Colonia must fill some big shoes if Patriots will three-peat as GMC Tourney, N2G4 champs

Repeating as a champion in any sport, at any level isn’t easy.

Whether it’s high school or college where players transfer, or trades and free agency in the pros, or even on a team where everybody comes back, whether they get plagued by injuries or not. Sometimes the “magic” – that “x factor” – just isn’t there.

The Colonia boys’ basketball program has been superb under Jose Rodriguez. They won the GMC’s top-pod in the COVID-shortened year, beating St. Thomas Aquinas on their home floor. Two years ago, they won the GMC Tournament over the Trojans, then beat Piscataway last year in the first all-public school final since 2006.

Along the way, they also have won four straight North 2, Group 3 titles, and five of the last six.

Can they do it again this year? It’s not impossible, but it might be more difficult than previously thought, like in the immediate aftermath of their state semifinal loss last season to perennial Group 3 title contender Ramapo.

Back in late July, Aiden Derkack – two-time GMCT MVP – announced he was leaving Colonia to go to Spire Academy in Ohio, which has produced many major college stars and NBA talent under former St. Patrick-Elizabeth coach Kevin Boyle, who did much of the same when he was here in Jersey.

Then, last week, another key player announced he wouldn’t be playing for the Patriots this year, when R.J. Wortman signed on for a football scholarship with Rutgers after a season in which he led the Big Central Conference, by far, with 101 catches on a team that made the North 2, Group 4 semifinals, but fell to Phillipsburg.

Of course, they didn’t have either in 2021, when they beat St. Joseph-Metuchen and Aquinas to win the top GMC pod, nor in 2019 when they won a sectional title. And they do have no shortage of athletes at Colonia, either.

So, Rodriguez will coach the guys he has, like junior Dylan Chiera, who scored 6.2 points per game last year, and was second in assists with 97 behind now-graduated senior Zach Smith, another key part the Patriots will miss. He also had 40 steals, second only to Derkack’s 57.

The top returning scorer will be Jayce Rodriguez. The coach’s son had a stellar freshman campaign last year, scoring 7.7 points per game, with a team-best 58 treys, or 73 percent of his total points a year ago.

So there are pieces – seniors Colin Kroner and Julien Jones also will contribute a good deal – and Rodriguez will have to figure out how to make them all fit together, and get the most out of him.

That’s the one thing he’s been no stranger to, one reason they’ve been so consistently good over his tenure, as he heads into his eighth season, with a 152-43 mark.

Click below to hear Colonia boys’ basketball coach Jose Rodriguez preview the upcoming season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Colonia will first appear on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Tuesday, December 23, when the Patriots host Piscataway at 5 pm.