[ot-caption title=”Ed Waite battles for a rebound in a conference game. (via, Monmouth Athletics, Blaze Nowara)”]

Many people at Pine Crest may remember star basketball player Ed Waite on the court or just walking around campus as a student.  These people were in the presence of one of the best athletes to ever walk our campus.  The year of his graduation in 2009, Waite, who was inducted into the Pine Crest Athletic Hall of Fame this October, was a key player on the championship basketball team, named MVP of the state tournament. In addition, he scored 1000 points and had 1000 rebounds in his career. His achievements in high school athletics are well documented and respected.

Waite’s story after high school is a little more unknown.  After leaving PC, Waite played college ball at Monmouth University, a small division one school in Long Branch, New Jersey.  Only college basketball fanatics are familiar with these Hawks, and even they probably know the team only for their extremely entertaining bench.  But despite the little publicity and being a member of the seldom celebrated MAAC conference, Monmouth is a legitimate basketbal team.  In fact, ESPN’s RPI ratings ranked the Hawks 30th in the nation as of January 18th.  To put that in perspective, that is ahead of national powerhouses Indiana and Michigan.  This season alone, the team impressively boasts wins over Notre Dame and UCLA.

Waite played at the school at a time when coach King Rice was laying the foundation for the success the team is seeing today.  During his time in college, Ed Waite was a key player on the team all four years.  His freshman year, he earned the 2010 all rookie team selection.  A quality scorer and defender, Waite led the Hawks in rebounds as a junior, and when it was all said and done, Waite surpassed the 1000 points mark, finishing as the 17th best scorer in school history. A former coach of Waite, John Callahan, had this to say about his style of play on the court after his basketball career ended in 2012: “He catches the ball extremely well,” Callahan said. “He’s got great hands, he has a physical presence in his size. He has a size advantage over defenders most of the time and has the ability to get open and make some plays after he catches the ball.”  These skills were all on display in Waite’s time at Monmouth.

Waite’s years as a Monmouth basketball player may have ended after his senior year, but his passion for sports did not end there. After graduating, he decided to continue his legacy as an athlete in a different way: as a member of the football team at Monmouth University. NCAA eligibility rules state that athletes who have competed for four years on a varsity sport could spend the fifth year doing a different sport, and Waite used this rule to his advantage to satisfy his love for sports and renew his passion for football, which he played in High School back in his Pine Crest days.  Waite decided to take the football route for in his own words, “more opportunities and more open doors.”

Ed Waite graduated college in 2013 and decided to attend graduate school at Monmouth, where he would earn his master’s degree in communications.  During his time as an athlete and a student as well, Waite surely opened plenty of doors himself.  His character will forever be remembered at the Pine, and Waite will go down as one of the superior athletes to partake in our community.