Delbarton School

And, uh, when I saw grass for the first time at Yankee Stadium, it was the most magical thing I've ever seen.

And, um, I, I, I think tonight was spectacular, um, that you had the three young studs, okay? The Delbarton boy, uh, going in for Jazz at second base, Lombard at, at shortstop, and, uh, Spencer Jones.

And I, I, I think it's-

Yeah, you're right.

You want to hear something funny, Bobby? I did that many years ago when I was coaching at Passaic Valley.

We were playing Del Barton where my son wound up playing.

Del Barton was a state power, but we had him on the ropes.

And, uh, we beat them and we were going in to score again on the one yard line.

And I took a knee and, uh, I got the old golf clap from the opponent.

Oh, that's easy.

Del Barton, Bergen Catholic don't have any business in the Jersey States.

I mean, they should be at Prep Nationals with Blair Academy in Wyoming.

Okay.

You can't have a kid from Del Barton wrestling a kid from Paulsboro.

Paulsboro's got 400 kids.

You know, Del Barton kids are getting paid.

You know, Bergen Catholic, same thing.

He is in a unique situation because he is not yet 19 years old, which is one of the ways that the NCAA decides when your eligibility clock starts.

So he is not 19, so he doesn't have to start his clock despite being a high school graduate, which he is, of course, from the Del Barton School in New Jersey.

And he's not a full-time student.

He's taking less than 12 credits right now at Penn State.

I'm pretty sure.

Uh, Tony Negrin is the athletic director at Del Barton and Tony has been, you know, I can't even, I don't know where I'd be without Tony.

I feel like I'd call this guy every, every few days on like, Hey, how would you handle this? What do you think I should do here? Um, which has been really, really a blessing.

So, um, The support has been fantastic.

So my sophomore year of high school, my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I remember...

I went to this private middle school and then I ended up not getting into this private boys high school called Del Barton because I went to the soccer camp and I tripped the coach's nephew or something in the soccer camp.

And so I ended up going to our local public high school And I remember my mom forced me into like this polo shirt on the first day that I did not want to wear.

Um, and she like, I tried to take it off in the parking lot in front of school and she ripped through the parking lot and we got into a big fight.

You know, they were hit hard by graduation.

But again, they're in a tough area of the state where they're playing, you know, teams like Del Barton and Chatham and, you know, they're playing Pingree and all these things.

So I think they're one to watch.

You know, I think Robbinsville's a group two this year.

Hence the reward, hence the call up.

But I think what, well, not I think, what obviously changes here is that, you know, he's no longer viewed at, nor he should, nor should he be, He's no longer viewed as the, you know, the Jersey kid from Del Barton, even though we went to Del Barton, he's always going to be a Jersey kid.

But that first round pick and like that aura and the expectation that comes with it, he's had a choppy start, some ups, a lot of downs, a lot of public downs on the field.

And he's felt the wrath of the Yankee fan base, which I get to an extent because you're a first round pick.