By Sean Reilly
When it comes to prestigious individual honors for high school athletes in New Jersey, there’s none greater than to be included in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
On March 29, Jack Cust, Jr., who founded Diamond Nation along with his father, Jack, Sr., was inducted into the NJSIAA Hall of Fame at a luncheon event at the Westin Hotel in Princeton.
While many visitors to Diamond Nation are most familiar with Jack’s 10-year career in Major League Baseball before any of that, he was one of the most accomplished sluggers in New Jersey high school history during his four years at Immaculata High School in Somerville.
Jack Cust (right) is joined by his parents Jack and Faith at the NJSIAA Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies on March 29.
His career with the Spartans began with a grand slam home run in his first official at-bat as a freshman varsity call-up in 1994 and ran right up until he hit another home run in his final at-bat during the last inning of the state championship game as a senior in 1997.
His Immaculata career numbers were staggering, including a .580 overall batting average, with 31 home runs and 128 RBI.
During his senior season, he was walked 48 times (20 intentionally), and still ended with 45 hits and a .592 batting average and 1.487 slugging percentage after belting nine doubles, seven triples and 15 home runs. He also scored 61 runs and had 51 RBI. He was selected in the first round of the Major League Amateur Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the 13th New Jersey player to ever be selected in the opening round.
When Jack was at Immaculata, he was not only an All-State selection, Gatorade State Player of the Year and high school All-American, he would eventually be named to the 10 player-team chosen by The Star-Ledger in 2000 for its All-Century team. Some of the elite company Jack keeps on that team includes MLB Hall of Famers Ducky Medwick, Larry Doby and Monte Irvin, and MLB stars Willie Wilson and Al Leiter.
Just as important were the memories from those years, especially since he met and later married his high school sweetheart, Jennifer.
“Those years are the best,” he said. “High school is the best time of your life, even after playing in the major leagues. You’re with your best friends, having fun, everything is perfect, and Immaculata was a great school to go to.”
During his engaging speech at the NJSIAA’s Hall of Fame luncheon, Jack, after hearing his high school statistics repeated, “I haven’t seen stats like that in a long time.”
The NJSIAA Hall of Fame is full of legendary athletes from all sports, like football’s Franco Harris, Andre Tippett and Joe Theismann, basketball’s Kelly Tripucka, Bob Hurley Jr. and Bob Hurley Sr., hockey player Jim Dowd, wrestlers Jordan Burroughs and Bruce Baumgartner, soccer stars Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly and Christie Rampone and track stars such as Carl Lewis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, to name just a few.
In terms of baseball, Jack joins a sparkling list of names including Doby, Irvin, Medwick, Leiter, Todd Frazier, Rick Porcello, Jeff Torborg and Mark DeRosa, who’ve been previously inducted for their high school achievements in the Garden State.
It is truly an honor for only the best of the best, and Jack is now included along with the others in the 2026 class, which consisted of girls basketball player Audrey Gomez from St. John Vianney, cross country/track athlete Janet Smith-Leet from J.P. Stevens, softball player Lisa Sweeney Van Ackeren from Rancocas Valley, girls soccer coach Tara Madigan from Northern Highlands and late NJSIAA Assistant Director Bill Bruno.
“It’s such an honor to be included with all of these people today and to become a part of the Hall of Fame,” said Cust, who pointed out his high school coach Tom Gambino, seated nearby, his father, Jack, and his younger brother, Kevin.
“Coach Gambs’ was a great players coach and a coach who always had his players back,” said Cust. Gambino is now the Immaculata athletic director.
Cust said his father, Jack, was, “The best baseball coach I ever had and he was a pretty good player himself.” The senior Cust enjoyed a successful career at Seton Hall University in the early 1970s under the direction of legendary coach Mike Sheppard, Sr. Described as a power-hitting first baseman, the elder Cust hit a grand slam in an NCAA Regional final.
About his brother, Kevin, Jack said, “He broke all my records at Immaculata. He should be in here, too.”
The oldest of three baseball-playing brothers, Jack was the first, but not the last, to earn All-State recognition as brothers Kevin and Mike did as well at Immaculata. All three would credit the best hitting coach they’ve ever had — their dad — for that success.
Bob Behre contributed to this story.