Community
Letter: Mayor Solomon’s Inspiring Choice to Lead Recreation & Youth Development
Ten years ago, my daughter Zanai was a talented teenager looking at high schools, and I was a mother trying to figure out who we could trust with her future. We met a lot of coaches in that process. Most of them only saw a basketball player. Peter Vincent saw my daughter.
He was coaching at Hudson Catholic at the time, and from the very first conversation, he made it clear that her grades, her character, and her growth as a young woman mattered to him as much as her game. He drove to watch her play in her travel games throughout the state. He showed up. And when people underestimated Zanai — academically, athletically, or any other way — he was the first one in her corner. She proved them all wrong. She graduated as a star student and athlete. And we got to that moment because Coach Vincent provided the opportunity for her.
The direction he took the team helped pave the way for Zanai to display her talents and grow as a player. The recruitment process for a kid with Division I potential during COVID was unusual. The phone calls, the virtual tours, the promises, and the uncertainty was a lot. It was uncharted territory for parents and coaches. Coach Vincent stayed on task during her recruitment process. My husband and I were grateful to have a coach that we trusted to speak with recruiters and would go to bat for our daughter just as we would. He stood the test.
Zanai continued her athletic and academic journey at Villanova University on a Division I scholarship where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She later went on to play at SMU, completing her master’s degree there. Today, she is twenty-two years old, a Harlem Globetrotter, traveling the world doing what she loves. We talk every day. She’s happy and is exactly who she set out to be. That’s what every parent wants for their children.
And Coach Vincent? He never went anywhere. While she was at Villanova, he took other young basketball players to watch her play, because he wanted them to see what was possible. He stayed in her life to make sure she was doing well and has always been a text or call away. He never forgot her. He never forgets any of his girls. They become family to him, and he becomes family to them. That is not a coaching style. That is a way of living.
That is why, when I heard Mayor Solomon was appointing Peter Vincent as Jersey City’s Director of Recreation and Youth Development, I felt something I don’t always feel about an announcement from City Hall: I felt excitement.
Because Jersey City’s kids are about to get someone who has spent his entire adult life proving — to families like mine — that he is in this for them.
Showing up for young people isn’t just about good vibes, they need adults who are organized, will follow through, and can build exceptionally competent teams of adults. Having seen Coach Vincent work for a decade I can attest to his resume as a serious professional. He knows how to build a staff. He knows how to organize a program. He knows how to put adults around kids who can actually deliver for them. A parent can trust that he will deliver for their children.
Jersey City is getting someone with experience at every level — high school, college, AAU, national camps — and the rare combination of warmth and operational discipline. Our recreation programs need both. Our young people deserve both.
I am a mother who handed her daughter’s future to this man and watched him honor that trust every single day for a decade. If he can do that for my Zanai, he can do that for the next generation of Jersey City kids.
I am rooting for him. I am rooting for our city. And to every parent reading this: you can trust him. I did, and I would do it again.
Nokeima Jones is a Jersey City resident and the mother of Zanai Jones, a former Villanova basketball player and current Harlem Globetrotter.
