For student-athletes currently involved in the uniqueness of the Steinert-Hamilton rivalry, there is good news.
It doesn’t have to end once you graduate. In fact, it can keep going well into middle age and beyond.
A former Hornet and former Spartan have seen to that.
On Oct. 3, the Eighth Annual “Hamilton Cup” Golf Tournament will be staged at Mountain View Golf Course in the morning and Mercer Oaks West in the afternoon.
It is Hamilton Township’s answer to the Ryder Cup, except it is staged all in one day rather than two, and it is every year as opposed to every other.
“We have to do it every year,” co-founder Jordan McCreedy said with a laugh. “I’m not gonna be that good for that long. At some point I’m gonna lose it. I’m just holding on for as long as I can.”
The Hamilton Cup is the brainchild of McCreedy, a 2003 Steinert graduate, and Scott “Scooter” Brettell, a 2002 West grad. The two have been lifelong friends since Jordan played for Sunnybrae Little League and Scott played at HTBA. They played Hamilton Babe Ruth together, where there dads coached with each other, and they both served as assistant coaches for Scooter’s bother Tom at Robbinsville.
Both experienced life in the fierce Hamilton-Steinert baseball rivalries of the early 2000s — both schools won state titles in 2000 — and have brought the competition to the links for over-the-hill Spartans and Hornets.
The battles are a little more low key these days, but still mean just as much.
“Every time we get together it’s all anybody is talking about,” McCreedy said. “It’s a big bragging rights rivalry. It still kind of ignites the rivalry between East and West so it’s nice. It’s all friendly though. Obviously we’re all grown men. There’s no malice about it, it’s all good stuff. It’s pretty cool.”
There may be no malice, but you still don’t want to be on the losing end. The first two years resulted in ties. Steinert won the next two Cups, and Hamilton has taken the last three.
And the Hornets never fail to remind the Spartans of their success.
“One year we sent them a Merry Christmas video of the Hamilton West guys surrounding the Cup,” Brettell said. “It would say ‘Merry Christmas from the good guys.’ We sent out videos of our guys handing out Halloween candy from the trophy itself. Kids would literally dig in and grab the candy for Halloween from the Hamilton Trophy.”
Steve Lattin, who once quarterbacked West’s football team to the state championship game, took the Cup to the Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge and was photographed by nj.com coming out of the ocean with it; giving the trophy statewide exposure.
Asked when the winning team will start being presented with the Cup at halftime of the Thanksgiving game, Brettell said “We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
But they’ve gotten farther than they ever dreamed.
“I thought we would do this, it might last a year or two and fizzle out and people would say ‘OK that was fun, we had a good time,’” McCreedy said. “But it really took off, and people went crazy over it. After the first year I couldn’t believe how much feedback we were getting from guys already saying ‘Count me in for next year.’”
Brettell gives McCreedy much of the credit, saying “Jordan is very creative. He proposed this idea and it really turned into something.”
The plan was hatched when the two were hanging at Brettell’s house one night. They discussed what could be done to give them some exercise and fun competition. While many of their friends were into quoits and softball, the two decided on golf. Brettell was already an avid linkster and McCreedy had just taken up the sport.
Thus began a new league, dubbed “The People’s Tour.” The title was inspired by the nation’s forefathers and their “We the people for the people” creed. The league was open to anyone interested, but a majority of the 25 participants that first year were from Hamilton and Steinert (the league is now up to 75 players).
Because of that East-West majority, it was decided to have a Ryder Cup style tournament each fall. The first year there were eight players. It expanded to 12 and has maxed out at 16.
In the morning sessions, eight two-man scrambles are held, and the afternoon features one-on-one match play. The winner of each match gets a point, or a half-point for a push. Match-ups are based on handicaps as every measure is taken to insure a down-to-the-wire match.
If there was any thought that the idea would fail, it was squashed after the first two years as the Steinert-Hamilton aura was clearly evident.
In the inaugural 2014 tournament, Brettell recalls costing his team the victory.
“I had a putt on 17 that I blew and I heard about it for the whole year,” he said.
“The first year was wild,” McCreedy said. “We tied it on a putt on 18 at Mercer West to give us a push.”
Things were reversed in 2015.
“The following year, I won a match I shouldn’t have won,” Brettell said. “It was like karma. We should have won the first, they should have won the second and we both kind of blew it.”
“The second year, when West made their putt to tie it, there was like this giant celebration,” McCreedy recalled. “All these guys were gathered around in the green and when the putt went in they exploded. People were jumping up and down, stomping their feet. We got yelled at by the rangers.”
Steinert became the first team to win one in 2016, but the Hornets have roared back for a 3-2-2 lead. The event is fun, but also taken serious.
“I had one guy who postponed hernia surgery so he could play in it,” McCreedy said. “He moved it to two months later so he could play. A lot of guys get really excited about it, you hear things all year.”
Brettell added that “I don’t want to say it’s Christmas in October but the guys lose sleep the night before because they look forward to it so much.”
Luminaries to play for Steinert over the years include Mike “Mo” Moceri — who Hamilton tried to steal based on him coaching West baseball now — McCreedy and his co-captain, Greg Tweedly, Keith Field, Bob Plummer, Chris Terissi and Bill Owens.
Hamilton counters with Brettell, his two brothers and father, his co-captain Tom Paglione, Nick Massari – who helps outfit the squads with apparel from Diamond Nation — Lattin and Pat Shipe, among others.
Brettell is quick to note that female players are welcome if they are former Steinert or Hamilton athletes, and that a pre-tournament dinner is held the prior night with wives and girlfriends invited.
What started as fun little idea, has turned into something much more.
“Once we saw we had something pretty special, that that guys were really into, it just kind of took off,” McCreedy said. “Now we’re in year eight, it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.”
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This year’s match took place after the Post went to press, but it has since been reported that West ran its winning streak to four straight with a dominating 14.5 to 9.5 victory and now leads the series 4-2-2.
“Mike Moceri and Kevin Kerins beat up on me in the morning,” Brettell said. “But then I got Mo back in the afternoon round when we went one-on-one.”
Tom Paglione won his singles match to go 8-0 in one-on-one play. He is the only player on either side to sport a perfect record after playing all eight matches.
