METUCHEN, N.J. (NCC NEWS) – When New Jersey’s high school baseball season was cancelled before it even began in March, St. Joseph High School senior Caleb Carter saw his world come crashing down.
“I was very very upset about it,” Carter said. “ This is my senior season, so hearing that I wasn’t gonna be able to play one last tome on this field was upsetting.”
Carter and the state’s other seniors would not lose out on the entire season, however, as they took the field today to begin the first ever “Last Dance” tournament. The competition, whose name is inspired by the recent ESPN documentary on Michael Jordan, consists of 221 teams from across New Jersey, and will conclude July 31 with a championship game in Trenton. The tournament is the brainchild of St. Joseph head baseball coach and athletic director Mike Murray, with the purpose of allowing players’ seasons and careers to end not in quarantine, but on the field
“We knew we didn’t have a lot of time to do a league or a full season.” Murray said. “So we thought, hey, what’s fun? A bracket event, something that we can get everybody together, get to one champion, and have some fun.”
Murray had originally intended for the tournament to be just a regional competition. While he knew his proposal would have interest, he never could have expected what the scope of the tournament would become.
“I talked to a lot of coaches in the north, and we were thinking about doing something among a bunch of the northern counties and hoping that the south did something similar so we can play.” Murray said. “And then it just kind of morphed into everybody together, which I think ultimately get all the logistics worked out.”
For Carter, the news that his career would continue on in the tournament was music to his ears.
“I was very happy when I heard Coach Murray was putting together a tournament,” Carter said. “Being able to be back on the field and play against other teams and be back with my boys, it’s fun.”
Murray, who himself was afflicted with COVID-19 in March, is more than thankful to be thinking about baseball again, and not about the world around him.
“For the last hour I’ve just been worried about a lineup and making sure we score some runs,” Murray said. “So now it feels like a normal baseball game, which is good.”
It’s a return to normalcy for both Murray and all the baseball players around New Jersey, who, after four months of gloom and doom, are able to play the game they love once again.
