JERSEY CITY, N.J. _ In the end, there was nothing more to do.
No buzzer-beating bucket or Hail Mary pass could save St. Anthony High School, and without them, the famed Jersey City school learned Wednesday it will close its doors for good at the conclusion of the school year.
"Is it really sad? It's brutal," legendary basketball coach and school president Bob Hurley said in a news conference announcing the decision. "I want people to remember the way it really was, the place, and the effect it had on kids."
Earlier in the day, a source at the school told The Record of the news. "We're done," the source said.
With that comes the end of one of the most dominant, successful boys basketball programs in history, the Hurley-led team that won 28 state championships in his 50 years at the helm.
Hurley, one of the most revered high school coaches in the country and one already enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, did all he could to keep the doors open, and realistically, without him, this fate would have likely befallen the school years ago.
But it wasn't until the Wednesday afternoon meeting with Archdiocese of Newark officials, one he attended in his newest role as the school's president, that the ax officially fell.
"Our seats weren't even warm and we were gone," Hurley said of the meeting in Newark.
Between ongoing budget shortfalls and declining enrollment numbers, Hurley and countless donors staved off for decades with tireless fundraising efforts and scholarship programs, the archdiocese determined it no longer made sense to keep the school open.
Even while Hurley, his family, including his wife Chris, sons Bobby and Danny and daughter Melissa, school officials and other supporters continued their tireless efforts to find financial help, there has been a distinct air of finality enveloping these past few weeks, as it became more apparent there were no more miracles to be found.
"Where we are is understandable to me, because I've been around the numbers for the last three years as president. It's a deficit, on a yearly basis, of a million and a half each year. We've tried all different things. This is where we are. There's no more ideas. No more things to come up with," Hurley told The Record in a recent interview.
