A return to glory: Plainfield Excessive College claims New Jersey’s first public faculty state title in 25 Years

The Plainfield High School boys basketball workforce turned the primary public faculty within the state of New Jersey to be ranked because the No. 1 workforce within the state, a feat not achieved within the Backyard State since Camden pulled this off means again in 2000.

This marks the fifth time in Plainfield’s lengthy, proud and wealthy historical past that the Cardinals have gained a state title. En path to recording a 29-3 report, Plainfield survived arguably the hardest division amongst all public faculties within the state, incomes the co-title with Roselle Catholic within the Watchung Division of the Union County Convention, earlier than occurring to seize the 88th annual Union County Event at Kean University and finally the Group IV State championship.

In doing so, the present crop of Cardinals joined the 2011-12 workforce as the one groups in program historical past win a state and county championship in the identical season.

For a public faculty to win a state title in New Jersey it should overcome astronomical odds. Personal faculties have poached public faculty expertise within the Backyard State for many years and extra not too long ago magnet and constitution faculties have performed the identical.  However Plainfield head coach Mike Gordon, Jr. stemmed that tide when he and his son, star sophomore level guard Micah Gordon, turned deaf ears to the various packages focused on securing Micah’s providers by electing to carve their paths collectively at Plainfield. Teaching your personal son might be tough enterprise however Mike Gordon, Jr. has navigated this path expertly.

“It’s enjoyable. I’ve been teaching him for some time. And through the years we’ve each needed to mature as a result of on the finish of the day, we nonetheless need the father-son relationship,” mentioned Gordon, Jr. “So, he is aware of, once we’re on the basketball court docket, it’s coach. Off the court docket, it goes again to dad. I get to educate him all yr spherical for probably the most half. Greater than something, he will get coached the identical as the opposite 14 youngsters we have now on our workforce. And his accountability stage is simply as excessive.

“Being a degree guard, along with his management position must be high notch, Gordon, Jr. added. He’s considered one of our higher gamers, so he has to carry himself accountable in addition to his teammates to ensure that us to be a fairly good basketball workforce. However, like I mentioned, I’m continually teaching him even once I’m in dad mode – simply attempting to make him one of the best that he might be.”

The Gordon household is royalty inside the annals of Plainfield hoops historical past, a lineage that features three generations of Gordons who’ve graced the backcourts for Plainfield. The present head coach, Mike Gordon, Jr., is the son of Mike Gordon who helped lead the Playing cards to a Union County title in 1979. He’s additionally the daddy of multi-faceted 6-foot-3 Micah, who has already turn out to be the primary Cardinal to ever eclipse the 1,000-point mark as a sophomore and has an actual shot at changing into Plainfield’s first-ever 2,000-point scorer.

Mike Gordon, Jr. was an assistant coach on the 2011-12 Plainfield workforce that went 30-4 behind Yale-bound Justin Sears, and misplaced to Saint Anthony within the Event of Champions. Earlier than that, Gordon, Jr.  was a first-team All-State guard for an undersized, overachieving Plainfield workforce that misplaced to Lenape and 6-10 future NBA standout Jason Thompson within the 2004 state closing. The seeds for this season’s title run might have been cast that evening in 2004.

“When he walked off the ground, I noticed his face. And I mentioned to myself, and I’ve mentioned this many instances since, ‘this isn’t over,’” mentioned Plainfield’s well-versed historian of town’s athletic packages in addition to its political and cultural framework, Martin Cox, who has been following the Cardinals up shut for some 59 years. “I consider the state championship this yr was constructed on his anguish, dropping a state closing in 2004.”

Plainfield’s magical 2024-25 season started to come back into focus when 6-10, 255-poound Najai Hines turned eligible to swimsuit up for the Cardinals on January 1. Now, Plainfield had a dominant inside drive to pair with Micah Gordon, one of many nation’s top-rated and most highly-recruited guards in all the 2027 class. Key veteran items for Plainfield this season included seniors Kiian Kirkwood, Ala-Meen Watkins and Randy Williams, together with juniors Kamal Lowery, Marcus Richards, Devin Thomas and Rashawn Williams.

However it was Hines, a two-sport star in soccer and basketball at South Garner High School in North Carolina, who made all of the distinction when he transferred to play his senior basketball season on the Plainfield. The identical faculty from which his mother, Ayisha, had graduated and town the place a number of family of his reside.

Plainfield etched its identify within the historical past books with a commanding 65-48 overcome Montgomery within the Group 4 championship recreation at Rutgers’ Jersey Mikes Arena, a virtuoso efficiency spearheaded by the standout performances of Gordon, who erupted for twenty-four factors, and Hines who contributed 18 factors and 16 rebounds. For the season, Hines tallied 18.8 factors, 16.9 rebounds, 3.5 blocked pictures per recreation to go together with a staggering 26 double-doubles this season. Hines’ most spectacular efficiency of the season got here in a 74-58 victory over Linden within the second spherical of the Part 2 Group IV event when he collected a staggering 32 factors and 30 rebounds.

Gordon, in the meantime, averaged 16.7 factors, 5.4 assists, 3.8 steals and he’ll enter his junior yr with 1,076 profession factors.

The connection between the group and its boys’ highschool basketball workforce has been a particular one in Plainfield for many years. Even in uncommon seasons when the Cardinals struggled, such because the 4-18 season in 2022-23, nearly each seat at Rico Parenti Health club was occupied.

To soak up a Plainfield Excessive College basketball recreation at Rico Parenti Health club, named for the legendary coach who presided over one of many best eras in Cardinal historical past, is step again into time. Apart from the 2 fashionable video boards affixed diagonally in reverse ends of the fitness center, the construction seems simply the identical as when legends corresponding to Nokey Johnson, Leon Kearny and later, Kenny Fields, graced the history-filled court docket.

Any account detailing the historical past of Plainfield Excessive College basketball could be remiss with out mentioning the contributions of Americo “Rico” Parenti. A 1952 graduate of the varsity, Parenti returned in 1973 to steer the boys’ basketball workforce, changing into the second-winningest coach in its historical past with a report of 290-113 over his tenure, which spanned from 1973 to 1985.

His groups achieved important success, together with two New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation (NJSIAA) state titles, three sectional championships, and 10 Watchung Convention crowns. He was famend for his emphasis on powerful protection and scheduling difficult out-of-conference opponents.

Parenti left us on March 7, 2023, at age 90, leaving a legacy celebrated to today by the group for his dedication to his hometown and the gamers he mentored. His method was about greater than wins—it was about constructing toughness and character, as remembered by former gamers and friends.

The spirit of Plainfield basketball was by no means extra evident than on March 16, the day of the Group IV state title recreation vs. Montgomery at Rutgers, when greater than 400 Cardinal supporters tailgated within the Plainfield Excessive College parking zone beforehand.

After the Cardinals put the ending touches on the victory over Montgomery, with roughly 6,000 of the boisterous 7,000 followers readily available clad in Cardinal crimson and blue, greater than 1,000 of these followers welcomed the workforce buses again to Plainfield Excessive College in a spontaneous celebration that includes honking horns and blinking lights.

Requested how the 2025 Cardinals would match up in a head-to-head recreation with the 2011 and 2012 groups, Gordon, Jr., who was an assistant below head coach Jeff Lubreski, paused for a bit.

“That’s a tricky query,” he mentioned. “I feel throughout the board that it might be a really evenly matched recreation. They’re each two nice groups, two scrappy groups. I feel that the 11-12 workforce had higher offense and I feel our present workforce is a greater workforce defensively.

“However each groups, scrappy, gritty and like I mentioned, I feel it might be a very good basketball recreation and on any given day it may go both means,” Gordon, Jr. continued. However the factor all of these groups had in widespread was a brotherhood. I feel each coach understands when his workforce reaches that time the place it simply seems like nothing goes to discourage what your guys need.”