BASEMENT WATERPROOFING IN Rumson

A total of 70 Hamilton College student-athletes have earned a spot on the 2022 NESCAC Fall All-Academic Team.

2022 NESCAC Fall All-Academic Team

Student-athletes from seven athletic programs (field hockey, football, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, and volleyball) were eligible for NESCAC all-academic recognition. The team honors sophomores, juniors and seniors who have maintained a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or higher.

The NESCAC, established in 1971, is comprised of 11 highly selective colleges and universities located in the Northeast. The NESCAC sponsors 27 conference championship sports (13 for men and 14 for women).

FIELD HOCKEY Hannah Dillon '24 (Basking Ridge, N.J./The Pingry School) Maeve Eskandari '24 (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier HS) Charlotte Gans '25 (Riverside, Conn./Greenwich HS) Maeve Harrington '24 (Barrington, R.I./Barrington HS) Alana King '24 (Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial HS) Becca Munoz '25 (Weston, Mass./The Rivers School) Tracey Stafford '23 (Ridgefield, Conn./Choate Rosemary Hall) Kiera Wax '23 (Mohegan Lake, N.Y./Lakeland HS)

FOOTBALL Joe Cairns '25 (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) Sam Feldman '24 (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale HS) Ian Fratarcangeli '25 (Huntington, N.Y./Elwood-John H. Glenn HS) Alex Hanna '24 (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield HS) Josh Harmon '25 (Rumson, N.J./Rumson-Fair Haven Regional HS) Jack Holmes '24 (Berlin, Conn./Berlin HS) Mark Howrigan '24 (St. Albans, Vt./Bellows Free Academy) George Johnson '23 (Summit, N.J./Delbarton School) Joe Kubofcik '25 (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills HS) Will Rampe '24 (New Hope, Pa./George School) Vince Reph '24 (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom HS) Jack Savalli '25 (Merrick, N.Y./Wellington C. Mepham HS) Benjamin Sherman '24 (Washington, D.C./St. Albans School) Zach Smith '25 (Edgartown, Mass./Martha's Vineyard Regional HS) Ryan Smolarsky '23 (Mount Sinai, N.Y./Mount Sinai HS) Jacob Spafford '25 (Windermere, Fla./Lake Highland Preparatory School) John Wilson '24 (Rose Valley, Pa./Strath Haven HS)

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY George Brady '23 (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale HS) Luke Cohen-Abeles '23 (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley HS) James Gallagher '24 (New York, N.Y./Regis HS) Bram Mansbach '24 (Atlanta, Ga./Midtown HS) Matthew Sinning '23 (New Providence, N.J./New Providence HS) William Strutton '25 (Wyndmoor, Pa./Springfield Township HS) Edward Trenk '25 (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley HS) AJ Zuckerman '23 (Westport, Conn./Staples HS)

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY Naomi Andrew '25 (Florence, Mass./Northampton HS) Christina Bagin '24 (Glen Ridge, N.J./Academy of the Holy Angels) Amelia Brown '25 (Bethesda, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS) Maddie Foss '25 (Syracuse, N.Y./Jamesville-DeWitt HS) Sophie Hill '23 (Darien, Conn./Darien HS) Kylie Oblak '24 (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional HS) Katie Sands '24 (Fort Washington, Pa./Germantown Academy)

MEN'S SOCCER Jameson Andrews '24 (New Woodstock, N.Y./Fabius-Pompey HS) Justin D'Alessandro '23 (Cranston, R.I./Middlesex School [Mass.]) Luke Ehrenfreund '25 (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Berkeley Carroll School) Spencer Goldberg '25 (South Orange, N.J./Montclair Kimberley Academy) Julian Jacobs '24 (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y./Hastings HS) Tommy Kantrowitz '25 (Holliston, Mass./Noble and Greenough School) Ben LaBranche '25 (Eastham, Mass./Nauset Regional HS) Pandelis Margaronis '25 (Bethesda, Md./St. John's College HS [D.C]) Jude Rouhana '25 (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport HS) Ravi Travers '24 (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca HS) Jackson Vogt '23 (Penfield, N.Y./Penfield HS) Ben Ziegler '24 (Bexley, Ohio/Bexley HS)

WOMEN'S SOCCER CC Cawood '24 (Santa Rosa, Calif./Montgomery HS) Ashlyn Gaulin '23 (North Attleborough, Mass./North Attleborough HS) Emma Gaulin '23 (North Attleborough, Mass./North Attleborough HS) Ally Goldin '23 (Clinton, Mass./Wayland HS) Kelly Grossman '24 (Sherman Oaks, Calif./Campbell Hall) Claire Kaplan '23 (Potomac, Md./Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School [D.C.]) Tori Morelli '24 (Lynnfield, Mass./Lynnfield HS) Katie Moses '25 (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville HS) Rylie Mutton '23 (Tiverton, R.I./Tabor Academy) Shayna Polsky '25 (Media, Pa./Penncrest HS) Allie Reed '23 (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area HS) Clare Robinson '25 (Philadelphia, Pa./Abington Friends School) Alexi Vaillancourt '24 (Millis, Mass./Millis HS)

VOLLEYBALL Sophia Bernstein '23 (McLean, Va./The Madeira School) Kate Carman '24 (New York, N.Y./Trinity School) Hanna Cillo '24 (Henrico, Va./Godwin HS) Summer McClintic '24 (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Baker HS) Chiara Morley-McLaughlin '24 (Natick, Mass./Natick HS)

A multi-year captain and former multi-year starter of Vanderbilt's will look to move on, as a source told 247Sports that redshirt senior defensive end Elijah McAllister entered the NCAA transfer portal Friday. McAllister has one season of eligibility remaining as a result of the NCAA's COVID-19 blanket waiver. Formerly a starting edge defender, McAllister moved to a more traditional defensive end role in 2022 and slipped down to second-string the depth chart, although he arguably produced a more productive campaign on a per-snap basis than in 2021.

McAllister is a former 3-star recruit in the 2018 class out of Rumson (N.J.) Fair Haven who has overcome multiple torn ACL's during his career at Vanderbilt. Most recently, McAllister missed the 2020 season after suffering a torn ACL and never appeared to regain the form he showed as a redshirt freshman in 2019. In 2022, McAllister made 16 total tackles with one tackle for loss.

The 6-foot-6, 265-pounder experienced his best season in 2019 when he made 26 total tackles with 4 1/2 stops for loss and 2 1/2 sacks to go with two fumble recoveries. McAllister would never make another sack in West End after that year.

Assuming that McAllister does depart the program, Vanderbilt could turn to a combination of redshirt senior Nate Clifton as well as redshirt freshmen Bradley Mann and Linus Zunk at defensive end in 2023. The Commodores could also pursue veteran options via the transfer portal.

Commodore Nation THANK YOU. Not the ending I expected but you will always have my LOVE & GRATITUDE ?????? I will be entering the portal for my final year of eligibility. pic.twitter.com/HF3T7z6BWz

— Elijah McAllister (@e_mcallister1) December 9, 2022

The 2022-23 cycle for the NCAA transfer portal is unlike any yet seen, with a Dec. 5-Jan. 19 window for FBS athletes. Eligible players to enter before the window include FCS players, grad transfers, and those whose head coaches were fired.

The NCAA introduced the transfer portal Oct. 15, 2018, providing athletes a path to explore their options. Players do not need to ask permission from their coaching staff in order to transfer. They merely need to request that compliance enter their name. Usually, it takes 24-48 hours for a player to appear following their request. Schools are free to contact a player without restriction once their name appears in the portal.

While a player entering their name in the transfer portal means they intend to explore their options, it does not necessarily mean they will leave. A player is free to withdraw his name at any time. However, schools are under no obligation to keep a player on scholarship once they enter the portal.

This report will be updated.

Charlie Puth was just 23 when he co-wrote and co-performed with rapper Wiz Khalifia the 2015 song "See You Again." It became one of the biggest pop hits of the decade, spending 12 weeks at #1, and getting nearly six billion views on YouTube, launching Puth as a bona fide star. He followed it up with two big solo albums, full of huge hits, like "We Don't Talk Anymore," "Attention," "How Long" and "The Way I Am."

"See You Again," performed by Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth:

But in early 2020, Puth announced that his much-anticipated third album would be scrapped because, as he put it, "none of the music felt real."

"CBS Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil asked Puth, "You were a bankable star, multi-Grammy-nominated, billion stream songs, you were touring, you were selling out stadiums. So, it's a big deal to say, actually, 'Stop.' What was that moment like where you said, 'No, we're not doing this'?"

"I'll never forget it," said Puth. "I went to a restaurant in West Hollywood right when I had decided that I was going to start over. And the maître d' came over to me and said, 'Elton John would like to meet you.'"

Through a friend, the pop legend had heard an early version of the album. "He said, 'That music you just put out was not very good.' And I was, like, a little taken aback by that, because it's not like I disagreed with him, but it's not every day you get to run into Elton John at a restaurant and have him tell you exactly what you were just thinking 10 minutes prior."

"Gotta imagine that hurt a little bit?" asked Dokoupil.

"It did, but it didn't," Puth replied. "It stung for about two minutes, and then I walked back over to the table and I just pointed upward and was like, 'That confirms everything.'"

It was a moment that made Puth think back to falling in love with music, growing up in the New Jersey shore town of Rumson. His dad was a builder; his mom a music teacher.

In a 2018 interview Puth told Dokoupil, "I would wake up with her playing piano every day. That was the alarm clock, her playing. I think my brain would be musically awake before I even had breakfast."

Pretty soon, Puth's parents realized their son had a unique gift for recognizing songs: "I found it way easier to listen to The Beatles. … My ten-year-old brain thought, I could just listen to the record and play it back just by hearing it. And I thought that was a 'normal' thing!"

By 10, the musical prodigy was performing at school and in church, starting with the day the organist didn't show up. "I had heard the mass, the music, so many times. I just played the entire mass."

Dokoupil said, "It's almost like that thing on a plane where it's like, 'Is there a doctor on the plane?' But it was like, 'Is there an organist in the church?'"

"I raised my little hand, and my feet didn't even reach the pedals!"

"What gave you the courage to do that in a room full of adults, in God's house?"

"I've always just wanted to save the day!" Puth replied.

And it wasn't just adults who took note; his classmates did, too. "I was shy, but at the same time I wasn't. When I was in my musical element, I wasn't shy. When I was doing a science project, I was very shy."

"But you can walk right on the stage at church and play the organ, or a school assembly?"

"Yeah, because I knew I got it. I knew that no one else was gonna be able to do that that day. In the most humble way possible, I could say that."

"I don't think you have to be that humble."

"I just liked making people happy."

That led Puth to major music schools in Boston and New York City. All the while, he was performing his songs, first on YouTube, then on an actual stage, starting at the Bitter End in Manhattan. He recalled, "I was so nervous. And I played an hour set, and I had 200 people."

The crowds grew, and while on tour back in 2018 Puth seemed to love every second of it. But later that year, at his home in Los Angeles, the musician had begun a pretty serious self-review, even after the breakaway success of "See You Again." He said then, "We had the biggest song in the world. I had to put an album out. It was rushed. And we had songwriters who didn't know me or even talk to me half the time, put records together for me. It sounded fine, but the message on those songs meant nothing to me."

Not long after, he decided to pause and rebuild, though the pandemic hit. Looking for a new outlet, he turned to TikTok. "I thought I was gonna teach people and just produce music for other artists," he said.

He did, co-writing the #1 hit "Stay" with the Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber.

"I was like, 'Okay, that's what I'm gonna do from now on. I'm gonna make other people's dreams come true,'" he said. "But I was kind of lying to myself."

Instead, he started writing for Charlie Puth once again. Now, three years later, Puth the pop star is back, with a wildly popular collaboration with Jung Kook of BTS.

"Left And Right" performed by Charlie Puth, feat. Jung Kook of BTS:

And while "Charlie" is officially Puth's third album, the now 31-year-old artist says it feels, in some ways, like his first. "I'll be telling the truth from here on out," he said. "You can't lie and write a song. I'll be telling the truth from here on out. Sometimes to my detriment, but at least it'll be the truth."

You can stream Charlie Puth's new album "Charlie" by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

For more info:

Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Carol Ross.

A year later, the same teams meeting on the same field in the same round produced a much different result.

Voorhees defeated host Rumson-Fair Haven last year in the sectional semifinals on the way to the program’s first state group title.

This time, top-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven twice overcome early deficits and then broke open a tight game with a seven-run sixth inning to earn a 12-4 victory over Voorhees, the fourth-seeded defending champion, in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 2 semifinals in Rumson.

Voorhees (16-9) took a 1-0 lead in the first only to have Rumson-Fair Haven (21-4) come right back with two in the bottom half, then the guests used a three-run third to go back up, 4-2.

But Rumson-Fair Haven answered with a three-run third of its own to take a 5-4 lead, which is where the game stayed until the seven-run sixth.

The victory sends Rumson-Fair Haven into the final on Friday at home against second-seeded Wall, which advanced with a 3-2 victory over third-seeded Gov. Livingston.

The Shore Conference rivals have met once this season, which Rumson-Fair Haven won, 8-7, on May 19.

Owen Kennedy went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs and two RBI in the victory, while John Bruno, Spencer Hobson and Griffin Shenman also drove in two runs apiece. Charlie Tallman was 3-for-5 with two doubles and scored twice.

John Goodes pitched 4 1/3 innings in relief, allowing a run on two hits while striking out six and walking one.

Ray Schiavo and Chris Quartuccio drove in a run apiece for Voorhees.

The N.J. High School Sports newsletter is now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now and be among the first to get all the boys and girls sports you care about, straight to your inbox each weekday. To add your name, click here.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

There are plenty of options for shoppers looking to bring a real Christmas tree home this year near Rumson and Fair Haven.

RUMSON-FAIR HAVEN, NJ — People in the Rumson and Fair Haven area who prefer fresh-cut Christmas trees — whether they cut down trees themselves or buy from a retail lot — shouldn’t have any trouble finding them in 2022, according to a survey of Christmas tree growers by an industry trade group.

The prediction by the Real Christmas Tree Board comes after a survey of 55 wholesalers that supply two-thirds of the market for fresh trees and 1,500 U.S. adults ages 21-49.

“The real Christmas tree industry met demand last year, and it will meet demand this year,” Marsha Gray, executive director of the Real Christmas Tree Board, said in a news release. “This is essentially a year without surprises.”

Residents of the area have plenty of options, sortable by ZIP code and by type, on the Real Christmas Tree Board website. There is also a website for the New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers Association.

Live Christmas tree options include:

Choose-and-cut farms:

Garden and retail centers:

Home improvement stores:

Real Trees May Be Pricier

Trees, like everything else, may cost a little more this year. Tree growers answering the Real Christmas Tree Board’s survey said growing costs have increased. About 36 percent of respondents said costs were up 11 percent to 15 percent compared to last year, while 27 percent said costs increased 16 to 20 percent. Another 10 percent said the year-over-year increase in production costs was more than 21 percent.

As a result, 71 percent of growers said they would likely increase wholesale prices. That means trees could cost anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent or more.

Consumers seem to be taking the expected price hikes in stride.

“While our grower survey tells us wholesale prices are likely to be higher for real Christmas trees this year, our consumer survey tells us people expected as much,” Gray said in the news release. “The good news is fans of real Christmas trees say they believe the trees are worth the price, and they are willing to pay more this year if necessary to get one — and that’s not a surprise either.”

Growers’ expectations of a healthy season are also tempered by fears of supply chain disruptions, the No. 1 concern of 44 percent of growers. About 35 percent said their top concern is that inflation-strapped consumers will cut real Christmas trees from their lists this year. About 21 percent of respondents cited labor availability concerns.

The Origin Of Christmas Trees

The origin of the Christmas tree can be traced to long before the advent of Christianity, according to History.com.

In ancient times, it was commonly believed the sun was a god. It appeared to be sick as daylight waned in the winter, but evergreens thriving during winter were a reminder that the sun would become strong again and lush greenery and warmth would return.

Evergreen trees were seen as a symbol of eternal life among ancient Egyptians, Hebrews and Chinese. Pagans throughout Europe used evergreens in their homes to represent fertility and new life.

Christmas trees were first used by devout Christians in Germany. The The 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther is believed to have added lighted candles to trees. He was composing a sermon as he walked home on a winter evening and was struck by the sight of stars twinkling above the evergreens, and recreated the scene in a tree in his family’s main room.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.