SCHOOL’S OUT
TCA sports to end soon as school announces June closure
Mercer County will soon be losing a big name from the local high school sports scene.
Trenton Catholic Academy announced Friday that its Upper and Lower Schools will close in June because of its growing financial deficit combined with the economic impact of COVID-19.
This means that the upcoming winter sports season will be the last for TCA’s premier boys and girls basketball teams.
“Let’s face it: There’s been a lot of Catholic schools, unfortunately, that have closed over the last four years,” said girls basketball coach Bob Fusik. “Obviously, with the Catholic school we all know that there’s the possibility every year that something can happen, but I never really thought Trenton Catholic would ever close. The main reason why I say that is because we’re a school for the city, and we give some kids options. Do you go to your public school or do you want to go to a private school?”
The news is particularly hurtful for Fusik, who also has a son — a freshman who has been at the school since sixth grade.
Now, he and many other parents face difficult conversations to explain that their kids must graduate elsewhere.
“My son needs smaller classrooms, and if he goes to a public school he’s gonna be one of those kids that just get lost,” Fusik said. “I just feel TCA was a great opportunity for a lot of these kids because they were smaller. The classrooms are 14, 15 kids, and I just think it’s better learning, better education because you get a lot more one-on-one, or one-on-five at times versus 30, 32 kids in a class.”
Diocesan Superintendent of Catholic Schools Dr. Vincent de Paul Schmidt said in a statement that the Diocese of Trenton intends to make transitional scholarship money available for the 2021-22 school year to students seeking to continue their education in one of the Catholic schools affiliated with the Diocese or
its parishes.
“TCA students will be welcomed at Notre Dame High School in nearby Lawrenceville and at a number of Catholic elementary schools in close proximity to TCA so that Catholic education might continue to be available in Mercer County,” Schmidt said.
Many athletes, though, face more complicated decisions. Players and parents commute from areas such as New York and North Jersey specifically to come to TCA, so for some it may not be as simple as pivoting to another Mercer County school.
On an emotional level, Fusik said he and assistant coach Sherika Salmon will miss their tight-knit bonds with kids.
“It’s a sad day because we just feel like we’re losing our family,” he said. “Our kids that graduate ... we still touch base with those kids once a week on social media, or even Christmas time they all call.”
Area fans will miss out on fierce sports competition, especially on the court.
The boys program, one of the best in the state, has won six of the past nine Mercer County Tournaments and eight overall since 1986. Its biggest achievement was winning the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title in 2010 as the state champion of Non-Public B South.
Fred Falchi returned this past year for his third stint as the boys coach — a tenure
that began in 1998 and included time away from the court in 2011, 2018 and 2019.
During that time he sent countless athletes to college and groomed three NBA players: Malachi Richardson, Charles Cooke and Myles Powell. Richmond Aririguzoh, who graduated in 2016, went on to have a stellar four-year career at Princeton and signed a professional contract in Denmark in November.
The program’s rich history also features Frantz Massenat, who was the point guard on the 2010 ToC winner and went on to Drexel, Bryan Caver, who attended in the late 1980’s when it was called McCorristin Catholic High School, and Nick Werkman, a 1960 alum of Trenton Catholic High School. Both played at Seton Hall, where Werkman is still the Pirates’ all-time leading scorer with 2,273 points.
Meanwhile, the girls program has captured three straight MCT titles under Fusik and 10 overall since 1987.
Fusik guided the Lady Mikes to their second straight sectional title last year, but their dominant 28-1 season, which had Tournament of Champions potential, was cut short because of the pandemic.
That team had about a handful of Division I-level players, including two seniors now playing in college: Maniya Custis
(Central Florida) and Giana Hernandez-Boulden (Rhode Island).
The girls program’s success also dates back decades with stars such as Linda Weise at McCorristin. Fusik was proud to follow in the footsteps of Khaliq Lewis El in 2017 and build TCA back into a powerhouse.
“There’s been coaches obviously well before (my time) with the McCorristin years where there were great rivalries between us and Trenton back in the day,” said Fusik, who also spent time as a boys assistant under Falchi. “It’s just a shame because the area needs that, and now it’s just not going to be any longer.”
High school basketball teams are slated to begin practicing Monday with games starting on Jan. 26.
Fusik said he will meet with his players and parents to keep the focus on the final season and trying to win all of their games — albeit without any NJSIAA trophies because of this being another COVID-19 shortened season.
“I looked at this season as a different season anyway because we weren’t playing for anything,” Fusik said. “But I feel bad. We recruited some good freshmen, and now we’re telling them, ‘Hey, thank you for coming, but goodbye.’ That’s the sad part about this whole thing.”