One of
the best things about following and writing about high school basketball in New York City is getting to know the history. Sadly, when a
person who was a vital part of that history passes away there's a mix of
emotions. While the basketball community here will surely mourn the death of
former Grady coach Jack Ringel, the remembrance will also be filled with thoughts
of a great era of high school hoops in the 1980's and '90's; an era that Coach
Ringel, who died Sunday at the age of 67 in a tragic car accident, played an
essential part in making great.
I'd like
to begin my remembrance with a nod toward that history by noting that Coach
Ringel was part of one of New York's great but underappreciated coaching trees;
the one that starts with the late NYU point guard Mark Reiner, who coached
powerhouses at Canarsie High and Lincoln
. Many of his lieutenants became
prominent high school coaches including
Bobby Hartstein at Lincoln, Ted Gustus who coached at Nazareth and Bishop
Loughlin and of course Ringel, who served a year as Hartstein's top assistant
at Lincoln before moving to the opposite
side of Ocean Parkway to what was then
Grady Vocational and Technical High School.
He faced
what seemed to be a daunting task building a program in the shadow of Lincoln
where Hartstein and his charges had become the dominant PSAL program of the
80's. And the fact is that he was in his ninth season when he won the first of
three city title 1990. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the job he did
building the program is that once he laid the foundation and built success at
Grady, it did not represent a takedown of Lincoln. The Falcons simply rose to the level of the
Railsplitters and in doing so created the PSAL's signature rivalry. Hartstein
and Ringel remained good friends but competed fiercely and the twice yearly
regular season meetings between the schools were always played before packed houses as the two teams
competed for supremacy in what was then known as Brooklyn Division I (aka the
"Black and Blue" division a high school hoops version of the old NFC
central) Both schools achieved
consistent regional prominence and
competed for national recognition that was typically reserved for the city's
Catholic powers such as Tolentine, Rice,
Molloy and Christ the King. The fact that both Grady and Lincoln enjoyed such
success is not only a tribute to two fantastic coaches in Hartstein and Ringel,
but it speaks to the depth of talent there was
in Coney Island and Brighton Beach, the communities served by the two schools. In
those days there was more than enough talent to go around and both coaches did
a great job developing kids and getting them ready for college
As college
players, Ringel's guys were typically
undersized regardless of the position they played and unwaveringly tough both
physically and mentally. The list of
players Ringel made ready for division one programs includes but is not limited
to the following players: Maurice Brown & Tyrone Grant (St. John's) Woody
Souffrant, Roberto GIttens and Norman Richardson (Hofstra) Quincy Douby
and Jamal Phillips (Rutgers) Eric
Leslie (Rhode Island) and Efrem
Whitehead (Duquesne). Two of them, Richardson and Douby played in the NBA and Douby was a
first round draft pick. Ringel's legacy includes over 450 wins
in 24 seasons at Grady, three city titles and one New York State Federation
title. It also includes the impact his
passion and advocacy had on the players who were part of a lifetime of service to kids
in New York City.
At 67 Jack Ringel
left us way too soon and sadly leaves behind a young son who plays soccer and
of course basketball. Here in New York
he'll be remembered as a force of nature who made the kids and school he worked
for better. His life was cut short but it was extraordinarily well lived. Rest
in peace my friend you will be missed.
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