Sending three athletes to the NJSIAA Meet of Champs
The North Arlington indoor track and field program is in its first year of existence and already, the program is sending three athletes to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions this weekend. From l. are head coach John Zukatus, P.J. Sirotiak, Danny Cordeiro, Travis Fisher and assistant coach Joe Cioffi.
By Jim Hague
Observer Sports Writer
For several years, there had always been talk about the possibility of initiating an indoor track and field program at North Arlington High School, but nothing ever seemed to come to fruition.
That was, until last year.
“There was a push to have a team from the Board of Education last year,” said John Zukatus, who has been a teacher and a track coach at North Arlington for a few years. “We had looked at the possibility last year, but it wasn’t approved until the last week of November.”
Once it was made official that the Vikings would indeed have an indoor track program this winter, the interest began to peak.
“We had 22 kids come out for the first workout,” Zukatus said. “Most of them were not playing another winter sport.”
For an NJSIAA Group I enrollment school, getting 22 kids to do anything at the same time is truly remarkable.
“We just wanted to have the kids more prepared for the outdoor season in the spring,” Zukatus said. “Having an indoor program definitely helped us. We tried to train the kids in the off-season, but it was hard without a team. This gave them a chance to train and compete.”
Travis Fisher is a North Arlington student/athlete who was in a bit of a dilemma without having a track program in the winter months.
You see, Fisher, the younger brother of 2010 Observer Female Athlete of the Year Tara Fisher, competes in the pole vault. Without a legit track program, Fisher would have been relegated to simply training with his club, Apex Vaulting Club in Fairfield, and not much else.
“It was pretty rough going into the spring without it,” Fisher said. “I was one of the people who were pushing for it. I wanted it to happen.” Sure enough, the fledgling track and field program gave Fisher an outlet.
The same goes for multisport athlete P.J. Sirotiak, who played soccer in the fall and once played baseball in the spring.
During the winter months, it was strictly training for Sirotiak with nothing to shoot for.
“I basically trained for soccer,” Sirotiak said. “That was basically it.”
And Danny Cordeiro, the soccer standout who recently signed a national letter of intent to accept a scholarship to play soccer at NJIT, used track and field as an outlet, a weapon of preparation for the soccer season.
Last spring, Cordeiro showed a major glimpse of his talents in track and field, winning the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I gold medal in the 1,600-meter run.
Without an indoor track team, Cordeiro would have perhaps become stale in the winter months, training on his own to prepare for the spring.
However, the brand new indoor track team at North Arlington has already paid its dividends, as all three aforementioned athletes are headed to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions this weekend at the Bennett Center in Toms River.
In just their first year of existence, the Vikings will get the chance to compete with all the best track athletes in New Jersey.
Cordeiro punched his ticket to the M of C the easy way by winning the gold medal in the 1,600-meter run. In fact, Cordeiro’s winning time of 1:58.29 set a new Group I meet record.
“I’m happy I won,” Cordeiro said. “I was also happy that I had a PR (personal record). I’m going to the Meet of Champions now and I’m going to do my best.”
Has the idea that Cordeiro is an overall Group I state champion sunk in?
“Maybe a little bit, but not really,” Cordeiro said. “I guess only time will tell. I thought I had a chance going in. I had the fastest time going in, but you can never be sure. I had to run my best. I try to relax before the big races and not pay attention to much else. I breathe easily and that helps me relieve stress. I just try to pay attention to the race.”
Sirotiak, who stands only 5-foot-8, was able to jump his height in finishing fifth in the Group I high jump, earning his place at the Meet of Champs.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Sirotiak said. “I’m going to jump with all the best in the state. I’m just going to try to stay in it for as long as possible.”
Fisher earned his place by clearing 11-6 in the pole vault, good for sixth place and a berth in the M of C.
“I’m really excited about it,” Fisher said. “This is giving me the opportunity to compete with the best.”
Needless to say, the coaching staff is ecstatic that the Vikings will get the chance to compete on the grand stage, in the very first year of the program.
“What they did far exceeded what we could have imagined,” Zukatus said. “We can’t ask for anything more.”
As for Cordeiro being an overall Group I state champion?
“That just makes me speechless,” Zukatus said. “We knew he was talented. He has improved a lot since last outdoor season. But to win a state championship? It’s truly amazing.”
Assistant coach Joe Cioffi, who heads the program in the spring, agreed.
“We are speechless,” Cioffi said. “That’s the best way to describe it. To have two guys take over this program and have this happen, have three kids go to the Meet of Champs? It’s unbelievable. It says our program is on the way up. We have talented kids here.”
“We have a lot to work for,” Zukatus said. “We now have to keep it going.”
