Sports
Season in Review: Boys Basketball
Young team advances to state tournament but loses in the first round.
With all winter sports seasons having concluded, Fort Lee Patch now takes an in-depth look at how each team fared over the past few months.
With the last of five installments, the season in review segment comes to an end with the story of the Fort Lee Bridgemen Boy’s Basketball Team.
The year started in unfamiliar territory for Bridgemen coach John Ziemba, who was guiding the youngest team he has ever had in 20 years. But instead of getting down about the situation, Ziemba looked at it as an opportunity and a challenge.
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"When you play varsity, you can't treat them like babies," the Fort Lee coach said before the season. "They need to be ready to go."
So after the Bridgemen lost Sandy Burgos, the school’s all-time leading scorer, to graduation and couldn’t play senior Ryan Ford because he was academically ineligible, Fort Lee was looking at the option of starting four underclassmen. To fill part of the the voids, the Bridgemen called upon senior George Padin to captain the basketball team just as he did for the Fort Lee soccer team in the fall.
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“George is the kind of kid that makes everybody better,” Ziemba said of Padin. “He is somebody who is the ultimate team player in the age of a me, me, me game."
With Padin leading, Fort Lee aspired to overcome the youth movement but lost the first four games of their season. But in an elimination game of the Jack Reilly Tournament, the Bridgemen came from behind to beat Mahwah and win their first game of the season.
In January, Fort Lee notched three wins in a span of four games with victories against Dumont, Lyndhurst and Paramus, but the Bridgemen also lost by double digits to Westwood, Dwight Morrow and Lakeland.
As the team recorded more losses than wins, the younger players started to gain more experience. Sophomore center Anthony Rafes became a focal point on the offense and freshman Dashaun Washington developed as the Bridgemen’s starting point guard.
“[Washington] is going to be one of the best point guards we've ever had here," Ziemba said of the ninth grader. "He is only fourteen and probably weighs about 90 pounds out there. [Dashaun] is going to be one of the best players at that position that we have ever had."
To start February, senior Ryan Ford was cleared to play and was back on the floor with his fellow teammates. In the first game against Ridgefield Park, the older brother of Josh Ford scored 23 points in a one point loss to Fort Lee’s bitter nearby rival.
As the season looked to be on the upswing for the Bridgemen, it only came back down two days later when Ford fell awkwardly after trying to make a block on a breakaway. He tried to play later in the game against Rutherford, but was taken out minutes later, never play again in his high school career.
Despite that, the Bridgemen continued to grow and advanced to another state tournament. They drew a match-up against Madison on the road, but Fort Lee scored just one point in the first quarter in a season-ending 61-36 loss.
“The guys we needed to have big games didn’t have them, but it’s a learning experience for us,” Ziemba said of the team’s youth. “I think we can be in this position, on the right side, in the future, but against a senior team like that, it’s tough if you don’t make those shots early.”
As the team lost that night, they also missed another opportunity to win the 300th game of John Ziemba’s coaching career. That milestone will have to wait until next season as the Bridgemen return all but two players (George Padin and Ryan Ford). Fort Lee will look to build upon the 9-18 season this year where many underclassmen will be another year older on the varsity level, back for another season on the Bridgemen bench.
