A return to glory: Plainfield High School claims New Jersey’s first public school state title in 25 Years

The Plainfield High School boys basketball team became the first public school in the state of New Jersey to be ranked as the No. 1 team in the state, a feat not achieved in the Garden State since Camden pulled this off way back in 2000.

This marks the fifth time in Plainfield’s long, proud and rich history that the Cardinals have won a state title. En route to recording a 29-3 record, Plainfield survived arguably the toughest division among all public schools in the state, earning the co-title with Roselle Catholic in the Watchung Division of the Union County Conference, before going on to capture the 88th annual Union County Tournament at Kean University and ultimately the Group IV State championship.

In doing so, the current crop of Cardinals joined the 2011-12 team as the only teams in program history win a state and county championship in the same season.

For a public school to win a state title in New Jersey it must overcome astronomical odds. Private schools have poached public school talent in the Garden State for decades and more recently magnet and charter schools have done the same.  But Plainfield head coach Mike Gordon, Jr. stemmed that tide when he and his son, star sophomore point guard Micah Gordon, turned deaf ears to the many programs interested in securing Micah’s services by electing to carve their paths together at Plainfield. Coaching your own son can be tricky business but Mike Gordon, Jr. has navigated this path expertly.

“It’s fun. I’ve been coaching him for a while. And over the years we’ve both had to mature because at the end of the day, we still want the father-son relationship,” said Gordon, Jr. “So, he knows, when we’re on the basketball court, it’s coach. Off the court, it goes back to dad. I get to coach him all year round for the most part. More than anything, he gets coached the same as the other 14 kids we have on our team. And his accountability level is just as high.

“Being a point guard, with his leadership role has to be top notch, Gordon, Jr. added. He’s one of our better players, so he has to hold himself accountable as well as his teammates in order for us to be a pretty good basketball team. But, like I said, I’m constantly coaching him even when I’m in dad mode – just trying to make him the best that he can be.”

The Gordon family is royalty within the annals of Plainfield hoops history, a lineage that includes three generations of Gordons who’ve graced the backcourts for Plainfield. The current head coach, Mike Gordon, Jr., is the son of Mike Gordon who helped lead the Cards to a Union County title in 1979. He is also the father of multi-faceted 6-foot-3 Micah, who has already become the first Cardinal to ever eclipse the 1,000-point mark as a sophomore and has a real shot at becoming Plainfield’s first-ever 2,000-point scorer.

Mike Gordon, Jr. was an assistant coach on the 2011-12 Plainfield team that went 30-4 behind Yale-bound Justin Sears, and lost to Saint Anthony in the Tournament of Champions. Before that, Gordon, Jr.  was a first-team All-State guard for an undersized, overachieving Plainfield team that lost to Lenape and 6-10 future NBA standout Jason Thompson in the 2004 state final. The seeds for this season’s title run may have been forged that night in 2004.

“When he walked off the floor, I saw his face. And I said to myself, and I’ve said this many times since, ‘this is not over,’” said Plainfield’s well-versed historian of the city’s athletic programs as well as its political and cultural framework, Martin Cox, who has been following the Cardinals up close for some 59 years. “I believe the state championship this year was built on his anguish, losing a state final in 2004.”

Plainfield’s magical 2024-25 season began to come into focus when 6-10, 255-poound Najai Hines became eligible to suit up for the Cardinals on January 1. Now, Plainfield had a dominant inside force to pair with Micah Gordon, one of the nation’s top-rated and most highly-recruited guards in the entire 2027 class. Key veteran pieces for Plainfield this season included seniors Kiian Kirkwood, Ala-Meen Watkins and Randy Williams, along with juniors Kamal Lowery, Marcus Richards, Devin Thomas and Rashawn Williams.

But it was Hines, a two-sport star in football and basketball at South Garner High School in North Carolina, who made all the difference when he transferred to play his senior basketball season at the Plainfield. The same school from which his mom, Ayisha, had graduated and the city where multiple relatives of his reside.

Plainfield etched its name in the history books with a commanding 65-48 triumph over Montgomery in the Group 4 championship game at Rutgers’ Jersey Mikes Arena, a virtuoso performance spearheaded by the standout performances of Gordon, who erupted for 24 points, and Hines who contributed 18 points and 16 rebounds. For the season, Hines tallied 18.8 points, 16.9 rebounds, 3.5 blocked shots per game to go with a staggering 26 double-doubles this season. Hines’ most impressive performance of the season came in a 74-58 victory over Linden in the second round of the Section 2 Group IV tournament when he accumulated a staggering 32 points and 30 rebounds.

Gordon, meanwhile, averaged 16.7 points, 5.4 assists, 3.8 steals and he will enter his junior year with 1,076 career points.

The connection between the community and its boys’ high school basketball team has been a special one in Plainfield for decades. Even in rare seasons when the Cardinals struggled, such as the 4-18 season in 2022-23, virtually every seat at Rico Parenti Gym was occupied.

To take in a Plainfield High School basketball game at Rico Parenti Gym, named for the legendary coach who presided over one of the greatest eras in Cardinal history, is step back into time. Except for the two modern video boards affixed diagonally in opposite ends of the gym, the structure looks just the same as when legends such as Nokey Johnson, Leon Kearny and later, Kenny Fields, graced the history-filled court.

Any account detailing the history of Plainfield High School basketball would be remiss without mentioning the contributions of Americo “Rico” Parenti. A 1952 graduate of the school, Parenti returned in 1973 to lead the boys’ basketball team, becoming the second-winningest coach in its history with a record of 290-113 over his tenure, which spanned from 1973 to 1985.

His teams achieved significant success, including two New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) state titles, three sectional championships, and 10 Watchung Conference crowns. He was renowned for his emphasis on tough defense and scheduling challenging out-of-conference opponents.

Parenti left us on March 7, 2023, at age 90, leaving a legacy celebrated to this day by the community for his dedication to his hometown and the players he mentored. His approach was about more than wins—it was about building toughness and character, as remembered by former players and peers.

The spirit of Plainfield basketball was never more evident than on March 16, the day of the Group IV state title game vs. Montgomery at Rutgers, when more than 400 Cardinal supporters tailgated in the Plainfield High School parking lot beforehand.

After the Cardinals put the finishing touches on the victory over Montgomery, with approximately 6,000 of the boisterous 7,000 fans on hand clad in Cardinal red and blue, more than 1,000 of those fans welcomed the team buses back to Plainfield High School in a spontaneous celebration featuring honking horns and blinking lights.

Asked how the 2025 Cardinals would match up in a head-to-head game with the 2011 and 2012 teams, Gordon, Jr., who was an assistant under head coach Jeff Lubreski, paused for a bit.

“That’s a tough question,” he said. “I think across the board that it would be a very evenly matched game. They’re both two great teams, two scrappy teams. I think that the 11-12 team had better offense and I think our current team is a better team defensively.

“But both teams, scrappy, gritty and like I said, I think it would be a really good basketball game and on any given day it could go either way,” Gordon, Jr. continued. But the thing all of those teams had in common was a brotherhood. I think every coach understands when his team reaches that point where it just feels like nothing is going to deter what your guys want.”