BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
WESTWOOD, N.J.—Congratulations to your Westwood girls 14U summer softball team, which delivered an undefeated finish in its Bergen County Travel League division and capped the postseason with wild cheers as 2017 county champions.
The girls ran roughshod over competitors in a stellar 12-0 season, for good measure yanking the playoffs, 3-0, out of the very hopes and dreams of River Edge, whom they played at Midland Park High School.
According to head coach Mark Geimke, at one point the girls were trailing a playoff game 2-0, “and that’s the only time they were behind,” he said. “Then they exploded for the win.”
Really? They were briefly behind? What was Geimke’s excuse for that, Pascack Press asked.
“I dunno. I’m slipping. Blame me,” he joked.
Not likely. Geimke, as many readers will recall, was named MVP of a defining 1980 Bergen County Tournament (among his achievements on and off the field).
He was inducted into Westwood Regional High School’s Hall of Fame in 2009 as “one of the best baseball players to ever grace the Westwood High School diamond,” the district’s website still says with all due pride.
Mayor John Birkner Jr., in introducing Geimke and his team and staff to a delighted audience at borough hall Aug. 15 for their official congratulations, recalled Geimke as a pal.
“I played ball with this guy, and I would bat second in the order and usually get on first, and usually steal second and steal third, and I’d get to third base and he would be up, and I would say, ‘Why did I want to be on third base with this guy up?’ He would just drill wicked foul balls right at me as I was standing there on the baseline,” Birkner said.
Honored at borough hall were players Gianna Ancona, Heidi Brockner, Anna Corbo, Carly Coleman, Josephine Corrubia, Cara DiCuffa, Samantha DiBari, Kaitlyn Dobson, Carly Emporellis, Olivia Geimke, Staci Singer and Jocelyn Tortorici.
Staff with Geimke included assistant coaches Tony Corbo, Aldo DiCuffa and Charles Tortorici, and team administrator Felicia Brockner.
“They’re just a really talented group of girls,” Geimke told the Pascack Press.
“This year they were a perfect storm of athletes, and if they stick together, in four years—or even less—you’re going to see them playing varsity. Whatever these girls do they’re going to be good at.” He added, “They’re out of my hands. It was just an honor to coach them.”