The St. Joseph Celtics are champions once again, winning their third consecutive Union County JV Boys CYO championship last weekend.

This year the JV 6th grade boys coached by Mike Ryan, Jim Lackey and Mike Burke won the CYO Championship by beating All Saints Academy of Bayonne. The game lived up to the hype, with No. 1 seed Celtics versus No. 2 seed All Saint's facing off.

The winning formula for the Celtics was once again a second half comeback. Darius Plummer Ted Jean and Pat Ryan combined for 10 points in the 3rd Quarter to put the team ahead. But Bayonne would not lie down. Both team traded 4 buckets during an exciting final quarter.

The Celtics, up by 4 points, seemed to have the game in hand but Bayonne answered the bell and hit a 3 pointer with ten seconds to play, cutting the lead to one. After they made three, Bayonne immediately fouled putting the Celtics to the line with 3.5 seconds to play. St Joseph’s missed the front end of the 1-1 allowing Bayonne one last play.

Bayonne threw the ball to half court just over the leaping Darius Plummer. The Bayonne point guard launched an NBA 3 pointer in an effort to win the game. The ball hit the inside of the rim, rattled around, and rolled out. The St. Joseph’s boys and parents stormed the floor in celebration.

This year’s JV Champions include: Luke Burke, Lorenzo Duvergne, Chris Erlandsen, Galileo Hetherington, Ted Jean, Brendan Lackey, Rowan Marbury, Will Perlman, Darius Plummer, Pat Ryan, Ryan Sartori, Casey Thompson, and Jake Wozniak.

The Celtics 4th grade boys capped off their regular season championship with a second consecutive trip to the finals. Unfortunately, they ran into a red-hot team from Holy Trinity of Westfield and lost the final 29 to 9. Utilizing screens and back-door cuts, Holy Trinity scored 14 points in the 3rd quarter to seal the victory. Ben Peacock, Luke Chmiel, Kalman Kraham and Aidan Dwyer each scored 2 for the Celtics and Joseph Miller chipped in 1. The Celtics finished the season 11 – 2 and looks forward to next year.

The Celtics 3rd Grade boys basketball season came to a close this weekend, ultimately losing to St. John's in the divisional championship at the James McElroy Memorial Tournament. It was a hard fought game with the Celtics down by only 2-points a halftime, but they just couldn't withstand a great effort by St. John's in the second half.

The Celtics were led by Casey Zigler with 11-points and Strong Defensive efforts turned in by Perry Reyes, Devin Brown, and Mathew Morales combining for a total of 18-rebounds, 8-steals, and a blocked shot. "Guards Tommy Coutinho, Nicholas Aaron, Vincent Zakian, and Ben Szczepanski were fantastic distributing the ball and holding off a powerful St. John's backcourt for the entire game" commented George Brown, coach of the team. Cole Latimer, a key member of the Celtics boys who was sidelined with an injury for the finals run, was confident of a strong Celtics team next year.

The following players will represent St. Joseph’s in the upcoming CYO All Star Game on Saturday, March 17 at IHM in Scotch Plains: JV 5 Girls Cece Clarke and Sarah Johnson, JV 6 Girls Lilly Young and Mary Cronin, JV Boys Green Liam O'Neill and Justin Bramwell , JV Boys White Casey Thomson, Darius Plummer and Jake Wozniak, Varsity Girls Amber Bourke and Jordan Fields, Varsity 7 Boys CJ Carey and Thomas O’Connor, Varsity 8 Boys Michael Roberston and Tajeer Robinson. Also Coaches Mike Ryan, Jim Lackey, and Mike Burke will be coaches for the JV Boys game.

St. Joseph's CYO is a shared parish ministry for the parishioners of St. Joseph's
in Maplewood and Our Lady of Sorrows in South Orange. For more information
about the CYO program you can visit their web site at www.eteamz.com/stjosephcelticscyobasketball.