New Jersey Basketball Powerhouse St. Anthony Officially Closing

NJ.com- The home of the most storied high school boys basketball program in New Jersey history is closing its doors. St. Anthony High School will suspend operations at the end of the 2016-17 school year in June due to a lack of funding and dwindling enrollment, a source familiar with the decision told NJ Advance Media. Bob Hurley Sr., the school’s principal and basketball team’s Hall of Fame coach, was meeting with his staff to announce the news on Wednesday. The Archdiocese of Newark came to the decision to close the small school near the mouth of the Holland Tunnel after meeting with St. Anthony officials earlier on Wednesday, determining that St. Anthony’s fervorous fundraising efforts were not enough to overcome its crippling financial issues.

Hurley said in recent days that enrollment was not far off its typical number but was not as strong as the school hoped. He described the possible closure as “a cloud hanging over the school all year” when it came to enrollment efforts. And despite a series of successful fundraisers held since the school’s dire money situation was revealed, there was still a financial gap that the school was unable to close to solidify the institution’s future.

This absolutely sucks. There’s no other way to put this. St. Anthony, coached by legendary Bob Hurley Sr., is officially closing. St. Anthony almost shut its doors a handful times before, but late donations helped keep it alive. This time, citing a lack of funding and dwindling enrollment, St. Anthony’s won’t make it.

St. Anthony’s has been open since 1952 and Hurley took over in 1972. Do yourself a favor and read The Miracle of St. Anthony if you haven’t yet and watch The Street Stops Here documentary. Both are fantastic views into this exact situation and what Hurley has done for the school and basketball program. He’s no doubt the most successful high school basketball coach of all time and the names that have come out of that school is unreal. The most recent great player was Kyle Anderson, now with the Spurs, but Hurley has coached the likes of his sons, Tyshawn Taylor, Roshown McLeod and even worked at a school where Joe Budden attended.

I want to look at this strictly from a hoops standpoint. This isn’t the first time a school like this has closed with incredible talent. St. Anthony’s got Kyle Anderson when Patterson Catholic shut its doors. The likely scenario is most of the guys on the current team end up at the Patrick School, Roselle Catholic or possibly down in Florida with Montverde Academy where Kevin Boyle is the head coach. Boyle is from New Jersey and was the former coach of the Patrick School when it was known as St. Patrick’s and had Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. There’s always a couple D1 recruits on St. Anthony’s and with the way New Jersey schools recruit, it will be essentially a free agency period with these kids.

For Hurley, he’ll always be a legend. I have family that has coached against him for years and anytime I talk to them inevitably a Hurley story pops up. He’s a Hall of Famer for a reason and his teams have won four national championships and 28 state titles, which is just absurd, especially in the talent-rich area of New Jersey. After years of passing up college jobs, I do wonder if he’ll take on an assistant role somewhere, perhaps under one of his sons or if he stays in state. His goal when taking over St. Anthony’s was to help clean up the streets as he was a probation officer, which is well documented in The Street Stops Here.

All in all though this sucks as it’s a big time program and a trend that seems to happen with these small private schools.