Harrison’s Huseinovic named Observer Male Athlete of the Year

Dustin Huseinovic didn’t have to look very far to find the inspiration and motivation to become a standout athlete.

The recent Harrison High School graduate found that inspiration in his same living room _ namely his older brother Adam.

“Adam was always a big part of my motivation to become a better athlete,” Dustin Huseinovic said. “I was the younger brother and always tried to be better than him. I think everyone was expecting me to fill my brother’s shoes. I wouldn’t say that there was pressure to perform, but it was definitely a good motivation.”

The older Huseinovic played football and baseball at Harrison, graduating in 2014 and then moving on to play football at Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham.

“I think it helped me a lot, watching my brother play all the time,” the younger Huseinovic said. “I always wanted to be like him. I wanted to add what he did to my game.”

As it turned out, the little brother became a little better than the big brother.

“I was very fortunate to have Adam as a brother,” Huseinovic said. “I knew I couldn’t do anything wrong if I turned out like him.”

Dustin Huseinovic said that he wanted to play every sport imaginable when he was a youngster. He tried his hand in basketball and soccer.

“I played anything with a ball,” Huseinovic laughed.

As it turned out, football and baseball became the sports of choice.

“I started playing football when I was six years old, playing for the Mighty Mites,” Huseinovic said. “I liked playing football because I was able to hit everyone. I would much rather hit someone then get hit. I found that to be personally rewarding.”

Huseinovic also played baseball since he was six. That was obviously a momentous year in young Dustin’s life.

“I always played baseball, but I decided that football was going to be my chance to get to college,” Huseinovic said. “It was always my goal to get a scholarship to play football.”

Huseinovic was a varsity performer in both sports from the minute he enrolled in Harrison. In baseball, he was a fine outfielder and pitcher. In football, he was a jack-of-all-trades on both sides of the ball, a sensational running back and pass receiver on offense, a devastating linebacker on defense.

“He had a lot of experience playing varsity baseball as a freshman,” said Harrison head coach Jairo Mendez. “I think that was a huge aspect to his success. He made no bones about the fact that he didn’t want to play JV (junior varsity) as a freshman. I think that helped him develop as a player and as a young man. He invested four years into our baseball program. He’s a smart kid and a smart baseball player.”

“I always like to go with a kid’s work ethic,” said former Harrison head football coach Mike Hinchcliffe, who coached Huseinovic for his last two seasons in a Blue Tide uniform. “It’s hard to measure work ethic, but Dustin always wanted to be the best player on the field. And he worked at it tremendously. He did a lot of work on his own.”

Hinchcliffe loved the way Huseinovic played on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

“Without a doubt, we liked to use him as a receiver, because that’s what he loved to do best,” Hinchcliffe said. “But he could play anywhere. His versatility went through the roof. He usually made things happen.”

Mendez gave Huseinovic credit for maintaining his brilliance in two sports.

“When you diversify yourself like that, playing more than one sport, it’s never easy,” Mendez said. “We’ve had a couple of other baseball players who played football. At a small school like Harrison, you have to have kids who play more than one sport. Dustin was more than just a player in two sports. He was a major player in two sports.”

In football, Huseinovic rushed for more than 450 yards and scored four touchdowns, averaging more than 10 yards per carry. He also had nine receptions for 325 yards and two more touchdowns. He also had a kickoff return for a score. On defense, he collected 32 tackles and had three sacks.

In baseball, Huseinovic had three homers and 14 RBI. He also had a 2-3 pitching record and struck out 22 batters in 21 innings. For his career, he collected 68 hits, including seven homers and 44 RBI and won four games on the mound.

For his efforts, Huseinovic has been selected as The Observer Male Athlete of the Year for the 2017-2018 scholastic sports campaign. Huseinovic was recently presented with the award from Observer General Manager Robert Pezzolla with his parents, coaches and school officials present.

Huseinovic is the second straight Harrison product to receive the year-end award that has been presented every year since 2003. Huseinovic’s former teammate Mike O’Donnell received the award last year. Huseinovic is the third Blue Tide product to receive the award. Former Harrison standout athlete Jose Camano took home the award in 2009.

“I definitely knew Mikey won last year,” Huseinovic said. “He’s always been one of my good friends. He gave me motivation to try to get it this year. I’m just happy and honored to receive it. I’m happy and proud to represent Harrison in a good way. It’s definitely a good feeling.”

Hinchcliffe gave Huseinovic the biggest form of praise ever bestowed upon a Blue Tide athlete.

“I’ve been in Harrison my whole life and with no disrespect to Ray (Lucas), because we all know how good he was,” Hinchcliffe said. “But this is the best athlete we’ve ever had in this town. Dustin is a phenomenal athlete with unreal ability.”

That says it in a nutshell. In Hinchcliffe’s eyes, Huseinovic was better than Lucas, who went on to play quarterback at Rutgers and later the National Football League. Incredibly, Huseinovic and Lucas are very close and Lucas has served as a mentor to Dustin.

“I guess we’d have to do that MJ (Michael Jordan) and LeBron (James) thing with him and Ray,” Hinchcliffe said. “But there was no one else in between.”

Both coaches loved Huseinovic’s attitude.

“He’s never caught up in himself,” Hinchcliffe said. “He’s a great teammate and worked hard with his teammates. He’s always been a team first player and would do anything for the team. He wanted the team to success and when we lost, he had this tremendous sense of failure. You could always see in his eyes that he had the team’s success in his mind first.”

“He was a very coachable kid,” Mendez said. “He was respectful and humble and always wanted to get better. He wasn’t a rah-rah type, but the other kids all looked up to him. He was the leader on the team. He loved playing both sports and he loved playing baseball just as much as football.”

Hinchcliffe gave credit to Huseinovic’s parents.

“He’s a credit to (mother) Pat and (father) Al,” Hinchcliffe said. “How Adam acted and how Dustin does what he does is because of their parents. It was an unbelievable thrill to have coached him. He made it a pleasure every day. You see a talent like him and you know they don’t come along every day. It was great to watch. It gave me more joy just coaching him the last two years.”

Mendez realized that Huseinovic’s graduation will form a gaping hole in his baseball program.

“I’m going to miss him tremendously,” Mendez said. “Dustin was like having another coach on the field. He knew what he was doing on every single play. If the ball was hit his way, I knew he was going to catch it.”

Huseinovic will now take his talents to Pace University, where he will play football on a scholarship.

“I’m happy with the way my high school career turned out,” Huseinovic said. “It was my goal to play college football and I’m getting that chance. I just hope that I showed the younger kids that anything is possible. Just because you come from a small school and you play on a team with a losing record, it doesn’t mean you won’t get noticed. It made things a little harder for me, but it also motivated me more. I always felt like I had a chip on my shoulder and that I had high expectations. I always had to prove something to myself.”

And he’s no longer just Adam Huseinovic’s little brother. He’s a scholarship athlete and he’s The Observer Male Athlete of the Year.