EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s very rare for a boys’ high school basketball player to reach the 1,000-point milestone. It’s a feat to be honored and cherished. We were fortunate here locally to have three young men all reach the 1,000-point club within the same time frame. It had never before happened. The Observer honors those players with special features this week.
With three weeks left to go in the regular season and with North Arlington High School’s boys’ basketball team struggling in a huge fashion, posting a winless record after 16 games, the idea of senior guard Nick DeGrace even getting close to the 1,000-point plateau was almost laughable.
“Not at that point,” North Arlington head coach Marcello D’Andrea said. “It was going to be uphill battle.”
“Not even close,” DeGrace said. “I wasn’t thinking that way at all. I just wanted to win a few games.”
But then, almost suddenly like a bolt of lightning, DeGrace caught fire. He exploded for 40 points against Wood-Ridge on Feb. 6, leading the Vikings to a 76-68 victory, snapping the Vikings’ 16-game losing streak.
“Once he got that 40-point game, everything changed,” D’Andrea said. “The basket became like an ocean. Everything he threw up went in.”
With 10 games to go, DeGrace needed 320 points to get to the milestone. Quick math shows that he needed to average 32 points a game over the final 10 games of his career to get to the milestone to become the first North Arlington boys’ basketball player to reach the 1,000-point plateau since former Observer Male Athlete of the Year Tyler Krychkowski did it in his final game in 2012.
“It was really farfetched, “ DeGrace said.
But then, DeGrace scored 33 in a game against Hasbrouck Heights, securing Observer Athlete of the Week honors.
He then scored 38 against Becton Regional and 39 versus Kearny in back-to-back games.
“After I did that, I thought it was possible,” DeGrace said. “But my first goal was to get more wins. That Wood-Ridge game was a huge boost for me. If I just kept doing what I was doing, I had a chance.”
“At that point, I thought he might have a shot,” D’Andrea said. “The offense was definitely going through his hands. We ran him off screens and got him open shots. When he had the open look, he knocked it down. He shot very well from the floor.”
And incredibly, almost implausibly, DeGrace kept scoring more than 30 a game. He tossed in 37 against Bergen Charter and 30 against Park Ridge, to crawl within three of the prestigious plateau as the Vikings closed out their season last Friday against Ferris of Jersey City.
Sure enough, DeGrace kept the 30-point barrage going, tallying 31 in his final game to eclipse the 1,000-point mark. He now joins the prestigious 1,000-point club at the school and will have his name added to the banner in the gym forever.
“Thank God, it actually happened,” DeGrace said. “It was my last game and I kind of knew I had to play well. It was definitely a surreal feeling. It was actually good that it came in my last game. It’s the happiest feeling I’ve ever had. I would definitely say it was a reward.”
And after going the first 16 games without a win, the Vikings won five of their final 10. Not exactly world beaters, but much better than what was happening.
Needless to say, DeGrace was a little speechless after reaching the milestone.
“I can’t even put it to words,” DeGrace said. “It’s something I’ll remember until the day I die.”
“It really is amazing,” D’Andrea said. “We knew what he needed, but still, the ball had to go through the basket. He started taking the ball to the basket more, getting fouled more. He brought a different dynamic to the team. I always said all season long that he was the cog who made the engine go.”
DeGrace doesn’t know if he will attend trade school to become a carpenter or go to college.
“But if I go to college, I’ll try out for the basketball team,” DeGrace said. “It’s still up in the air.”
D’Andrea said that he was extremely proud of his star player.
“It’s nice when we win and we get recognized,” D’Andrea said. “When a kid puts in the work and reaches something like this, well, it’s what I coach for. Seeing his parents and family smiling from ear to ear, it meant a lot. I like to think that basketball is a vehicle for life. If he uses basketball to move forward, then we’ve done something good for the kid. But he’s the one who put in the work to get better. Things are possible when you work hard. That’s the message that comes from all this.”
DeGrace joins the 1,000-point club after scoring just 17 points as a sophomore and ends his career with 1,028 points. It’s pretty remarkable.
CAPTION
North Arlington senior guard Nick DeGrace poses with the basketball after reaching the 1,000-point milestone in the Vikings’ final game, a win over Ferris last Friday afternoon. DeGrace became the first member of the North Arlington 1,000-point club since Tyler Krychkowski did it in 2012. Photo courtesy of North Arlington athletics
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Jim Hague | Observer Sports Writer
Sports Writer Jim Hague was with The Observer for 20+ years — and his name is one of the most recognizable in all of sports journalism. The St. Peter’s Prep and Marquette alum kicked off his journalism career post Marquette at the Daily Record, where he remained until 1985. Following shorts stints at two other newspapers, in September 1986, he joined the now-closed Hudson Dispatch, where he remained until 1991, when its doors were finally shut.
It was during his tenure at The Dispatch that Hague’s name and reputation as one of country’s hardest-working sports reporters grew. He won several New Jersey Press Association and North Jersey Press Club Awards in that timeframe.
In 1991, he became a columnist for The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers — and he remains with them to this day.
In addition to his work at The Observer and The Hudson Reporter, Hague is also an Associated Press stringer, where he covers Seton Hall University men’s basketball, New York Red Bulls soccer and occasionally, New Jersey Devils hockey.
He’s also doing work at The Morristown Daily Record, the very newspaper where his journalism career began.
During his career, he also worked for Dorf Feature Services, which provided material for the Star-Ledger. While there, he covered the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets.
Hague is also known for his announcing work — and he’s done PA work for Rutgers Newark and NJIT.
Hague is the author of the book “Braddock: The Rise of the Cinderella Man.”