Could Paterson Catholic be going under?
My Herald News colleagues Danielle Shapiro and Sachi Fujimori report that Paterson Catholic needs to raise $350,000 by April 15 or else it could close its doors.
“Last week, Paterson Diocese officials announced that it faces a $37 million deficit, and the previous week Paterson Catholic administrators appealed in a letter to alumni to raise $350,000 by April 15 to save the co-educational high school. About 400 students attend the school, the only private Catholic high school in Paterson and the last urban Catholic school run by a diocese in New Jersey, said Marianna Thompson, spokeswoman for the Paterson Diocese.”
We know that PC alum Tim Thomas of the Los Angeles Clippers has repeatedly helped the school financially and funded various programs at the school, and he may be asked to bail the school out yet again.
But if he doesn’t, or if someone doesn’t, then PC could be out of business….and that would mean that the players from the Passaic County champion basketball and Non-Public I state champion football teams would be free to go wherever they want.
“It would be a meat market. They’re all free agents,” said one Passaic County coach. “They could all go wherever they want to go. They would have to wait until the school is officially closed or else they would be held to the transfer rules. If they were to wait until the school is officially closed, they would be eligible immediately.”
St. Peter’s got players when Essex Catholic closed, and a variety of area schools picked up athletes when Bayley-Ellard shut down. The basketball team features a slew of future Division I players, including Fuquan Edwin and Trevor Clemmings, who hold offers from Rutgers and Seton Hall. Where would these guys go if the school closed? And what if they wanted to join the New York transfers going to play for Bob Hurley at St. Anthony? It’s only speculation at this point, but it could turn out to be a wild story….