A New Jersey Basketball Story

By Fred Cerrato

Before there were Steph Curry and Caitlin Clark, there were Bobby Pisano and Kathy Cunningham, Bobby Pisano survives a near death experience at an early age and discovers his love for basketball. He becomes a scoring phenom for his elementary school.

In his first organized game as a sixth grader, he scores twenty nine points and outscores the opposing team. his torrid scoring continues against all of the other schools.

Kathy Cunningham loves basketball, but her girl friends do not. She must play against the boys to get better Kathy and Bobby become friends after she challenges him to game in the bark.

After that fateful game, they decide to help each other improve their skills by meeting at the park or the YMCA in town.

Sister Eugene allows Kathy to play for St. Bridget’s as a sixth grader, and she rewards Sister Eugene by becoming the team’s high scorer.

The exploits of Pisano and Cunningham result in a newspaper article in the town paper.

The Belleview boys’ high school basketball coach, Carl Doby, who has been from so many failed seasons is suddenly energized having Pisano, a stellar player. The games are exhilarating, and to Doby’s delight, his team is suddenly winning every game. Kathy Cunningham is also leading the girls’ team to an undefeated season.

Bobby and Kathy find that their affection for each other can no longer be ignored even though cheerleader Marilyn Raimondo thinks Bobby is gorgeous, and Danny Berry seemingly stalks Kathy in Chemistry Class and in the cafeteria.

As their teams advance to the State Championship game, there is also time for fun. If you love basketball, you will love this book!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 13, 2025
• ISBN: 9781663270382

Fred Cerrato

Fred Cerrato was a Middle School Reading Teacher and Reading Specialist for forty years in his home town of Bloomfield, New Jersey. His High School team won the state championship in 1958. He was named to All-County and All-State basketball teams and earned a basketball scholarship to St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont where he was the starting point guard for four years. He was named to the All-Vermont team in 1962. Mr. Cerrato was an English major in college and has written four books "A Vermont Basketball Story", "The Cruise Detectives", "Murder in Paradise", and "A New Jersey Basketball Story".

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A NEW JERSEY

BASKETBALL STORY

Fred Cerrato

iuniverse logo

A NEW JERSEY BASKETBALL STORY

Copyright © 2025 Fred Cerrato.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-7037-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-7039-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-7038-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2025901259

iUniverse rev. date: 01/27/2025

CONTENTS

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

PART TWO

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PART ONE

1966-1972

CHAPTER ONE

Four year old Bobby Pisano liked to play tricks on his grandma, Assunta, when she babysat. He liked to hide on her. She was in the kitchen preparing some eggplant parmesan. She was frying some eggplant in garlic and olive oil, and Bobby could hear the sizzle and smell the wonderful aroma.

Bobby, dove sei? Where are you? said Assunta.

Bobby hid behind a dining room chair and giggled. He wanted to go somewhere where grandma could never find him. There was a staircase behind the dining room door that led outside. He thought if he snuck downstairs and went outside, grandma would never find him.

He carefully closed the dining room door and silently crept down the stairs. He quietly opened the outside door, went onto the porch, and went down the porch steps to the sidewalk. Bobby turned toward the outside door totally expecting Grandma Assunta to come crashing onto the porch, but she didn’t. He was free.

It was a beautiful day in July. The sky was azure blue and cloudless. Bobby took a deep breath and watched a cardinal land on an arborvitae. Bees were buzzing among the goldenrod and black- eyed susans and collecting their pollen. There was a park at the end of the street where Mr. and Mrs. Pisano often took Bobby to play in the sandbox and ride the swings.

As he ran toward the park with little mincing steps, he marveled at the size of the sycamore and oak trees that shaded him along his route.To little Bobby, they appeared as giant redwoods or sequoias. He thought that grandma would never find him in the park. The park was on the same side of the street as Bobby’s house.

As he approached the park, it appeared as a giant elongated basin. There were hills on all sides of the park, and it was bisected by a brook. There was a stone wall on each side of the brook, and on most days, the brook flowed as a calm stream. After a heavy rainfall, however, the brook could become an eight foot deep rampaging river. It had rained the night before, and the brook was engorged with fast flowing water.

Bobby raced down the hill looking for the sandbox and swings. They were on the other side of the park. With little stutter steps, Bobby raced to the foot bridge which connected the east to the west section of the park.

The park was teeming with elementary and junior high aged children. Across the bridge was a basketball court where boys were playing five on five, and fifteen boys were sitting on the hill watching the game and waiting to play the winners. These were pick up games, and the first team to reach twenty one points would win. The boys waiting on the hill would choose up a new team of five who would play the next game.

This went on all day.

No one noticed Bobby as he ran by the court. In another section, boys and girls were playing horseshoes, caroms, checkers, and generally having fun. The park counselors were monitoring all the activities as Bobby ran by.

One of the counselors, Mr. Lynch, noticed Bobby.

Hey kid, where are your parents? Does anyone know who this kid is?

Bobby wandered over by the wall of the brook and looked down at the water. He was at its edge. Mr. Lynch was becoming agitated.

Hey kid, be careful! That’s really deep! Don’t get too close to the brook! It rained last night! Get away from there!

Bobby was looking around for the swings and sandbox. He was becoming flustered and disoriented as he was at the edge of the brook. He looked around at Mr. Lynch, lost his balance, and he fell into the engorged torrent.

Bobby was a non swimmer, and his eyes were open as he fell into the brook. Instead of flailing his arms in terror, he strangely felt at peace as he floated along under the water. He noticed tiny fish floating by. They would swim up to his face, look at him, and then they would swim by. As he floated peacefully, Bobby thought.

Look at all the little fishies.

Then everything went dark!

Lydia Janacek was a nurse at a nearby hospital. She was unassuming in her white uniform with her white stockings, white shoes, and white cap. She had just finished her 2:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. assignment and was eagerly waiting for her husband to pick her up at the bus stop which was across from the park. She was tired and was looking forward to some lemonade as she unwound on her patio.

She noticed a commotion in the park. People were milling around at one area where the brook was rampaging. Someone called across the street.

A little boy fell into the brook!

Lydia raced across the street and bounded down the hill where people were gathered. It was chaos as everyone was talking and pointing, but no one was doing anything. No one was going into the water. Lydia acted on impulse and dove into the water and could see little Bobby floating unconscious. She grabbed him by the hair and hooked her hand under his arms and lifted him out of the water. Mr. Lynch helped her lift him, and they gingerly placed him on the grass.

As soon as Bobby was out of the water, Lydia administered c.p.r., and, luckily, after several seconds, Bobby began coughing and vomiting water. Someone contacted the police and patrol cars were pulling up to the park. It was decided that Bobby should be taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.

As the police were there, Lydia decided that her job was done as she stealthily climbed the hill back to the bus stop. No one knew her, and she didn’t leave her name, but she was a hero. She was his guardian angel, but Bobby would never know who had saved his life!

CHAPTER TWO

Assunta Pisano was forgiven for her lapse in babysitting. Bobby had given his name and address to the authorities at the hospital, and a police squad car had returned Bobby to his home. Assunta was teary eyed and apologetic for letting Bobby sneak away to the park, and Bobby’s parents, Angie and Frank, lectured him and made him promise that he would aways listen to his grandma and never do that again.

Angie worked part time at a nearby drugstore and needed her mother-in-law to babysit when she worked. Although only four years old, Bobby realized the severity of what he had done. He was traumatized by the incident and certainly did not want it to happen again.

It was 1966 and the Pisano family lived in a small Cape Cod home in Belleview, New Jersey. The neighborhood was lower middle class and most of the families worked at factory jobs. Frank worked at the Ballentine Brewery in Newark, and he belonged to a union. Union workers had medical benefits as well as a profit sharing plan. They also contributed to a pension which allowed them to retire at sixty two years of age. The factory workers were not rich, by any means, but the steady income of their jobs afforded them a lifestyle where certain luxuries were possible.

Every three years Frank would trade in his car and get a new one. A 1965 Buick LeSaber sat in his driveway. Most of his neighbors who worked at other factory jobs also had new cars in their driveways. Frank had a two week summer vacation, and he and his family would climb into his spacious Buick LeSaber and drive down to Asbury Park or Seaside Heights and enjoy the two weeks down the shore.

People took pride in their homes and the neighborhood was clean and well kept by everyone. The Cape Cod homes in the neighborhood were built in the 1950’s after World War Two. The homes had a kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second. Most of the homes had a finished basement with a small bar where the men would congregate and play cards or watch a ballgame and drink beer. When the men were at work, the wives would play canasta and sneak in some afternoon wine.

On Saturdays the neighborhood would be abuzz with lawnmowers and leaf blowers while the men tended to the lawns and the women tended to the flowerbeds. The people in the neighborhood were living The American Dream.

The Pisano’s were cordial to their neighbors, but they didn’t socialize with them. The only socialization that the Pisano’s had was with their family. Bobby’s aunts, uncles, and cousins would drop in unannounced and Frank would make his homemade pizza pie, and Angie would bring out her home made pinoli cookies. The coffee and anisette would follow.

On Sundays, the families would take turns and prepare a lavish feast after mass. The women would get together and roll out the dough for the home made ravioli.The ragu sauce would simmer all day long for the spaghetti and meatballs. The men would be grilling meats outside and the wine would flow all day long. Bobby loved these Sunday dinners.

The Pisano’s and their family were ingrained in their own culture, and they had their own point of view about things. It wasn’t until Bobby went to school that he began to learn about different points of view. School opened up the world to Bobby.

Bobby loved school. He was now in first grade, and he was very popular with male and female friends alike. He had dark brown hair, green eyes, and an infectious smile. He loved learning how to read and learning his numbers. Frank and Angie Pisano would work with Bobby at home with flash cards for learning sight words and phonic sounds so that Bobby could advance in reading. Bobby loved it when his parents would read him stories before he went to bed. His father and his mother would take