Rivals Celebrate Their Seniors Together

Columbia and Millburn High School field hockey teams shared Senior Day

Columbia and Millburn's high school field hockey teams joined forces to celebrate their seniors. Columbia's Senior Day, a home game that begins with flowers, balloons and kudos for the senior class members of the team, was rescheduled twice, due to Sandy and to Nor'easter Athena.  With no more home games on the schedule for CHS, Millburn High School's field hockey team offered to share their Senior Day. On Friday, both teams' seniors were honored, at Millburn High School. A photo gallery is here. Congratulations to the Classes of 2013!

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Maplewood Navigator: Busichio Named CHS Athletic Director

CHS alum and coach replaces Dave Curtain.

Cougar Girls Make States for First Time in 12 Years

Columbia girls soccer blanks East Side 8-0 for sixth win of the season

The first stage of the Columbia girls turnaround season is complete. With their sixth victory of the season, behind a natural hat trick from junior forward Olivia Mangan and a suffocating defensive effort, the Cougar girls soccer team defeated East Side 8-0, to qualify for the state playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Earlier this afternoon at Meadowland Park, the visiting East Side girls were completely overwhelmed by the new look Columbia girls. East Side did not even attempt a shot on goal and barely possessed the ball throughout the contest. “We’re a team built on defense. That’s the seventh game that we haven’t conceded a goal,” said first year Columbia head coach Stephen Jones. “We pride ourselves on not giving up goals.” Aside …

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Alex Livingston Shines, but Cougars Fall

Newark Academy defeats Columbia girls tennis team 4-1.

With seven matches left to play and their playoff lives short lived after a 4-1 loss to Watchung Hills in the first round on Tuesday, the Columbia girls tennis team did not get a break on Wednesday. The always difficult Newark Academy girls came into town at South Orange Middle School and handed the Red and Black girls a 4-1 loss. Despite the overall record of the girls falling to 5-11, Columbia No. 1 singles player Alex Livingston has continued her stellar play this season, all while battling a soar shoulder. If it was hurting during the match, it could hardly be noticed on Wednesday. Livingston breezed past Molly Alter in straight sets, dropping just a single game. Her match was over in less than an hour, improving to 15-2 this season, …

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The Weekly Sports Rundown

This just in: Columbia football is very good

I was extremely impressed with the Cougar football team this weekend in their home-opener. At first I left the game thinking they had won ugly and didn’t play very sharply, but then I thought about it a little more. The Cougars averaged just over four yards per carry, held the Bulldogs to 45 rushing yards and allowed just three first downs. In addition, the defense forced three turnovers and generally got Shabazz’s offense off the field pretty quickly. Columbia controlled the ball for more than 32 minutes, while the Bulldogs held it for just over 15. As the saying goes, you can’t win without the ball. What it boils down to is that the Cougars won a real football game. Not one of these lopsided 41-0, or 44-21 games that we get used to …

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Columbia Girls Volleyball Back to .500

Cougars knock off Millburn at CHS

For the Columbia girls volleyball team, it was nice to pick up an easy two-game victory, as most of their matches have consisted of three close matches. For the Millburn girls, the rebuilding process continues, as the Blue and White crew are still searching for win No. 1. Yesterday afternoon, the Millburn girls fell to 0-9 on the road at Columbia High School, where the Cougar girls took advantage of the Millers in straight games to get back to .500 with under a month to play before the state playoff cutoff date. “They didn’t play well. Obviously, otherwise we have been able to get a win,” said Miller Head Coach Mikhail Sigolov of his team. “The way my team is playing, I wouldn’t have expected a blowout. Our team has been so up and down.” …

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Columbia Volleyball Beats Summit

Serving miscues and hitting errors by Summit helped the Cougars to a win.

The Summit volleyball team took out their frustration on Columbia yesterday, but in the end the Cougar team was able to pull through. Summit's lack of control cost the Hilltoppers numerous points in the first set of their match on Wednesday, as their serving miscues and hitting errors made Columbia's job that much easier. Set No. 2 saw a much more composed Summit squad, but a late surge by Columbia combined with the lack of control by the Hilltoppers proved to be too much of an obstacle for the Summit squad. Summit trailed 22-16 when captain Megan Trindell put away a vital point with a kill and proceeded to serve six straight points to jump ahead 23-22. But Columbia was able to tie the game and close the match out a few points later.

Cougar Gymnasts Remain Unbeaten

Columbia girls improve to 3-0.

The Columbia girls gymnastics team has gotten off to a great start this season. That trend continued Friday evening at South Orange Middle School. The Red and Black gymnasts outscored the visiting Union Catholic girls 82.5 - 72.3 to remain unbeaten this season at 3-0. “Being that we have a small team, we are happily surprised that we’ve done so well,” said seventh year head coach Beryl Roman. “These girls are really rising to the occasion to pull through and helped us get the wins over the last few weeks.” The locals shined in the vault and floor events, scoring 22.35 and 22 combined points, respectively. In the bars, they outscored the competitors 18.6 - 11.95 and in the beam the Cougars were outdone, 20.05-19.55.  Columbia's starters …

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Cougar Boys Edged at Meadowland Park

Columbia soccer team drops a 1-0 game to West Orange

An early first half goal, some strong defense down the stretch and a lucky non-goal call was all the visiting West Orange Mountaineers needed on Wednesday afternoon to come away with a 1-0 win over the hometown Cougar boys soccer team. “It was a good game but we lost,” said 47-year Columbia Head Coach Gene Chyzowych. “We couldn’t score. They just took advantage of the one goal.” After West Orange tapped in a rebound to the lower lefthand side of the net midway through the first half, the Cougars found themselves trailing for the first time this season. But despite several pushes by the local boys, Columbia had a lot of trouble finishing scores. Every time they had an offensive push, a West Orange player would stick a foot in and tap the …

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