Ocean County Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast

(No Hometown View on Friday, June 4)

In the spring of 1993 I received a call from a local athletic director about a new program they were starting to promote good sportsmanship. The idea was to honor a male and female from each of the Ocean County High Schools who best demonstrated the ideals of fair play, citizenship, ethics and respect. The honored athletes and their families would be brought together for a breakfast at the end of the school year and I was asked to serve as Master of Ceremonies, which I gladly accepted. Well every year since I’ve received a phone call about reserving the first Sunday in June for breakfast at the Quality Inn of Toms River and I’ve only missed one. The 18th Annual Ocean County Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast yesterday saw 34 student-athletes saluted as representatives of their schools and as always it was a well-run and meaningful program. What I truly like most about this is that the honored athletes are not always those who have been headliners during their careers. Most have had success but this award is not based on being the best on the field but rather understanding that while the final score is important there is more to sports than just winning and losing. I congratulate the Ocean County Directors of Athletics for continuing to promote sportsmanship in such a positive fashion. Yesterday’s breakfast also saw Brick Township High School’s Rick Handchen honored as Athletic Director of the Year and each of the 34 award recipients received a $100 college scholarship.

In watching Toms River East’s Nico Steriti on the football field last fall I felt that many colleges were missing the boat in not going after the talented running back and defensive back. Steriti, after considering the Naval Academy finally decided on the University of New Hampshire and yesterday he got to match talents with many players going to bigger college programs. The soon-to-be Raider graduate ran for 82 yards and a touchdown on just 7 carries and was the offensive MVP as New Jersey beat the Northeast 13-7 in the annual All-Star game at Rutgers. Steriti only played a little more than half the game as he suffered a cut on his shin and sat out the rest of the game but despite that made a huge impact. Barnegat was represented in the game by Boston College-bound Jarrett Darmstatter.
Many of the shore’s best players will be participating in the U.S. Army All Shore Gridiron Classic on July 16th at Matawan High School.