Colonia’s Chris Chiera is the HNT Boys Basketball Coach of the Year
The expectations were certainly there this season for the Colonia High School boys basketball program.
All five starters were back from a team that went 17-9 the prior year and had advanced to the semifinals of both the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament and state sectional tournament.
This year’s team was expected to take the next step, but they did even more.
Under the guidance of ninth-year coach and an alum of the program, Chris Chiera, the Patriots had a banner-worth year.
First they won the GMC White Division title.
They then got to the GMCT finals where they not only beat five-time defending champion St. Joseph, they completely outplayed them in a convincing win.
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They followed that up with four hard-fought home wins in the state tournament that culimanted with a 45-43 win over Chatham for the North 2 Group III title in front of a sold-out home gymnasium.
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The run came to a disappointing end the next game when Colonia lost a one-point contest to Bergenfield after leading much of the way.
Through the whole run though, Chiera continued to push the right buttons and make the right moves in guiding Colonia.
Chiera is the Home News Tribune Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.
“I’ve been getting the kids pizzas before the games, that’s been a superstitious thing, so we’re eating pizza back there and we’re saying to ourselves, ‘We’re getting ready for a state championship game and we’re sitting in our own locker room,’ ” Chiera said following the sectional final win over Chatham. “For that, that’s just a wild thought for me too. For Colonia, our big thing is C-town right now. For these people, we had a lot of past players and a whole hoopla today getting tickets. The game sold out today in an hour and a half this morning. That was just a storybook ending, I’m so happy for these kids.”
It was also likely a pretty nice pizza tab after all the postseason winning Colonia did.
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