Tournament of Heroes brings Nesci close to home
NYU coach and Huguenot resident
pleased to take part in event honoring three CSI players lost on
9/11
Staten Island Advance - Friday, December 30, 2005
New York University men's basketball coach Joe Nesci
didn't say he jumped at the chance to bring his team to the College
of Staten Island's fourth annual Tournament of Heroes.
Not in those words, anyway.
 "It just happened I was home that morning," the
Huguenot resident said last night after the Violets rolled past
Westfield State, 80-60, to gain the final of the tourney which
honors three former CSI players who perished on Sept. 11, 2001:
Terrance Aiken, Tom Hannafin and Scott Davidson.
Nesci's memory of that morning more than four years
ago is so vivid he could have been talking about yesterday.
"I was listening to the radio -- Imus in the Morning
-- and Imus said there was a report of a plane crashing into one of
the Twin Towers. I jumped up and turned on the TV, and as soon as I
did that, the second plane hit.
"I thought to myself, 'Oh, no!' Like everyone else I
knew then it was a terrorist attack. 9/11 touched so many people
here on Staten Island," said Nesci, who lost a former player that
day.
"Mike Andrews. From Rockaway. I coached him and
three of his brothers when I was at Xavier (HS)."
Nesci also saw the survivors up close.
"We had cots at the NYU athletic center for people
who had been displaced ... who had no homes to go to, and the
coaches and administrators stayed overnight just to keep an eye on
things.
"That's why this tournament is such a great thing,"
said the Violet coach, whose team hasn't played in a holiday
tournament since NYU stopped sponsoring its own.
"I can't remember how long ago that was. We had to
tweak a couple of things to come here, but ...
"I'm not saying people forget. No one could forget
9/11. But sometimes we get so preoccupied.
"Being here now is special," added Nesci, now in his
18th season as the Violets' head coach, "but because of what this
tourney represents, it makes you take stock.
"You realize that what's happening on the floor, well, that's just a
game."
NOTES: The Emmanuel team which beat CSI in last
night's second game has a Staten Island connection. Pam Roecker, the
former associate athletic director at Wagner College, left Grymes
Hill to become the Boston school's athletic director. Next season,
the CSI men's and women's teams will take part in tournaments at
Emmanuel.
By Jack Minogue
Reprinted here with permission
from the
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