.
    In other baseball news, former Toms River South and Rutgers star shortstop Todd Frazier became the richest member of his prodigious baseball-playing family by signing with the Reds for a reported $825,000 after being taken with the 34th overall pick in June’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. That trumps the reported $550,000 that his brother Jeff got as a third-round pick by the Tigers a few years back and the $250-300 G’s that his oldest brother, Charlie, got from the Marlins out of high school. Charlie is now an assistant with TR South. Still, that’s awfully impressive to have all three sons drafted into the big leagues for big money.
    That leaves St. Rose pitcher Anthony Ranaudo (Rangers), CBA pitcher Kyle Slate (Phillies) and RBC shortstop J.C. Menna (Pirates) as the main unsigned players from the Shore with the Aug. 15 deadline to sign just over a month away. Slate and Menna will most likely honor their commitments to the University of Maine and James Madison, respectively, after being drafted in the late rounds. Ranaudo, who has a scholarship to LSU, was taken in the 11th round and will most likely only sign for third-round money ($600,000 or so).

    In football news, the practices for the Shore 44 All-Star game are scheduled to begin on Saturday, with the Monmouth squad practicing at Matawan from 9 a.m. to noon on the weekend and tentatively from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the week leading up to the game at Brick on July 20. The Ocean County team will be practicing at at Lakewood. The rosters should also be up on the site very soon. We will have plenty of stories and videos leading up to the game as well as another feature that any Shore football fan should enjoy.

    Finally, on the basketball front, RBC forward Kristina Coppolino has committed to Northeastern University up in Boston, where she won’t be far from Caseys teammate Kristina Danella, who had earlier committed to Massachusetts.
    I also took a trip over to the boys summer league at Rebounds in Neptune, and that place is like Rumor Central. I actually had one player from a small school, who is one of the top returners on his team this year, come up to me and tell me he wanted to transfer to either Red Bank or Neptune to get more exposure and whether or not that was a good idea. It’s like free agency, as he added that another one of his talented teammates was also considering transferring.
    Neptune is undefeated in the league after edging Red Bank, and looks like it will be tough as usual with or without guard D.J. Gutridge, who is reportedly transferring, but even head coach Ken O’Donnell did not know for sure. Neptune is welcoming transfers Terry Hicks (Monmouth Academy) and Jamar Hill (Ocean).
    Red Bank should be solid, and guard Will Sanborn has a chance to lead the Shore in scoring. The question is whether that will be a good thing for his team or an alienating thing if he is jacking up shots at will. He loves the stepback 3-pointer , that’s for sure.
    Jackson Liberty, a new school that will join the varsity ranks of the Shore Conference this year, is also participating in the league and has taken its lumps thus far as part of the learning process.
    The most buzz is about Monmouth Academy (formerly Lakewood Prep), which decided not participate in the league after initially joining up, according to O’Donnell, who runs the league. Under new coach Mike Rogers, the small school in Howell is supposedly assembling an army of Division I-A level talent – although nothing is officially confirmed. It’s interesting for one big reason. Local coaches, particularly at public schools, are already leery of losing promising players to prep schools like St. Benedict’s in Newark, so if Monmouth Academy becomes a powerhouse right in the Shore’s backyard, that might make the decision for Shore players to leave their school an easier one because it’s right in their backyard, not somewhere up in Newark. Stay tuned on this one.
    The other constant buzz concerns who will finally get the Christian Brothers Academy job. Some reports have Seton Hall assistant Geoff Billet all but taking it, while others say he’s turned it down. He has been actively inking recruits for the Pirates, so he’s done a solid smokescreen if he is going to take the CBA job. Obviously, nothing is out of the realm of possibility, but we’re getting pretty deep into the summer without a head coach for the Colts.