Skip to main content

Street Smart

A new film goes inside a prep powerhouse

In 35 years as the boys' basketball coach at St. Anthony's High in Jersey City, Bob Hurley has piled up more than 900 wins and 24 state championships. But it hasn't been easy, especially on Hurley, as director Kevin Shaw documents in his introspective and absorbing film The Street Stops Here (PBS, March 31). Shaw chronicles the Friars' 2007--08 season. As usual the team is loaded with talent; six players would land Division I scholarships. The rub: The seniors have never won a state title, which for a St. Anthony's team is practically unthinkable. Meantime, even as the Friars roll on court, the inner-city school is going broke. The mercurial Hurley, a longtime probation officer, thinks first of how to prevent his players from coming into contact with the folks who hold his day job. But he is an unapologetic and profane fiend for wins. His two sides can collide, come into harmony or threaten to tear him apart.

Shaw calmly reveals the strain of maintaining the St. Anthony's machine. Viewers will be drawn in even if they have never heard of the McDonald's All-Star Game; hoops junkies will get an unorthodox look at a modern-day preps institution.

PHOTO

JEFF ZELEVANSKY (HURLEY)

IN YOUR FACE The fiery Hurley is seen both caring for and roasting his Friars.