Keeping Up With Old Friends Thread
- Thread starter RedStormNC
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SJUFan85/89
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He was a ball boy at SJU when Mark played
Sad news to report:
Former player Jack Wolfinger passed away in May. He was involved in a car accident while riding his bike.
Jack was on the team for only two years. He was a Prop 48 and did not play his initial year and only played in 6 games his 2nd season before leaving.
RIP JackView attachment 1066
Very sad news.
Jack was one of the first sleeper recruits we hyped up on Redmen.com - a 6'11" inch kid who played like a guard with a tremendous handle, court vision, etc. etc.
He had a very rough road to St. John's and the years since seemed like they were equally as turbulant.
The NYT profiled him in 1999 before he arrived here. Read it here:
COLLEGE BASKETBALL; Sorting Through Influences, a Young Player Finds Himself https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/13/...finds-himself.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Sad news. I have to be honest I wasn't following the team closely yet when Wolfinger was here. But I just found this article and I need some explanation lol.
He was kicked off the team, borrowed Ron Artest's car, and drove up to UConn and was caught smoking weed in the car with three of their players including our current assistant Taliek Brown???? Seems totally made up but it's real
nypost.com
He was kicked off the team, borrowed Ron Artest's car, and drove up to UConn and was caught smoking weed in the car with three of their players including our current assistant Taliek Brown???? Seems totally made up but it's real
WOLFINGER, THREE HUSKIES FOUND WITH POT IN CAR
VILLANOVA, Pa. – Jack Wolfinger’s St. John’s career is over but his legacy may have just begun. According to published reports, Wolfinger’s car was pulled over by University…
nypost.com
L J S A
Well-known member
Do you actually care that Brown was in a car 22 years ago where people were smoking pot?Sad news. I have to be honest I wasn't following the team closely yet when Wolfinger was here. But I just found this article and I need some explanation lol.
He was kicked off the team, borrowed Ron Artest's car, and drove up to UConn and was caught smoking weed in the car with three of their players including our current assistant Taliek Brown???? Seems totally made up but it's real
WOLFINGER, THREE HUSKIES FOUND WITH POT IN CAR
VILLANOVA, Pa. – Jack Wolfinger’s St. John’s career is over but his legacy may have just begun. According to published reports, Wolfinger’s car was pulled over by University…
No no lol I didn't mean for it to come off that way at all. Just mentioning funny he happened to be there. This story is crazy to me but I'm sure he had some connection to UConn.
L J S A
Well-known member
He lived in Connecticut with a host family for a little while, and I think he was buddies with Cox, who was from the state.
Robertson was from R.I. I think, and Taliek of course was from Queens.
The first time I saw Jack Wolfinger play was a shocking eye opener. Starting at the key he drove to the hoop with dazzling ball handling for anyone, but impossible for a 6'11 guy. You couldn't help but wonder what his ceiling was. His time at St. John's resulted in sparing minutes and less than remarkable contributions. Still that potential lingered.
I wasn't aware that the gravity boots that stopped him from soaring was a ridiculously rough upbringing. His family life must have been pretty awful for his parents to make the bad decision allow a 15 year to live on his own.
We often don't think enough about what some of our athletes have and continue to go through before and after they got here.
When my kid played AAU a long time ago at CTK, there was a girl who attended CTK who lived in the projects. The girl needed a ride to game from a CTK teammate's mom, but the place for so crime ridden that the teammate would not go into the building to pIck her up after going in just once.
R.I.P. Jack. It's sad that we (SJU) can't provide all the help some kid's need, but many arrive with so much baggage we should be more sympathetic, especially in what we post here critically.
I wasn't aware that the gravity boots that stopped him from soaring was a ridiculously rough upbringing. His family life must have been pretty awful for his parents to make the bad decision allow a 15 year to live on his own.
We often don't think enough about what some of our athletes have and continue to go through before and after they got here.
When my kid played AAU a long time ago at CTK, there was a girl who attended CTK who lived in the projects. The girl needed a ride to game from a CTK teammate's mom, but the place for so crime ridden that the teammate would not go into the building to pIck her up after going in just once.
R.I.P. Jack. It's sad that we (SJU) can't provide all the help some kid's need, but many arrive with so much baggage we should be more sympathetic, especially in what we post here critically.
Alumni Hall
Well-known member
Back in the years that Jack played for us, there was next to nothing in regards to mental health assistance in both the athletic department and University as a whole. Now it is a major focus, both in the NCAA directives to every college as well in our athletic departments student mental health programs, identifying possible areas of stress that goes with being an NCAA athlete. SJU athletics and Sports Medicine does a VERY good job with mental health screenings upon freshman arrival and yearly preseason checkins. They have a dedicated mental health/sports psychologist in academic support named Mark Armiento that is outstanding. Sports Med also has off campus resources with the local hospitals for issues like eating disorders and nutritional counseling. The have a 24 hour mental health crisis hotline for our athletes that was set up in 2018-19. While the University cannot handle all of the myriad mental health issues of our students, they try their best and do an exceptional job in the Counseling Center too. Our AD and his staff are very attuned to all of our athletes mental health issues, providing them the resources that are needed and do a commendable job getting the message out to students and parents alike that they are in good hands.
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redfans is our 24 hour a day fan mental healthline although it's obvious a few members need something more
Impressive list of schools. We'll see how he does under a new coach.
And if he gets a waiver otherwise he has to sit out a year.
L J S A
Well-known member
I can't speak for the NCAA, but I'd give it to a kid whose new coach made it crystal clear in the first press conference that most of the team would be gone.