Sandy Burgos Still Succeeding Thanks to Basketball, Believers

Entering high school, Sandy Burgos was not sure who he was or where he was going. Now in college, the all-time leading scorer in Fort Lee basketball history has a much clearer vision. But the road to the many accolades and the opportunity to succeed in life was never easy.

Sandy Burgos had to overcome a lot of hardships just to reach the point he is at right now as a freshman student and basketball player at Harcum College.

Sandy struggled a lot growing up. He came from a small family, who lived in a tiny apartment, didn’t do well in school and was described as having an attitude problem.

One of the toughest problems for Burgos growing up was the death of his father, Pedro. To the surprise of Sandy, his mother and brother, Pedro unexpectedly committed suicide by hanging himself on Father’s Day in 2005.  

“My father meant a lot to me, and I was really close to him,” said Burgos, who now sports a tattoo of his father in remembrance. “It’s a memory thing and him being every where I go.”

After the loss of his father, Burgos was at a crossroads in life, vulnerable and not knowing which way to turn.

During his time of need, it was family and friends who surrounded Sandy and made him feel needed.

His mother raised the children by herself. Sandy’s brother, who is also named Pedro, was also a driving force in the life of the troubled youth.

Sandy’s brother would routinely take him to the Fort Lee middle school to play basketball every morning. At the building where their father was a janitor, the Burgos brothers would shoot one basketball after another until they made a total of 800 shots. The sport would become what Sandy described as his "drug."

“My mind just went off to playing the game,” Burgos said about basketball. “I have no worries about anything in my life that is going on or that happened.”

So Sandy followed this dream into high school, where he gave up being a boxer and scrapped the idea of playing football. He wanted to play basketball, just as his brother Pedro had for four years at Fort Lee High School.

But instead of living in Pedro’s shadow, Sandy eclipsed it. He started his freshman year for head coach John Ziemba, wearing the same number 20 his brother Pedro had worn, and the younger brother continued to grow as a player, and more importantly, as a person.

“As each year went on, he progressed and he matured, and that is the most important thing for me,” said Ziemba. “The kid developed into a man and that is what he got out of his four years here. He grew up.”

Michael Klein, the league president for the Fort Lee girls' basketball league, has known Sandy since his middle school days. His daughter Melissa was good friends with the younger Burgos, and he would do anything for Sandy. He would see the Burgos brothers walking to play basketball and would offer to drive them to the gym. Klein even introduced Sandy to New York Knick great Walt “Clyde” Frazier at Madison Square Garden. But for all that Klein has done in Sandy’s life, he credits John Ziemba with doing so much more.

“Ziemba was like his father and might have been his savior,” Klein said openly. “Ziemba did 100 times more than I did. He took care of Sandy like a son.”

Burgos was very appreciative in the basketball coach and life coach he befriended for four years in high school.

“He is another big role model,” Sandy said of Ziemba. “As my father passed, he was another father figure for me and helped me a lot.”

The two stay in touch every week and have plenty of memories from Sandy’s playing days with the Bridgemen basketball team.

Burgos scored 2,121 points, the most in Fort Lee history and ninth most in Bergen County history. Sandy made over 300 three-point field goals, which is a state record, and finished his career as the Fort Lee Player of the Year.

Burgos attended camps at Syracuse University with the help of Craig Weinstein, Fort Lee’s basketball announcer, and has also played in the prestigious North-South All Star Game.

“It was a real thrill,” said Weinstein of watching Sandy play and announcing his made shots every few seconds. “There was always a buzz in the air every time he stepped on the court.”

Now, Burgos has taken the motivation of his close friends and family to continue that buzz in college at Harcum, a junior college in Pennsylvania.

As of Sunday, the 6' 1" guard was averaging 15 points per game and is on pace to shatter the school record for three pointers made in a single season. His highlight so far was scoring 34 points against Burlington Community College in November, including nine made shots from behind the arc.

“Sandy is the hardest working kid I’ve ever coached,” said Drew Kelly, the head coach at Harcum. “I wish there were more players out there like Sandy. He worked for everything he’s got.”

That includes earning a spot in the starting rotation that Sandy did not have at the beginning of the year.

But despite all the success, Burgos remains humble and reserved. He doesn’t like to talk about himself, and mentions that he still wants to just win basketball games.

Described as playing with a chip on his shoulder, Sandy hopes to become a blue chip prospect for a division 1 basketball team in the near future.

After his scholarship ends at Harcum in 2012, Burgos aspires to obtain another one at a top-tier university, where he wants to continue his education and dream of playing in the NBA.

But until then, the soft-spoken son of Fort Lee plans on continuing to make everyone proud, including his father and those who have filled that void over the years.