By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: February 02, 1986What does a mother do when she has to get away from her kids for a few hours during the day? Nannies are too expensive. Teenagers are in school. Grandparents often live too far away.
In Moorestown, some women who are hard-pressed by careers, family obligations, volunteer work or the need for silence simply call up their baby- sitting cooperatives and arrange for free care by local mothers, who may be friends or neighbors.
The cooperatives trade in one of the rarest of commodities: time.
Moorestown's first cooperative started 15 years ago as a convenient arrangement between a handful of friends who figured it was just as easy to watch two or three children as it was to watch one, said Caroline Johnson, a member of the original group.
The loose association grew quickly and, with the current baby boomlet among women in their 30s, the original cooperative spawned two more.
These three independent cooperatives involve 75 mothers; two have waiting lists.
They allow the women time to shop, run errands, see doctors, meet with their children's teachers or just escape for a few hours.
Of course, there is a price for such luxury. Members must pay back the cooperative in kind for each hour of baby-sitting they receive. Members are allowed only a 15-hour debit. After that point, they must start paying back the association in sitting time before they can use the service again.
This restriction means that the cooperatives are unsuitable for working mothers who need a full-time baby-sitting service.
Yet many part-time working women prefer the cooperatives over a private baby sitter or a day-care center because the sitters are other mothers, Johnson said.
Alice Child, head of the Newcomers Babysitting Cooperative and mother of two toddlers, added that mothers are afraid "to leave a young baby that's nursing with just anyone."
Also, the mothers say, it is very difficult to find day care on an irregular basis.
The cooperatives have also taken steps to allay the parents' fear of child abuse. A core group from the association screens prospective sitters and scrutinizes their homes, Child said. A new sitter cannot be admitted to the association without the recommendation of a member.
Johnson said she believed the growth in the Moorestown baby-sitting cooperatives had less to do with the number than with the type of women having babies. Most are in their 30s - the age group with the highest fertility rate in 1984 - and most worked full-time before they decided to have children.
Many members who had busy social and cultural lives before having children rely on the cooperatives to remain active, Johnson said. It's "one reason a lot of us had a need to be away from our children. We're used to being busy with other things."
Because, in many cases, their or their husband's careers took the cooperative members away from hometowns, few have families nearby to act as impromptu baby sitters, said Hazel Edwards, who was part of a Delran baby- sitting cooperative. "You don't feel you're using a neighbor or playing on a friendship" with the co-op, she said.
For Child, the cooperative provides a much needed escape valve from the pressures of daily life.
When she isn't watching her children or someone else's, she's playing the violin in the Haddonfield Symphony, performing with her own quartet or administering the Perkins Arts Center's music conservatory in Moorestown. She uses the service when she needs a few hours alone to think, write letters or relax.
She joined her cooperative when her son was born three years ago because she wanted to meet other mothers with small children.
"The first few months of having a baby are wonderful, but very, very lonely," she explained. "All the cliches about people with children talking about diapers is true - and necessary."
Now that her son is older, she said, he is also making friends through the cooperative. She tries to arrange care with sitters whose children are about the same age.
"With the co-op," she explained, "you don't feel guilty leaving your child. You go out, but they go out, too. They make friends."
C.h. East Star Has Learned To Believe In Herself
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150920102405/http://articles.philly.com/1986-02-25/sports/26085890_1_fleming-basket-paul-viBy Kevin Tatum, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: February 25, 1986As a freshman basketball player at Cherry Hill East High, Venita Forchion was offered a position on the varsity. She chose to turn it down.
"I wanted more experience before I moved to the varsity," she said.
Now a junior center, the 5-foot, 11 1/2-inch Forchion is playing as if she is plenty sure of herself.
She is averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds a game this season for the playoff-bound Cougars (14-8). Last season, she averaged 13 points.
"I'm more confident in my shooting, passing and the whole offense now," Forchion said. "Coach (Dan) Fleming has more confidence in me, too."
"Venita has quickness, strength and can get off the floor," Fleming said. ''She is a good offensive rebounder. Right now, she likes to rely on her shooting. But once she learns to drive, she will be very tough."
Forchion is effective with the turnaround jumper and also can score facing the basket. On the boards, she is relentless, often following her own shot to get a basket.
"I learned the turnaround from playing one-on-one with my older brothers," she said. "That was the only way I could score on them. As far as rebounding, you just have to box out under the basket and be strong. My coach is always telling me to be strong and I should have it."
Forchion's team was rated in The Inquirer's South Jersey Top 10 before losing to Camden four weeks ago.
"We could have done better if we had come out with more confidence game by game," Forchion said. "But what's done is done. I don't allow myself to get too high or too low. I don't let a loss hang on me. I just look to the next game or the next practice."
Forchion realizes she is a key player for the Cougars.
"Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't," she said. "I know the team is looking to me, hoping I can pull them out of a spot. Sometimes they look to me and I can't do it. I feel bad then."
As far as the defensive attention she receives from other teams, it signals to Forchion that she has come a long way since her freshman year.
"I never gave it any thought until this year, when I noticed I was getting double-teamed a lot," she said. "It makes me realize that I'm one of the better players in the area this year."
*
When Paul VI's Eagles defeated host Collingswood, 73-55, Saturday to regain their No. 1 rating, they did it with superb defense.
"Not many teams have stopped us on offense this year, so we knew we had to play defense to beat Collingswood," coach Jay Stillman said.
Collingswood entered the game at 21-0, with the No. 1 rating it had gained three weeks earlier, after Paul VI (20-2) dropped an overtime decision to Camden Catholic.
The most vital defensive effort for then-No.3 Paul VI on Saturday was turned in by 5-7 senior guard Sherie Androlewicz. She guarded Donna Seybold, another 5-7 senior and a 19-points-per-game scorer. With Androlewicz shadowing her every move, Seybold had problems getting the ball, and she didn't make a field goal until the middle of the third period.
"She (Androlewicz) was playing good defense, and maybe I wasn't assertive enough," Seybold said. "I was trying to come to the ball, but she was denying the pass."
Said Androlewicz: "She (Seybold) is really a good shooter, so I just wanted to stay in her face. We knew she liked to shoot from the baseline and that they would be setting a lot of picks for her."
Seybold wound up with 10 points.
Holy Cross, 17-1 overall, 13-1 in the league and rated No. 4 before its game with Rancocas Valley on Saturday, took a major step toward its first Burlington County Liberty Division title when it defeated the then-No.5 Red Devils, 46-37.
"We're in good shape emotionally right now," Holy Cross coach Tom Gowan said, "but Rancocas (17-2, 13-2) has only lost two league games, and if we let down this week, we're right back where we started."
According to Rancocas Valley guard Denine Brown, who scored 15 points in the game to break the school career record of 1,101 set by Glennis Wilson in 1975, the key to Holy Cross' victory was the play of guard Nicole Lehmann.
Lehmann, who is averaging 20.7 points a game, did the Red Devils in with her passing. She finished with 13 assists.
"Nicole had an awesome passing night," Brown said. "She was beating our defense, which is our bread and butter. Holy Cross was just the better team that night."
Holy Cross, rated No. 3, still has to play Shawnee - the only team to beat it this season - and Willingboro. Rancocas Valley, now No. 6, has Lenape left in league play.
"We're sitting back and hoping that we win our game and that Shawnee or Willingboro gives us some help," Brown said.
Tricia Sacca, only a junior, reached the 1,000-point mark in career scoring Saturday, scoring 21 when Delran (19-3) routed Northern Burlington, 62-24.
The 5-11 Sacca, the leading girls' scorer in South Jersey with a 21.9 average, reached the milestone early in the second half and then took the rest of the day off.
"It means a lot to do something that people will always remember you for," Sacca said.
Sacca's brother Tony, a sophomore forward for the Delran boys' team, has scored nearly 500 points already and is a good bet to reach the 1,000-point mark by the end of his junior year.
Barbara Moyerman, coach of No. 10 Burlington City (17-3), recorded her 200th career victory when the Blue Devils trounced Riverside, 60-22, Saturday.
"I'm very proud to have coached this long with so much success," said Moyerman, who has lost 49 games in her 15 years at Burlington City.
"I wanted to be a coach all my life. I got into physical education so that I could coach."
Payoff 1,100 Girl Scouts Rewarded For Successful Cookie Sales
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160103085320/http://articles.philly.com/1986-03-23/news/26081466_1_girl-scout-cookies-movie-popcorn-and-sodaBy Nicole Brodeur, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 23, 1986They stalked suburban driveways and positioned themselves at strategic spots in front of grocery stores. They approached in uniform, sometimes in pairs, and at just the right moment flashed smiles as they asked the perennial question:
"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"
No matter what the technique, sales of Girl Scout cookies this year in Burlington County were up 30 percent, thanks to a little incentive. The county's 450 troops were told that each scout who sold 100 boxes of cookies or more would receive a free pass to the movies.
Yesterday was the payoff.
More than 1,100 Girl Scouts between the ages of 7 and 15 descended upon the AMC-Marlton 8 Theater at 9 in the morning to be treated to a movie, eat popcorn, drink and spill soda, sing songs, collect door prizes and giggle until noon, when their parents arrived to pile them into station wagons and take them home.
The idea for the free movie came from Burlington County Girl Scout Council member Jill McGonigle, who thought that offering a movie pass would be a good way to boost sales after four years of decline. Lately, concerned parents had discouraged their daughters from selling door to door, she said, and that had taken its toll.
In November, McGonigle contacted the theater's administrative offices in Mount Laurel and was told that 400 girls would be welcome to a movie, popcorn and soda at the theatre's expense. No problem.
The word went out and 1,676 Girl Scouts - more than four times the number expected - made the grade.
"We said OK for 300 or 400 girls, and then we found out we were going to have over 1,000," said Neil Katcher, program coordinator for AMC's Northeastern Division. "Mrs. McGonigle called and told me she couldn't sleep all night when she heard there were going to be 1,000 girls," he said. "But I knew we would work something out."
Area businesses donated hundreds of door prizes, leaders prepared "goodie bags" filled with homemade cookies and treats, and the J.C. Penney Co. donated a $400 stereo as the grand prize.
"They are really excited," said Joan Smith of Medford as she watched her daughter, Jocelyn, make her way into the theater. "The movie was a real nice incentive for them. When my daughter heard about the movie, she ran out and sold some more cookies," she said.
Carrie Burnham and Melissa Steib, both 8 and members of Brownie Troop 206 in Burlington City, chatted as they stood in line waiting to buy popcorn. They said that members of their troop had qualified for the movie by making group sales, and that both of them also made their own sales to ensure they would make it to the movies.
"I sold 100 boxes, but I wanted to go for 200," Melissa said, as her ponytail wagged behind her. "I wanted to go for more."
Volunteer supervisors stood at all possible vantage points: the bathroom door, the end of the aisles and in between. Lines of girls wound around the snack bar and leaned against the wall near the bathroom. In the seats, the scouts were led in sing-alongs to pass the time before the movie, The Goonies, and squirmed with excitement when the lights went out.
When it was over, Susanna Scullin, 12, of Riverton, won the grand prize and the scouts walked out with door prizes to their waiting parents.
Scout leaders said they were delighted and look forward to another banner year. Katcher said AMC would do it again.
"It's amazing what a free movie will do," he said.
Twin Dentists Take Pains To Halt Confusion
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160103120510/http://articles.philly.com/1986-05-28/news/26051403_1_orange-juice-tags-sandwichesBy Eddie Olsen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 28, 1986It's a good thing Phillip R. Barbell and Stephen C. Barbell wear name tags. Otherwise, their staff, as well as patients, would have a difficult time telling the two Pennsauken dentists apart. The Barbells, you see, are twin brothers. Identical twins.
"It still amazes me that even their voices sound the same," said Helen Canaris, who has worked for the Barbell family for 35 years. "I've been around them since they were 10 years old, so I don't have any problems telling who's who . . . er, well, most of the time."
The name tags simply read "Doctor Phil" and "Doctor Steve."
Jeannette McColgan of Barrington, the Barbells' dental hygienist for 11 years, said she had to pay attention to the name tags when she first joined the staff. "If I didn't, one of them would say, 'Oh, you don't want me, you want my brother,' " she said.
The brothers, who are 47, are perpetuating a family tradition that dates back to 1929, when their father, Israel, opened his dental practice in Pennsauken. For 18 years, the brothers and their father worked together, expanding their practice to a Camden office. When Israel Barbell died in 1983, at the age of 77, they closed the Camden office.
"Israel Barbell was kind man, a fair man," Canaris said. "He was also a good teacher."
*
It was noon. The staff had left for lunch. Steve Barbell was at a nearby deli to pick up the usual: chicken salad and tuna salad sandwiches and a half- gallon of Abbotts' orange juice. Phil Barbell locked the front door of the office on Westfield Avenue, connected the telephones to an answering service and retired to a back office to take care of some work for the New Jersey Dental Association, of which he is president.
By 12:15, he would be joined by Steve, who would put the sandwiches and orange juice on his adjacent desk top and proceed to take care of paper work for the Cherry Hill Board of Education, of which he has been a member since 1979 and of which he is a former president. Both peered through similar wire- frame glasses and rustled papers while nibbling from their similar sandwiches and gulping orange juice.
Phil wore a tan dentist's smock with his "Doctor Phil" name tag and brown shoes. Steve wore white shoes, a light blue sports shirt and no name tag. Phil worked from two black briefcases. Steve worked from two brown briefcases. Except for the colors, the briefcases looked identical, too.
At precisely 12:55 p.m., the staff - Canaris, McColgan, Linda Boyer of Delran, Helen Petruska of Willingboro and Denise Senteneri of Deptford - would return from lunch. By 1 p.m., two patients would be seated in the waiting room, and by 1:15, the Barbells would be busy at work.
There are a lot of similarities in their lives.
In 1963, both were graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's dental school with similar grades. Both served two years in the Army. Both joined their father's practice in 1965. And both now live in the eastern section of Cherry Hill - "I used to live on the west side," Phil said, grinning.
Phil and his wife, Sunny, have two children: Cheri, 18, and Alan, 20.
Steve and his wife, Janice, have two children: Lisa, 18, and Bryen, 20.
Phil's hobbies include golfing and fishing.
Steve's hobbies include golfing and fishing.
"In golf, we're both hackers," Steve said. "We both shoot around 100."
There are some differences.
Phil has a Seiko wristwatch. Steve's is a Pulsar.
Phil is older - by 10 minutes.
"And I never let him forget," Steve said, chuckling.
Steve's hairline also recedes more than Phil's.
"And I never let him forget that," Phil said.
"But Doctor Steve's hairline really helps us tell them apart," Senteneri said.
Do patients ever confuse the two of them?
"We're careful not to intermix," Steve Barbell said. "Once we start with a patient, we follow through."
Because the Barbells work together six days a week, they do not socialize often, only for family occasions.
"Some of our closest friends aren't even aware that we have twin brothers," Phil said.
"That's right," Steve interjected. "One of my friends saw Phil and his wife out one night and later asked me about the woman he had seen me with the other night."
"I've been on the street and people - apparently Steve's friends - start waving at me," Phil said. "I don't know them, but they think they know me."
Even their mother, Hanora, 74, who now lives in Winter Park, Fla., sometimes confuses the two.
"Only on the telephone, never in person," Phil said. "If we don't immediately identify ourselves on the telephone, she has absolutely no idea which one of us she is talking to."
Steve Barbell, through his involvement with the Cherry Hill school board, said he had observed declining enrollments in the schools. Phil Barbell, as president of the New Jersey Dental Association, said he had observed an increase in the average age of dental patients.
"Fewer young people come to our office these days because there are fewer young people," Phil said. "The shift, in dentistry, has been to preventive maintenance and stress management."
"And many districts are closing schools instead of building new ones," Steve said. "In a way, there is a correlation between education and dentistry."
The telephone rang. Before the answering machine could monitor the call, Steve picked up the telephone and answered it.
"Hello. . . . Oh, hi, I was just thinking about you. . . . No, this is Steve."
Delran Reaches Out To Fire Victims
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150913231015/http://articles.philly.com/1986-06-08/news/26043255_1_fire-victims-art-supplies-donationBy Nicole Brodeur, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: June 08, 1986While walking through a local grocery store recently, Laura Engelman was stopped by a woman she hardly knew.
"Here," the woman said, reaching into her pocketbook, unsnapping her wallet and pulling out a folded envelope containing a number of crisp bills. Pressing the envelope into Engelman's hand, the woman said, "I was hoping I would run into you so I could give you this."
A few days later, Engelman received a letter from a woman she hadn't seen in five years. As she unfolded the letter, a generous check made out to Engelman's family fluttered to the floor.
As much as she has tried to accept the generosity of such unselfish contributions, Laura Engelman is still stunned at the amount of support her family has received since their Delran Township home burned March 29.
In the fire, which was started by a cigarette match in the master bedroom of the three-bedroom home on Notre Dame Drive, the Engelmans lost all their possessions, including one of their two cats, Pixie.
Recalling the disaster, Laura Engelman said: "As I stood there, all I kept saying was, 'I can't believe I'm standing here watching everything I own burn up.' And I got to the point where I finally went into the house across the street because I couldn't watch it burn anymore."
Engelman, her husband, John, and their 17-year-old daughter, Judy, are living in a rented townhouse at the TenbyTowne complex. The rent and living expenses will be paid by the family's insurance company until late July.
The insurance company will pay for the partial repair of the home. The Engelmans had discussed using the insurance company's builder - which offered to perform the work at a lower price than what private builders had estimated - but decided instead to hire their own contractor and pay a little more.
Thanks to the generosity of residents and community groups, the Engelmans plan to replace many of the things that they lost in the fire. The Church of the Holy Name, of Delran, donated one Sunday's second collection to the family, who are members of the congregation. The Altar Roses Society of the church made a donation within two days of the fire. The Knights of Columbus, of which John Engelman is a member, made a generous donation to the family, as did the Democratic Men's Club of Delran. Judy's classmates at Delran High School also raised money, and her art teachers replaced the art supplies that she lost in the fire.
Even as the fire was being put out, neighbors carried platters of food across their lawns and driveways to feed the Engelmans as well as the firefighters.
"People just sent boxes, the next day, of things that you don't realize you need," Laura Engelman said. "You know, you don't have a piece of underwear to call your own. Another neighbor sent a box packed with dishes and glasses, cutlery, a tray with all the utensils in it for when we got the apartment. Someone else gave us a vacuum cleaner; just all the things you don't realize you need."
The Engelmans spent 24 years on Notre Dame Drive before the fire struck. Judy, who will be a junior at Delran High School in September and plans to become a commercial artist, has never known another home.
In her room, the second to be engulfed in flames, had been a bedroom set made by her father out of poplar wood. The last piece of the set, which Judy helped design and which included a desk and expansive headboard, was put in place two weeks before the fire. It took Jack Engelman two years to finish.
Sometimes, Laura Engelman admitted, she returns to the home to sift through the charred remains, hoping that she may find something she missed the last time she was there.
"Some people said to me later, 'I don't know how you can be out and doing things, I would be hysterical' " Engelman said. "But I think that because we had so much support . . . you have to go on.
"You have to start your life over," she continued. "You didn't die, you're alive, and that's what counts. There is life to be lived."
An Introduction To Cruising On A Trip From Here To 'Nowhere'
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150911103201/http://articles.philly.com/1986-06-29/news/26044927_1_cruise-ship-seas-cabin-costBy Harry M. Gould Jr., Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 29, 1986Call us party poopers if you must.
Here we are, my wife and I, huffing our way toward the cruise ship Galileo, which we believe is certain to depart from Penn's Landing at any minute. We envision the crew drawing up the gangway and shutting the portal just as we arrive. Instead, we are greeted at the threshold by an aggressive young man brandishing a camera.
"Hold it right there," he orders. Oh, no! Ambushed by the ship's photographer! We are not amused. "No pictures, thank you," I shout back testily. "Oh, come on now, just one," he pleads. "No pictures," I repeat.
I know, I know. Part of the ritual of cruising is to have your official ''here-we-are-getting-on-the-ship" photo taken on the gangway. We simply aren't in the mood to play this game right now - which, perhaps, should be our first warning of impending culture shock.
The trip was billed as a "party cruise to nowhere." For 36 hours, this huge Panamanian-registered cruise ship, with its Greek officers and international crew, would sail out of the mouth of Delaware Bay and skim the open seas, taking along 1,100 or so paying customers intent on a weekend of sunbathing, dancing, eating, drinking, gambling, socializing and who knows what else.
There would be no ports of call, no palm-fringed beaches, no straw markets. Just this big floating hotel, its passengers and crew making whoopee on the high seas.
I'll confess right here: Cruising has never been my idea of the perfect getaway. But when a colleague had to cancel her reservations at the last minute, she suggested that I try it. Certainly, the price was inexpensive (our cabin cost $540 for two, including port tax). The Penn's Landing departure would be an unusual treat. And the trip would provide at least a small glimpse of life aboard a cruise ship - something I knew nothing about.
And so it began. On a muggy Friday afternoon, we made our way into the the main portal, stepping into the paneled B-deck lobby. A steward took our bags and led us down the narrow corridors to our cabin, B-21.
In terms of cabin decor, B-21 seems a bit dated. Metallic walls are swathed in baby-blue hues. The cabin boasts a small porthole, a queen-size double bed, a five-button panel for piped-in music, a private bath and shower, and plenty of closet and drawer space. The cabin measures about 6 feet by 12 feet. On the whole, my wife, Beverly, and I find little to complain about here.
It occurs to me that the passengers would soon be heading for the promenade to watch the Galileo slide away from its moorings at Penn's Landing. Tradition almost demands that we join them.
*A casual glance along the promenade indicates that this cruise is strictly a middle-class affair. No mink-clad matrons clutching their poodles; no John Jacob Astor types in blue blazers and cravats - which is fine by me. On the other hand, some seem a bit on the flashy side - a curious mix of Atlantic City and South Street on a Saturday night.
Farther along the promenade, passengers are clutching exotic alcoholic concoctions. A middle-aged woman confides to a friend: "Listen, honey, the bartender already knows me, heh, heh." Not far away, three good ol' boys in baseball caps and Levis are giving themselves whiplash as young women parade back and forth in revealing outfits.
Finally, the Galileo's engines begin to stir. Giddy passengers fling confetti over the railing, waving final goodbyes to friends and relatives on shore. The ship's bow inches out into the river in a gradual 180-degree arc. Two tugboats help turn the ship around.
The ship's powerful horns provide the traditional signoff blast to the two tugs - a light toot followed by three long, deep-throated honks, then a final short, deep blast - now answered by one toot from the tug on the starboard side. We float past rusting merchant ships tied up in the South Jersey Port. The Walt Whitman Bridge slips over our heads, looming impossibly large from our vantage point below.
Yo, Philadelphia. See ya in 36 hours.
It is now time to acquaint ourselves with the ship. It is a rabbit warren, full of mazes, long, narrow corridors, false turns. People are walking around in clouds of confusion. "How do I get to C-deck?" "Where's the casino?" ''How do I get back to my cabin?"
At 6 p.m., passengers who signed up for the first meal seating are searching for the restaurant. It's not easy to find, but we manage. While the restaurant staff works on last-minute touches behind closed doors, we wait in an anteroom ringed with vinyl seats. From behind the closed double doors we hear the clanking of dishes and silverware.
The anteroom is filling up rapidly with - what's this? - waves of well- dressed teenagers. Wisecracking boys all natty in sport jackets, prep ties, neatly pressed slacks and docksiders. Giggly girls dressed to the nines in frilly lace dresses and sharp-heeled shoes. Later we learn that there are about 400 more of these kids on board - three high school graduating classes who have been rewarded with a senior class trip aboard the Galileo. Later on, most of them don T-shirts that read: "Senior Splash." Hmmm . . .
Presently, the double doors swing open to reveal a noisy, low-ceilinged dining room with the dimensions of a football field. Recessed, indirect lighting is beaming dim pools of illumination down upon white-clothed tables. An armada of Italian waiters flits back and forth, looking crisp and officious in white smocks.
The maitre d' shows us our table, where our two dinner mates have already taken their seats. They are a quiet, 40ish Philadelphia couple who look up from the menu long enough to nod quick hellos through tight half-smiles. The man is dressed in a polyester print shirt with the collar open wide to expose a gold necklace with an "A.W." pendant. A.W. is thinly built, with a small face punctuated by a Fu Manchu mustache and large, button eyes. He reminds me of rock-and-roll legend Chuck Berry. His companion, Rosa, is a woman with a round face bordered by a full-curl perm. She wears a modest and subdued dinner dress and a shy expression that seems designed to discourage instant camaraderie with strangers.
In fact, neither of them utters a word to us for practically the entire meal. They seem shy.
Giovanni, our waiter, arrives to take our order. Dark, square-jawed, mustachioed, cool and distant, Giovanni is all business. For the appetizer, I order what turns out to be a tasteless and thin Manhattan clam chowder. Beverly gets an equally tasteless and thin onion consomme. The filet of sole is bland. Beverly's sirloin steak is tough. In fairness, the apricot nectar is delicious and the chocolate torte dessert is sweet enough to kill a diabetic at 10 paces. All in all, this is a meal to be endured.
After dinner, Beverly trots off to find the gift shop and the library while I wander out on deck. The ship passes Wilmington on the right and the twin spans of the Delaware Memorial Bridge overhead. Dusk is overtaking us.
A gaggle of high schoolers strolls by. I tag up with a skinny kid named Jeff, a senior at Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown. Jeff is inexplicably glum. What's up with this kid?
"I'm just disappointed that I can't gamble in the casino," Jeff laments.
Jeff can't touch any of the booze either, a situation more or less guaranteed by the blue plastic wristbands he and his pals have been forced to wear. The wristbands are designed to tip off the waiters, waitresses and casino dealers that the unlucky wearers are too young to indulge.
Jeff sadly recounts how school officials had laid down the no-drinking/no- gambling rules before departure. The consequences of noncompliance are said to be steep. "They told us before we left that anyone caught drinking would be locked up down below and then flown back home in a helicopter," Jeff says in a tone of voice that suggests that he actually believed what they told him.
So what's he going to do for fun, I wonder. His face brightens. "Well, there's this toga party tonight . . . "
To find out what the ship has to offer for the over-20 crowd, Beverly and I scan the Galileo "Seascape," an 11-by-14-inch sheet listing the evening's activities. A quick glance shows a few things we've already missed: deck sports signups at 4:30 p.m.; the Tony Williams Quintet's first jazz set at 5:30 p.m.
Ah, but the night is young. There would be "dance music" with the Amatucci Quintet. A 15-minute life-jacket demonstration and safety lecture. A Vegas-style revue in the Olympia Ballroom featuring a standup comic along with - ooh-la-la! - the Chandris Fantasy Showgirls. Bingo at 10 p.m. in the ballroom. Disco dancing till 5 a.m. on Lido Deck aft. And, yes, the feature film presentation for the night: Jewel of the Nile, 8:30 and 10 p.m. in the theater.
Beverly and I decide to skip the lounge acts and see the movie. The two- hour film promises to let out in time for the Midnight Buffet - the great legendary cruise pigout that now looms as an event of high anticipation after the less-than-inspiring dinner.
Others have the same idea. At midnight, a slow-moving line stretches more than half the length of the restaurant, from the buffet table to beyond the anteroom doors. The air is redolent with garlic. "Hey, how's the food," a young man asks a middle-aged man walking out the door. "Arrrgh, it's pasta, pasta, pasta," the man growls. "If you like a lot of pasta you'll be fine. If not . . . "
We wait for more than 20 minutes before getting even close to the buffet table. The first steam table brims with tiny tire-shaped pasta noodles. The second dish offers square-shaped pizza. Farther down the line, there are cold-cut platters, turkey and ham slices, watermelon balls, tuna fish and potato salad concoctions and, finally, the picked-over remains of a onetime galaxy of cakes, gooey pastries and gelatins garnished with whipped cream.
The quality of the food is passable. On the other hand, I don't notice a stampede of passengers headed towards the end of the line for seconds, either. So much for the Midnight Buffet.
Meanwhile, episodes of high-school hijinks are breaking out all over the ship. From a long corridor, a primitive chant roars with full-throated Animal House glee: "To-GA! To-GA! To-GA! To-GA!" All are wearing their bedsheets as they bound up the staircases, whooping and shouting - acting, in short, as if they own the ship.
Most of the kids are headed for the Nite Owl Disco up on Lido Deck aft, where the sound system is pounding out a heavy funk groove. Beverly and I spot a few adults on the edge of the tiny, crowded dance floor, but this is clearly the hour for youth to be served. We dance a few numbers and head back to our cabin for some sleep.
But the kids have other ideas. "To-GA! To-GA! To-GA! To-GA!" The chant continues throughout a long and mostly sleepless night.
On Saturday morning, we are somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean. Water, water everywhere. Well, almost. We turn on the bathroom sink tap. Nothing. We try the shower spigots. A few drops. Not quite enough for the shower we had in mind.
The morning fairly bristles with "shipboard activities" - from an aerobics class in the ballroom, where a dozen leotard-clad women and girls have attracted a gaggle of adolescent male spectators, to the A-deck aft, where dozens of bikini-clad sunbathers are paying homage to their tans on chaise lounges and waitresses are peddling Sambucas and Gran Marniers for $2.50.
There is also an outdoor "ice sculpture" demonstration, which draws quite a few spectators. As Filipino crewman Lorenzo Dacsil works his hammer and chisel on the roughly 1-by-3-foot rectangular block of ice, the crowd is encouraged to guess its final shape. "An Eagles cheerleader," comes a shout from the rear. "The Philly Phanatic," guesses another. "Mickey Mouse," offers one woman, who breaks into a Mouseketeer chorus with her two friends. ''A gerbil," suggests a smart-alecky high school kid. Turns out that it's a seahorse. And when it's done, a half-dozen women rush up to fire Instamatic snapshots before Dacsil carts it off to serve as decoration for the outdoor luncheon buffet.
Later, over lunch, we learn, among other things, that A.W. plays pinochle. The three of us - A.W., Beverly and I - immediately agree to meet in the cardroom at 3 p.m. for a game.
We meet at the appointed hour for pinochle. Before the game begins, A.W. teaches us his rules, including a new high-stakes bidding style. He is a razor-sharp player who pays close attention to everyone's hand. We play two complete sets. A.W. wins each of them.
Meanwhile, in the ballroom, a boisterous talent contest among the high school seniors is winding down. Assistant cruise director Trevor Leslie, a slick young Englishman who resembles actor Michael J. Fox in height and demeanor, is busy setting up a bingo game. Three dozen adults of varying ages sit scattered around the room with bingo cards as Leslie calls out numbers and letters. There is $86 in the prize pot.
"Bingo!" a middle-aged man says quietly, abruptly ending the game after only 10 minutes. Leslie starts to pack up. "Aw, play another game," someone complains. "Sorry, just one game," Leslie says. "That stinks," the complainer retorts. The crowd files out of the room, quietly grumbling. Leslie leaves quickly.
At sundown, the ship's entertainment programs kick into high gear.
In the red-carpeted Fantasy Lounge, Trevor Leslie proposes a sexier alternative to bingo. "We have to find a winning James Bond," he announces with a flourish. In this game four young men from the cruise staff will compete for the applause of the crowd as they woo four young women, also from the staff.
Leslie, voice oozing high drama, directs the action from the corner, microphone in hand. "He comes out . . . " (man in T-shirt and golf hat steps onto the floor). " . . . and throws his hat on the hat check . . . " (man flings his hat into the crowd). " . . . He walks over to his lady . . . " (man picks one of the women by hand). "He says to her . . . " (man utters the magic words: 'My name is James Bond. I'm licensed to kill'). "He takes her to the dance floor . . . " (man pulls woman onto dance floor). "They embrace . . . " (man squeezes the living daylights out of woman). "They can't control themselves! . . . " (more squeezing). "He gives her a James Bond kiss . . . " (man bends woman over, plants long romantic kiss on woman's lips). The audience squeals with vicarious delight.
Meanwhile, back in the Olympia Ballroom, stand-up comic Georgie Guy is doing his best to get a few yucks from the audience with an arsenal of tired ethnic cliches. Georgie Guy is bombing badly. At one point, he asks the audience: "What did you folks enjoy most on the menu tonight?" A heckler has an answer: "Not you." Guy segues into the usual Vegas-lounge standards: ''Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree," followed by "Hava Nagila" ("that famous black spiritual," he calls it).
I decide it's time for another nap.
Desperately Seeking Susan is the feature film presentation for the evening. I wake up in time to catch the 10 p.m. showing. At midnight, I'm feeling alert - and curious about how the passengers are spending their final night at sea.
The heartbeat of the ship is now racing ahead, as though conscious of some impending deadline. The dress is a little fancier, the laughter in the lounge is louder, the singing and dancing more charged, the action in the casino more frenetic than ever. Even the high school kids - all dressed up and well- behaved in their senior prom gowns and tuxes - impart an air of festive elegance.
I am watching three well-dressed young New Jerseyites at the craps table. They seem to be having fun, even as their fortunes ebb and flow. "C'mon, eight the hard way, c'mon baby," shouts Paul Reiff of Delran, flanked by his equally animated companions, Kathy Turck of Lindenwold and Karyn Zbranak of Trenton.
After about an hour, they collect their chips and leave the table, all aglow with predictably warm feelings for the croupiers and fellow players. ''We didn't even know how to play, but they just taught us," Turck marvels, adding that such a thing would simply never happen in Atlantic City. The three saunter off into the night with $450 in winnings jangling in their collective pockets.
Outside the crowded disco on Lido Deck, I meet Joe Lain, 38, whom I'd seen earlier on the Fantasy Lounge dance floor whooping it up with a song-and-dance duo. Lain, a tour wholesaler for an area travel firm and a veteran of ''weekend to nowhere" cruises, is lounging in a chair and confirming my theory that the ship now seems more alive than ever.
"You know what happens the first night?" Lain explains. "You have all these people thrown together. They're trying to find their way around. They don't know how to act. They don't expect to walk up the gangplank - and be lost. The second night is when they're sort of starting to relax a little bit."
The ship is moving under full power once again. In the thick night, I can see the green lights of bell buoys shooting beams of reflection on the dark water. Dim lights flicker on the distant shoreline. Land! I know that we are heading up Delaware Bay again and that, by daybreak, we'll be steaming back into Philadelphia.
I return to the cabin to awaken Beverly. "Let's go for a walk," I suggest. She dons a robe and the two of us walk arm in arm out on the promenade. It had been chilly the previous night, but tonight the air is warm and sweet, with just a hint of sea breeze. There is a feeling of romance.
Returning inside, we stand and watch a roomful of sharply dressed, middle- aged couples swaying and two-stepping through the night, accompanied by the hot jazz saxophones of the Tony Williams Quintet.
Here in this room, it is an elegant "Satin Doll/Take the A Train" kind of night. And throughout the ship - for most passengers, if not for me - this ''weekend cruise to nowhere" seems to have finally hit its stride.
HOW TO EMBARK ON A 'NOWHERE' CRUISE
The Galileo, whose home base is in New York City, is one of several ships operated by Chandris Cruise Lines Inc., a long-established Greek company known throughout the business for low- to mid-budget cruises in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Although the Galileo's final "nowhere" cruise from Philadelphia for the 1986 sailing season departed from Penn's Landing on May 16, the ship will offer similar trips from New York City and other East Coast ports for the remainder of the year. The company plans to resume its schedule of Galileo ''nowhere" cruises from Penn's Landing in May.
Rates for two-night "nowhere" cruises range from $195 per person double- occupancy for the most basic accommodations (an inside cabin with upper and lower berths) to $510 per person double-occupancy for an outside suite on the A deck. There is an extra $15 port departure tax as well. If you are traveling as a single, you pay 1 1/2 times the double-occupancy per-person rate.
The Galileo, an imposing Italian-built vessel with a distinctive blue funnel, can handle 1,200 passengers.
The ship has swimming pools, sauna and exercise rooms, a hospital, room service and a gift shop. There are no cabins for wheelchair passengers.
The ship was built in 1963 and renovated in 1978 and 1984. Two recent cruise guide books - Fielding's Worldwide Cruises and the Berlitz Complete Handbook to Cruising - each gave the Galileo two stars, based on a five-star rating systems. Of the Galileo, the Berlitz Guide had this to say: "A good ship for first-time cruisers who are on a tight budget."
For further information, call a travel agent or contact Chandris Cruise Lines at 900 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022; telephone 212-750-0044 or 800-223-0848.
Three To Be Interviewed For Finance Director
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150920150325/http://articles.philly.com/1986-07-07/news/26096255_1_finance-director-library-board-new-library-directorBy Reid Kanaley, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 07, 1986Marple officials have scheduled more interviews for the job of township finance director, a post that has been vacant since December.
Three candidates have been scheduled for interviews on July 22, according to Patricia Keates, president of the Board of Commissioners. Eight applicants were interviewed in April. One of those applicants was offered the job but turned it down, Keates said.
The finance position has been a point of contention among commissioners since last year, when finance officer Victor DiFelice announced that he would retire on Dec. 31.
Another job that had proved controversial in Marple - that of township librarian - was filled last week. Harold N. Boyer, 35, of Delran, N.J., began work July 1. He filled a vacancy created by the sudden resignation Feb. 5 of librarian Joan Abrams.
Delays in hiring a new finance director have made a mystery of the township's financial picture, some commissioners have said. No monthly finance reports have been issued this year, and Democratic Commissioner John Butler said last week that he believed the board should declare a "financial emergency" and stop paying bills until a report was issued.
"We do need those financial reports," Keates said in an interview. "We want to get somebody in there as soon as possible."
Plans to interview four applicants before DiFelice's departure were scuttled after Keates objected on the ground that an outgoing administration would have made the hire.
Keates became president of the seven-member board in January. She said in December that anyone hired for the finance job at that time might be fired when she assumed control of the board.
Keates said then that she wanted to upgrade the position of finance officer to that of a more powerful and better-paid finance "director" to manage the township's computer system and $4.1 million budget. In the fall, the township advertised for applicants and offered a salary of between $20,000 and $25,000. DiFelice had earned about $23,000.
Controller John R. Longacre 2d, who advocates upgrading the director's postion, has said a qualified applicant probably would seek a salary of at least $30,000.
Boyer, the new library director, had been the director of the medical library at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton. His predecessor, Abrams, quit over what she called "obvious differences" with the library board, which is appointed by the commissioners. One library board member said at the time that he believed Abrams had been pressured to resign by other board members who wanted more direct control of the library's operation.
Boyer said last week that the earlier controversy was "history" and "not important from my point of view."
The 50-hour Solution Penn Pair Is About To Beat Professor Rubik To The Punch
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151225094947/http://articles.philly.com/1986-10-17/news/26059046_1_rubik-s-magic-rubik-s-cube-blair-whitakerBy Michael Vitez, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: October 17, 1986It is not easy to stump Professor Erno Rubik, a man whose puzzles have bedeviled millions around the world and have driven at least one couple to divorce.
Rubik insists that he has never met a puzzle he couldn't crack.
But yesterday, for the briefest moment, the Hungarian millionaire and inventive genius was left speechless, even puzzled. Sitting in the back seat of a Yellow cab, heading to the Latham Hotel, he went pale when he heard the news:
He had been outhustled by a pair of computer whiz kids at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I don't like that," he said.
Rubik, creator of the famous Rubik's Cube, came to Philadelphia yesterday to promote his latest puzzle, Rubik's Magic, a fiendish invention that has more than 43 quintillion combinations - that's 43,000,000,000,000,000,000 - yet only one solution.
Rubik sold more than 100 million of his famous cubes back in the early 1980s, but unauthorized copiers sold 50 million more, cutting into the professor's profits. Three books on how to solve the puzzle also climbed to the top 10 on best-seller lists, none of them written by the inventor.
This time, Rubik took great pains to patent his new creation in 40 countries around the world and wrote his own solution book, which is due to be released early next year.
Enter Ashwin Belur and Blair Whitaker, typical lean and hungry graduate engineering students. They ride around campus on old bikes; they write home for money. And they have beaten Rubik at his own game.
These two students are computer wizards. Whitaker, for instance, specializes in artificial intelligence, which he explains as "a branch of computer science that deals with solving problems that are only solvable by humans."
A few weeks ago, the duo obtained an advance copy of the puzzle, which began selling in local stores Oct. 1. After a 50-hour, nearly sleepless marathon, they solved the puzzle. "We almost gave up a couple times," said Whitaker.
The two then wrote their own solution book and peddled it to a big New York publisher, who jumped at the opportunity. In just two weeks, 500,000 copies will be available in bookstores around the country - months before Rubik's own solution book will hit the market.
"This is beyond our wildest dreams," said Whitaker. "We're not going to be millionaires, but for two college students we're going to clean up."
"We want to have a lot of fun," echoed Belur. "We want to get on Late Night With David Letterman."
The puzzle master and his ingenious admirers never met yesterday. Rubik was too busy, and the students were too intimidated to go to his hotel. But the news did not seem to bother Rubik for long. He was too busy explaining his latest invention.
Rubik's Magic, quite different from its world-renowned predecessor, consists of eight shiny plastic squares that come shaped in two rows of four, somewhat similar to a legal-size envelope.
Painted on the squares in rainbow colors are three unconnected rings. The challenge is to rearrange the squares so that the rings become intertwined, resembling something akin to the Olympic symbol.
"It's like a mousetrap," Rubik said. "It looks easy, but then you get caught."
The most baffling aspect of the puzzle is its construction - all four sides of each square can be flexed and folded. The puzzle is held together by Rubik's patented and mystifying network of what can best be described as fishing line. There are no fixed hinges, and the puzzle continually changes from a two-dimensional object to a three-dimensional one.
"You can have wonderful discoveries," said Rubik. "The cube was very intellectual. This is more fun. The cube was essentially a closed object - the secret was on the inside and the effect was on the outside. This puzzle is an open one. The mystery is that you can see everything, but you cannot explain it."
ART, HE SAYS, AND FUN
Rubik's latest invention is sure to baffle, frustrate and tease millions around the world. But he insists that he is not an evil man, that his motives are not to see others sweat. He says his puzzles are a form of art, a means to stimulate and challenge the mind, to be fun.
The small, impish professor with a sharp nose and slight build is not a big talker. He is not the kind of man who could sell you a used car. His English is extremely good, but he talks in short sentences, frequently mumbling.
Usually he is looking down, and always - always - he is fidgeting with his puzzle.
Rubik, 42, is winding up a three-week promotional tour around the United States, and it is obvious that he is getting bored. He is an idea man, not a marketing man. He is happiest at home in Budapest, Hungary, thinking up new designs.
"The biggest game for me is to make another one that does not exist yet," he said.
Yesterday, however, he made the circuit, from radio talk shows to television interviews. Only once was he cornered into actually solving his new puzzle, during an appearance with WDVT-AM talk show host Carol Saline.
He hummed gently as he methodically folded and unfolded his puzzle until all three rings interlocked. Then he quickly jumbled the rings again, as if he were protecting a state secret.
"You are never more than 20 steps away," he said with a half-smile, ''once you know how."
BLOCKS AND ELASTIC
The story behind Rubik and his inventions is remarkable. In the mid-1970s, Rubik was a humble and obscure professor at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest. He was toying with 26 wooden blocks and some elastic in his mother's apartment when he stumbled onto the basis of the cube.
He eventually perfected it and used it at first as a teaching instrument to show the possibilities of geometric shapes. Soon his cube became immensely popular in Hungary. He sold two million cubes in a nation of 10 million.
When Rubik tried to market his cube internationally, Western toy manufacturers at first balked. The cube was small and compact. It didn't talk. It didn't sing or dance. It was hardly a Cabbage Patch Doll. But someone at Ideal Toy Corp. took a chance, and the rest is history.
About a year ago, Rubik began working on Rubik's Magic. Whether it can repeat the success of its predecessor, only time will tell.
"We are prepared to sell millions," he said. "It's a good problem, a good toy and a good time." At a recent toy fair in Budapest, he said, 35,000 puzzles sold in 10 days.
Rubik's success has put him in the unimaginable position of being one of the few multimillionaires behind the Iron Curtain. When asked how it felt to get rich, he said, "It's something for which we are not prepared."
HE DOES OK
Prepared or not, Rubik is doing OK with his fortune. He travels around the world at will; last summer he spent a few weeks in Hawaii and the Orient. He still dresses modestly - yesterday wearing gray corduroy pants, sneakers, a black long-sleeve shirt and sleeveless baby-blue vest.
Rubik, recently remarried, owns three cars, including a Mercedes ("but not a Rolls-Royce," he stressed), and he recently moved his wife and two children into a new home in the best neighborhood of Budapest. He is building an indoor pool with a new gadget that will push the water toward him so that he can swim into it without reaching the wall.
He repeatedly played down any difference between being rich in America and being rich in a communist country. "Is three cars a big deal?" he asked. ''What's the difference between three cars in America or three cars in Hungary? . . . It works the same way as everywhere. You collect your fee, you pay your tax, and you keep the rest."
Penn students Belur and Whitaker may never equal Rubik's fortune, but they long ago surpassed him on enthusiasm.
They have traveled to New York several times in the last three weeks as they worked out their deal with Dell Publishing Co., a division of Doubleday. The Penn campus newspaper ran an article about them, and now other students are demanding their autographs. Already they are more famous than they ever imagined.
BEGAN WITH AN AD
It was in August that, Belur, 22, of Bethesda, Md., heard an advertisement for the new Rubik puzzle.
"I bet you we can solve this," he said to Whitaker, 25, of Delran, N.J.
"Yeah, and I bet we can do a solution book," his partner responded.
The pair went to the campus library and did some research. They learned that the solution books for Rubik's Cube sold 10 million copies. They saw dollar signs.
They ordered the new puzzle from Matchbox Toys, the manufacturer, and got it on a Monday, about three weeks ago. "It took us 50 hours to solve this," Whitaker said. "We sat in our offices, ate and worked. We took a lot of notes" ("A mountain of notes," interrupted Belur). "We drew pictures and kept records. By Wednesday night we solved it, and by Friday we had an agent."
The two wrote out a 32-page book, filled with diagrams and color pictures, which they titled Rubik's Magic: The Solution. Dell jumped at it almost overnight.
"If this takes off like Rubik's Cube did, they could make an awful lot of money," said Chuck Adams, managing editor of Dell's paperback division.
Belur and Whitaker won't talk about how much money they could make, but they are hopeful.
"I went to Macy's (in New York) last week, and on the seventh floor in toys, they have six windows filled with Rubik's Magic," said Belur. "I hung out for about 15 minutes, and I saw about a dozen being sold. It's going to sell, man. It's going to sell."
Former Wilson Player Is Looking For Stardom At Pitt
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222020649/http://articles.philly.com/1986-11-30/sports/26091586_1_defensive-scheme-ron-fang-mitchell-pittBy Herm Rogul, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: November 30, 1986A look at some collegiate players and coaches with South Jersey ties.
Michael Hadley, former Inquirer all-South Jersey defensive back from Woodrow Wilson, plans to enjoy his final two football seasons at Pitt.
"I'll be a star," he said, "sooner or later. Maybe sooner than I think. A lot of pride is back at Pitt. Pitt will be successful again very soon."
At Wilson, Hadley also played quarterback. At Pitt he has been called upon to do a variety of tasks.
"In high school the offense was built around me," Hadley said, "and my ability to make things happen at any time.
"I went to Pitt summer football camp before my senior year. They saw I was an athlete and they said they were looking for a game-breaker, someone who could go deep and make the big catch."
Hadley played wide receiver as a Pitt freshman in 1985, "participating" in six games. New defensive coordinator John Fox moved Hadley to defensive back last spring.
"I told him," Mike said, "that if I got decent time, I wouldn't mind it. I didn't have any trouble covering receivers or stopping the run. The hard part was getting caught up with the defensive scheme. I feel comfortable now."
Hadley has used his speed on kickoff returns.
"I had a 55-yard return against Temple," he said, "but it was called back. I had two good ones that set up touchdowns against West Virginia."
BASKETBALL
Ron "Fang" Mitchell, former Gloucester County College basketball coach, says he's exhausted, but eager for his first season at Coppin State College in Baltimore.
"There is a lot more paperwork in Division I," Mitchell said. "You have to compete with everyone else in the country for players with 700 SATs.
"A lot of people don't know what Coppin State is or where Coppin State is, so I've had to do a lot of public relations work."
Coppin now is officially an NCAA Division I and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference member, but won't play in the MEAC tourney until next season.
"They predict us to be last in the MEAC," Mitchell said. "Those people have never seen Will Crandall and they don't know me. I can't see me finishing last in anything.
"Our lack of height will be a problem. That and 20 road games. We're trying to arrange a game with Georgetown that would be on TV. There's not much those guys do that isn't on TV."
Philadelphian guards Crandall and Mark Lewis are the only additions to the squad Mitchell inherited from John Bates. Several good ones are redshirting.
"Most players like to do things the way they're used to doing them," Mitchell said, "but most of our players have adjusted to me. And I'm not easy to adjust to. They've adjusted to Will, too. He's going to have the ball and he'll give it to the right man in the right place."
Mitchell gave new Gloucester County coaches Howard Horenstein (the former Deptford High coach) and Norman Millan his best wishes and some advice.
"I told them," he said, "to bring in good kids, not take chances on bums. The people at Gloucester County are pretty straight."
*
Delran girls basketball coach Jim Weber feels 6-0 senior Tricia Sacca will give Fairfield University's Lady Stags a big lift next season. Sacca was an early signee this month.
"Fairfield will be extremely pleased with Tricia," Weber said. "She is a complete player who can do it all, including scoring from the inside or outside."
As a junior, Tricia averaged 21.7 points, 14.0 rebounds as power forward on a 22-5 team.
Fairfield coach Dianne Nolan said: "Tricia will have an immediate impact on our program."
Sean Lucas, a 6-5 freshman from Atlantic City High, will play forward for Lock Haven University's basketball varsity.
"Sean has missed some practices because of knee problems, but he shows progress," said Bald Eagles coach Kurt Kanaskie, the former LaSalle College guard.
Rancocas Valley grad Lee Nesmith, is a 6-1 junior guard at Rider. Nesmith had 57 points, 43 assists, 38 rebounds, 21 steals as a soph. . . . John Souder, 6-3, 185-pound guard from Cinnaminson, is one of four seniors on Butch van Breda Kolff's Lafayette team. As a junior, Souder had 156 points, 42 assists, 38 rebounds, 25 steals. . . . Andrew Eaton, who averaged 16.0 points and 11.0 rebounds for Florence High NJSIAA Group 1 state champion last year, is a 6-9, 215-pound freshman at Delaware.
SWIMMING
Scott Roncece, junior from Haddonfield, is a freestyle and butterfly swimmer at Franklin & Marshall. Amy Carter, a sophomore from Cherry Hill West, is a butterfly and freestyler for the Lady Diplomats.
Joanne Donoghue, junior freestyle, medley and breaststroker from Holy Cross, and Felice Ginsburg, sophomore butterfly swimmer and backstroker from Cherry Hill East, are co-captains of the Trenton State College women's swimming team.
Coach Brenda Campbell's Lady Lions will host Seton Hall on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. in the first competition in their new $4.6 million aquatic center.
Kathleen McNally, junior butterfly and freestyle competitor from Gateway is another key returnee. The squad also includes Brenda Cavalea (Paulsboro), Michelle Cotilla (Cherry Hill East), Chris Roedig and Diane Sawn (Washington Township) and Susan Winkel (Lenape).
Fame And Fortune: It's Magic
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222030256/http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-03/news/26068294_1_ashwin-belur-rubik-s-magic-blair-whitakerBy Michael Vitez, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: December 03, 1986Two months ago, Blair Whitaker and Ashwin Belur were two obscure graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. Whitaker couldn't even afford to pay his tuition.
Today they are dancing with fame and fortune, negotiating international book contracts, signing autographs and getting ready to make lots of money.
They have even drawn praise from the man they outfoxed, Hungarian puzzle genius Erno Rubik. In fact, he has decided not to sue them but to endorse their solution to his latest puzzle, thereby paving the way for its publication this week.
"We have an agent, a publicist, a lawyer," Whitaker said yesterday. ''We're not just two students anymore; we're a corporation."
Six weeks ago, when Rubik was in Philadelphia to promote Rubik's Magic, he learned that the Dell Publishing Co. was printing 500,000 copies of Whitaker and Belur's 32-page solution book. "I don't like that," he said, and he began to think of filing a lawsuit.
But instead, Rubik has authorized the book in return for what Whitaker would call only "a piece of the action." Dell agreed to delay publication for a month and give the book a new title; Rubik, for his part, wrote an introduction praising the authors for their speed in solving the puzzle and clarity in presenting the solution. The book, titled A Practical Solution to Rubik's Magic, is priced at $2.95.
Even though Rubik has given his blessing to Whitaker and Belur's book, he plans to write his own. He also says in the introduction that "the solution I personally favor differs from the one presented here."
Not to be outdone, Whitaker said yesterday that "we think ours is more interesting and colorful than his."
The deal with Rubik is only the latest twist in a two-month roller-coaster ride that has carried the engineering students to international renown - and could earn them an awful lot of money.
In addition to their deal with Dell, the two have negotiated agreements with publishers in Britain, Sweden and Germany. Contracts with publishers in Italy, France and Japan are also in the works.
"We've learned so much from this experience it's absolutely incredible," said Whitaker, 25, whose family lives in Delran, N.J. "We were two engineers who had jobs in research labs. It's incredible. I bought a briefcase; I'm going out to buy a suit. We're going to be on Good Morning America. I'm collecting M.B.A. applications from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton. It's changed my whole perspective. I think Ashwin feels the same way."
"I signed my first autograph today on a publicity picture," Belur, 22, said yesterday. He also said their success had changed his thoughts about his future - and delayed it as well. All the excitement has forced him to drop some classes, making it impossible for him to graduate in May, as he had planned.
Whitaker and Belur began their courtship with sudden wealth in late September, when Belur obtained an advance copy of Rubik's Magic from Matchbox Toys, the manufacturer. The two decided to try to solve the puzzle and peddle a solution book - a long shot. They sought out other friends, but nobody else was interested.
After a 50-hour marathon, they had their solution. They then contacted an agent with the William Morris Agency in New York, who jumped at the idea, especially when he learned that solution books to Rubik's Cube, predecessor of Rubik's Magic, had sold 10 million copies. The agent quickly worked out a deal with Dell.
"It started out as a cute idea," Whitaker said. "And we had such modest hopes. We just hoped we could get somebody to look at it. That would be absolutely amazing."
Neither will talk about specifics, but both hope to earn substantial royalties - at least enough, said Whitaker, to pay his tuition.
"If it hits in the six figures, that will be real nice," he said. "If it hits in the sevens, nobody would believe it."
And beyond the money, the two have been featured in newspapers and magazines from Portugal to Japan. Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for the U.S. armed services, has published a story about them and their book. Belur, whose parents are from India but now live in Bethesda, Md., has been flooded with letters from relatives in India who have read about him. Whitaker has received a letter from a boyhood friend now living in Bulgaria. They're both scheduling appearances at promotional and charitable events.
The two understand that their fortunes depend directly on the fate of Rubik's Magic, which bedevils the mind in the same fashion as its predecessor.
More than 150 million versions of the cube sold around the world in the early 1980s. And the new puzzle, an eight-panel brain-teaser with a unique hinge, has even more possible combinations than the cube, which had 34 quintillion ones.
"I know the puzzle is selling tremendously," said Diane Ekeblad, a publicist at Dell. "I was told that as far as New York goes, Macy's was selling 1,000 a week, which is extraordinary. People are buying them 10 at a time. And people are going to get frustrated, and they're going to want to learn how to solve it, and I think they're going to buy the book."
Whitaker and Belur hope so. But they're also having fun just going along for the ride.
This Time, Delran's Sacca Starts Healthy
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222012914/http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-23/sports/26068304_1_sterling-bears-league-crownBy Kevin Tatum, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: December 23, 1986Delran High's Trish Sacca, who led South Jersey in scoring last season with an average of 22.2 points per game, is picking up where she left off.
The 6-foot senior forward, who plans to attend Fairfield University next fall, set a school record for career scoring Saturday, when the Bears opened the season with a 68-35 victory over Cherry Hill East. She scored 22 points to boost her total at Delran to 1,092. The old mark of 1,085 was held by Terri McDermott, who finished her career in 1979.
"I wanted to win the opening game," Sacca said. "That was more important than breaking the record. But breaking it is meaningful, because you'll always be remembered in school history."
Had it not been for a case of mononucleosis that forced her to miss the first seven games last season, Sacca probably would have entered this season already owning the record.
It took her two weeks to get over the illness, and it was another four games before she felt like herself again. She then proceeded to produce points in bunches on her way to the scoring championship.
"That's something I didn't try to do - it just came," said Sacca, whose high game last year was a 33-point effort against Florence. "It's a nice honor, but I wasn't even thinking about it. I had that mono, and I was just glad to be back."
Delran finished last season with a 21-4 record and wound up second, behind Burlington City, in the Burlington County League Freedom Division standings. City knocked the Bears out of the South Jersey Group 2 playoffs.
This season, Sacca is healthy, and Delran, the No. 8 team in the Inquirer's South Jersey ratings, is favored to win the league crown.
Sacca is joined in coach Jim Weber's starting lineup by 6-foot center Marianne Bowker, 5-10 forward Michelle Vranich, 5-5 guard Wendy Razzi and 5-4 guard Kim Bieker. All except Bieker started last season.
"We like being favored," said Sacca, whose brother Tony is a junior and a three-sport star at Delran. "It gives us a challenge, and we're going to accomplish it.
"Last year was a disappointment, because we thought we could go farther. This year, we want to win it all, and we're working super hard."
*Nicole Williams was outstanding as No. 4 Sterling won its first two games of the season.
Against Cherokee on Friday, Williams collected 29 points and 10 rebounds to pace a 66-34 victory. And the next day, she came back with 20 points and 18 rebounds as the Silver Knights ran past Willingboro, 83-43.
Williams, a 5-10 junior center, transferred to Sterling last year from Overbrook (N.J.) and averaged 12 points and 14 rebounds.
"Nicole gives us a strong inside game," coach Bill Ulrich said. "She's much more confident this year and aggressive. She's looking for the ball, and we're making more effort to get it inside to her."
"Last season, I had to adjust to switching schools," Williams said. "Now I'm more involved with the team and more comfortable with the players. With the offense we run, if you get open, they're going to find you. I try to get myself free and make good cuts."
Sterling, the four-time defending Colonial Conference champion before it was unseated by Collingswood last season, is considered the team to beat once again.
"We don't let being the favorite go to our heads," Williams said. "I think we'll go far. How far, I don't know, but I think we'll be good. We're just trying to play together as a team and play a good game. We know that people are out to get us."
Wildwood Catholic earned the No. 10 position in The Inquirer Top 10 by downing Middle Township, the two-time defending Cape-Atlantic I champion, 35-32, on Friday in the season opener for both teams.
Kate Caruso, a 5-10 forward, led Catholic to the league victory with 15 points, while 5-11 center Ellen McBride totaled 5 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. Nicole Helverson, a 5-9 forward, pulled down 9 rebounds.
Middle, No. 9 in the preseason ratings, dropped out of the Top 10 after the home-court loss.
"We worked very hard to prepare and did a good job," Catholic coach Matt Tomlin said. "It was an exciting and viciously fought game. My senior players had never beaten Middle Township."
Catholic held a nine-point lead midway through the final period. Then Middle came roaring back. Catholic, which has eight seniors and three juniors back from last season, was up to the challenge, however.
"We thought we could rely on our depth and wear them down," Tomlin said. ''At the end of the game, I was able to put in a fresh and experienced senior team. We didn't lose our composure."
Paul VI and Camden, No. 1 and No. 5, respectively, in the Top 10, had trouble over the weekend with out-of-state teams.
Paul VI, which defeated Edgewood, 86-29, in its season opener on Friday, dropped a 57-51 decision to La Reine (Md.) on Saturday. And Camden, No. 3 in last week, was defeated by Elizabeth Seton (Md.), 76-55, on Friday. On Saturday, the Panthers were downed, 51-38, by Bishop O'Connell (Va.).
Paul VI had a five-point lead at halftime on Saturday but was down by seven points at the end of the third quarter. The Eagles shot 2 for 14 in the third period.
"I thought we played horribly," said coach Jay Stillman, whose team went 26-3 last season on its way to a South Jersey Parochial A title. "Everything fell for us on Friday, but nothing would fall on Saturday. We had one of our off shooting nights. It was just one of those nights. Hopefully, we've had our one bad shooting night for the year."
Camden, the South Jersey Group 4 champion last season, when it finished 22-8, is off to the same kind of start as a year ago. The Panthers lost their first three games last season before winning their next five.
Coach Greg English thinks that his team still may be thinking about last season's sectional title.
"We're still riding on what we did last season," he said. "We haven't got to the point where we know we have to go out and play. But if we're going to lose, I'd rather it be at the beginning of the season than at the end."
Moms: Each Is Different, But All Are Special
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222040734/http://articles.philly.com/1987-05-10/news/26161650_1_mom-s-day-burlington-county-new-motherBy Daniel LeDuc, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 10, 1987Mother's Day is sort of a misnomer. After all, don't most people say Mom?
Mother is so stiff and formal and is usually reserved for those conversations when she addresses you by your full name - including middle initial.
You know: "John Q. Smith, you better clean your room." "Yes, Mother."
But Mother's Day is the day for thinking good things about Mom; for appreciating all the nice things she did for you, even when you didn't know she was doing them. Especially when you didn't know. It's a day for saying, ''Thanks, Mom."
So, it should be Mom's Day.
If you're not sure you buy that, look at it this way: Does anybody ever say mom-in-law?
Some moms have it tougher than others. Some have chronic illnesses, others are single and working and raising children all at the same time. And every day there are women learning to be moms for the very first time.
Here are a few South Jersey moms to remember on Mom's Day:
*It was April 18 at 10:55 a.m. and, as quick as you can say "seven pounds, nine ounces," Janet Walsh was a mom for the first time.
For nine months there had been the anxious thoughts: "Is she going to be all right? Is she going to be healthy? Is she going to do all right in school? Is she going to be happy? Will she have a good life?"
But when Alissa was placed in her mom's arms that April morning at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly, the worries were put aside for a while.
"I thought she was beautiful," said Walsh, 29.
She and her husband, Bill, have been married for five years and knew they were going to have children; it was just a matter of when.
"I didn't want to go through life without being a mother," Walsh said. ''I'm a teacher. I love kids. I felt I would have been missing something if I didn't have one of my own."
It was last summer during a vacation at the shore that she discovered she was pregnant.
So they took their last vacation to New England as a couple, went out for a few romantic dinners for two, and then started buying baby furniture.
As soon as Walsh found out she was pregnant, she said, she felt different.
"It's mind-boggling," she said as she craddled Alissa at their home in Delran. "I look back and say, 'She was inside of me.' "
Now that they're at home, new-mother jitters occasionally return.
"I have to admit sometimes I'm nervous, like if she cries a lot," Walsh said.
But, she added, "I feel confident that my husband and I can handle just about anything that comes up."
Ruth Saulters had seven of her own children and decided that just wasn't enough.
"I feel the good Lord put me on the earth to take care of children," she said. "Everybody's got a talent, mine's taking care of children."
So when all of her children grew up and left home, Saulters, 52, decided her house on Kaigns Avenue in Camden was just too quiet. She enrolled in classes for foster parents taught by the state Division of Youth and Family Services.
"I haven't had an empty house since I got (out) of classes," she said. That was five years ago.
She has lost count of the number of children who have taken refuge from abusive parents and bad home lives at her comfortable rowhouse.
"I've had more than 50 in six months," she said.
The children stay with her until conditions at their homes improve or until they are adopted. Sometimes Saulters does the adopting.
Hakim, 7, whom she calls "Butterball," and Shawn, 9, were placed with her as foster children. Last year, Saulters decided to adopt them.
"I didn't give birth to them, but I feel about these children like I do my own," she said.
DYFS guidelines allow her to keep as many as six children - and she usually has that many.
Her job is simple, she said. "All these children need is some lovin'."
When Gertrude Capone and her husband were fixing up their house in Pitman 25 years ago, it seemed that each time a bedroom was finished, she would become pregnant.
First there was Mary Jo, then Mary Ellen, then Maureen, who was followed by Tim. Colleen, Joseph, Katy and Kevin have followed.
"Last year when I put up the shed out back I said, 'Lord, it's not a room!' " Capone said, laughing.
Eight, she said, was more than enough - eight was a joy.
"You see them growing. Days go by and you don't think about it," she said. Then, those milestones in their lives pass by.
"All of a sudden you're in church, or a graduation or a concert, and you say, 'My God, that's my child.' "
She tries to pass on that thrill of motherhood to the young women she sometimes counsels at Gloucester Birthright, an anti-abortion organization where she is a volunteer.
Several times a year, she and her husband of 27 years, Anthony, take a foster child into their home while the infant awaits adoption. Although she is loving and caring toward those children, Capone said, her thoughts often drift to their mothers.
Most are single, have decided against abortion and have chosen to give their children up for adoption.
"That's the sign of a good mother," Capone said. "To me, that's the ultimate - to give a baby up. Somewhere out there, there are girls who have given their babies up so they can have a better life. Every Easter and Mother's Day it's got to be tough on them."
All the rearing and raising is completed now for Bea Rozier. She and her husband, Garrison, raised six sons in Camden.
Now the boys are on their own and the Roziers are living in Cinnaminson, but Rozier, 55, is still mothering in her own way as a volunteer for Planned Parenthood.
"Family planning to me is planning your life. It's your future," she said. "It's taking care of your health, your pocketbook, your community."
She uses her own experiences as a mother when she speaks to many groups about family planning, from young parents unsure about how to raise their children to students with questions about sex.
"You give them all the same message. It's values and decision-making," she said. "Children are wonderful. They're a gift. They're more though, they're a big responsibility."
Rozier said Planned Parenthood offers advice about how to manage life as a parent, teaches the value of life and tells teenagers it is all right to say ''no" to sex.
Those are the same messages she gave her six sons. Three of them have their own children, and Rozier said the seeds she planted in her sons were showing up in the new generation.
Not long ago she was riding in the car listening to her 5-year-old grandsons.
"They were saying, 'When I grow up, I'm going to get me a girlfriend and I'm going to get married and I'm going to help my wife with the housework. I'm going to have a job. I'm going to get my wife flowers,' " she said. "It was a thrill."
Debra Wood knows what it's like to come home from school and not have Mom or Dad there, to have to cook her own meals and take care of her younger siblings.
She grew up that way because her parents worked. Now 30 and the single mother of 10-year-old Tracy, Wood doesn't want her work at Prudential Insurance in Cherry Hill, where she sells corporate insurance plans and investments, to disrupt her daughter's life.
"One big reason it's important to me is that I went through it," Wood said.
So each morning, she makes sure Tracy gets breakfast and makes her own lunch, and sees her off to school from their home in Woodbury before going to the office.
After school, Tracy goes to a Latchkey program at the Woodbury YMCA until her mom gets home from work. On those occasional nights when Wood must work, she comes home to see Tracy after school and then arranges for a ''grandmotherly-like sitter" to stay at the house.
"She's never left at home alone," Wood said.
All the time together has paid off. An unusually close relationship has developed between mom and daughter.
"It's more of a friendship than mother-daughter," Wood said. "We like to dance together. We like the same music. We like to shop together."
And Wood has passed the toughest mom test.
"The kids think she's cool," Tracy said.
It has been a difficult balancing act between the tugs of a career and the pulls of motherhood.
Wood turned down one job offer from a company that would have required her to meet with clients in the evening because she wanted her time with Tracy.
"I want to be my own person," she said of her career. But, Wood added, ''really, she comes first. If it came down to giving up this career, the career would have to go."
More than anything, Suellen Hancock wanted a baby.
"I didn't think my life would be complete," she said. "My husband and I were always a couple. It's not until you have a baby that you're a family."
But having a baby posed a real threat to Hancock, who suffers from lupus, a form of arthritis that leaves her joints inflamed.
Her doctors warned her against having a child, saying pregnancy could cause the disease to worsen and perhaps even leave her in a wheelchair.
Hancock and her husband, Dave, who live in Cherry Hill, decided to take the risk so they could be more than a couple, so they could be a family.
In her seventh month of pregnancy, Hancock became very ill. She had high blood pressure, her joints swelled. "It hurt when people touched me," she said.
Doctors told her she would be all right, but they were less sure about the babies. Hancock had twins.
Only five weeks after she was born, one little girl, Jillian, died of sudden infant death syndrome.
But Lindsay, now 3, is healthy and happy and gets lots of attention from her mom and dad.
It has not been the typical motherhood for Hancock. Lupus is a physically draining disease, requiring her to sleep 10 hours a day.
She has never been able to bathe her daughter because she cannot get on her knees next to the bathtub. She cannot take her swimming or to gymnastics classes, and she cannot play with her outside for any length of time because sun aggravates lupus.
"Anybody can give her a bath, but things that are fun that I can't do, that's what I miss," Hancock said.
There has been help from her mother-in-law and her husband, and Hancock said she believed that she had missed nothing.
"I heard the crying," she joked.
Her lupus has worsened because of the pregnancy, she said. In January, Hancock suffered a minor stroke.
But she has no regrets about being a mom.
Now, she and her husband are more than a couple. They're a family.
Girl Scouting has changed from the days when Fran Kinsey was a little girl. Now auto mechanics is taught right along with sewing.
There have been other changes at the weekly meetings as well.
When Kinsey leads her sessions with her 13 scouts at her home in Marlton, the conversations are as likely to be about how to act with boys, peer pressure and personal problems as they are to be about how to light the old campfire.
"They've asked questions (about subjects) I never knew they knew about," including abortion, Kinsey said. More than once, she said, she has had to take a big gulp before speaking.
"I was going to give answers that could affect their lives."
Fortunately, she has had some experience. Kinsey and her husband, Paul, have two daughters, Jennifer, 16, and Stephanie, 14, and a son, Matthew, 11.
"If I had to nominate a mother of all time, it'd be Fran," said Fay Dunn of the Burlington County Girl Scouts Council. "She says the word mother and gets misty in her eyes."
What she has learned from raising her children, and uses when working with her scouts, is not to lecture. "You've got to tell them so they think it's their idea," Kinsey said. "That's tough."
Although she has seen changes in young girls and in scouting, some things for parents have remained the same: talking with and listening to their children.
"My mother used to have these family meetings around the table and I used to think it was so dumb. That really dumb thing really worked," Kinsey said laughing, saying she does it now with her children.
She quoted an Ethiopian proverb from a women she tutors in English:
"Children are like leather. Leather should be worked with while it's wet, and children should be worked with while they're young. The trick is to work with them while they're pliable."
Basketball Squad Set For Trip To England
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151017235427/http://articles.philly.com/1987-08-05/news/26168722_1_england-big-ben-buckingham-palaceBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: August 05, 1987Starting Tuesday, a group of local South Jersey athletes will experience the best of British culture: They will tour the city of Nottingham with its 900-year-old castle, visit Sherwood Forest, stop at the Shakespeare Museum, see Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and much more.
And in their spare time they will be playing basketball - on a very competitive level.
On Tuesday, a 12-member South Jersey women's 19-and-under all-star team will leave for a two-week tour of England. The team will play seven games during its tour, which concludes Aug. 24.
"It's a new experience playing against international competition, but I'm also going to see England," said former Sterling High standout Cheryl Zekas, The Inquirer's 1986-87 South Jersey Female Athlete of the year. "I am going to see all I can in two weeks there," said Zekas, who will attend Scranton University on an academic scholarship this year. "My mom and dad have been over there and they are telling me the sites I should see and not see."
Delran High graduate Trish Sacca, who will attend Fairfield University on a basketball scholarship, is equally excited about being able to play against international competition while touring England.
"We are representing the U.S. and we want to show that we can play ball with them," said Sacca, an Inquirer all-area selection last season. "And I can't wait to see Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and other things like the punk hairdos. I've read so much about the British and now I am looking forward to experiencing the different culture."
The trip was arranged by Mary Beth Baldwin, Collingswood High's assistant basketball coach, who has been to England five times.
"I've been interested in doing this for years," said Baldwin, a resident of Runnemede. "I contacted Peggy Havens, the head field hockey coach at Palmyra. She took an all-star team to Holland two years ago and she gave me people to contact to set a trip like this up."
Baldwin said that the cost per player was $1,300, but much of the cost was defrayed through donations from friends, family and local businesses.
During its tour the South Jersey squad will compete against club all-star teams consisting of girls age 16 through 20. Unlike the United States, England places a much greater emphasis on club sports than on college squads, according to John Bach, Collingswood High girls' basketball coach.
Bach, a Collingswood resident, will guide the South Jersey all-star team with the assistance of his wife, Mimi, and Baldwin.
The squad's most difficult game will be against England's under-19 National Team Aug. 17 at London's Crystal Palace. "The part I'm looking forward to most about the trip is playing the British National Team," said former Collingswood standout Jeanne Mooney, now a sophomore at Lehigh. "I may be wrong, but I think we can beat them."
Mooney, 19, and her former high school teammate, Manhattan College sophomore Donna Seybold, also 19, are the oldest players on the team. The youngest are Sterling High sophomore Jackie Donovan of Stratford and Bishop Eustace junior Aimee Weiss, who lives in Croyden, Pa. Both are 15.
"I'm interested most in seeing how they (the British) play, and how I play against top competition," said Donovan, who along with Weiss, recently competed in Oxford, Miss., in the Amateur Athletic Union's 15-and-under national tournament.
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, which governs competition involving high school students, prohibits tryouts for teams that intend to travel abroad. So it was up to Bach to pick the squad.
Bach, whose father, John, is an assistant coach for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, is as enthusiastic as his players at the prospect of spending two weeks competing in England.
"The trip will serve two masters," said Bach, The Inquirer's South Jersey Girls' Basketball Coach of the Year in 1985 after leading Collingswood to the Group 2 state championship. "The cultural and aesthetic aspects will be well- served because we will be meeting new people and seeing a new country. We also want to be successful competing. We consider ourselves ambassadors, first from our state, and then our country. We want to show the British what is best in the American game. Our goal is to partake in the cultural experience and to be successful on the court."
Plans For A Birthday Die With Flight 255
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150923220839/http://articles.philly.com/1987-08-19/news/26168168_1_trip-blind-date-amsterdamBy Daniel LeDuc, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: August 19, 1987Lowell Wormley had been planning his wife's 50th birthday for weeks. He would steal her away in a limousine on Saturday, and when they returned, their home in Delran would be full of family and friends for a surprise party.
Their daughter would be there, and so would their son from Charlotte, N.C., and Johanna Wormley's mother, from Amsterdam.
But instead, Johanna Wormley will join her family on Saturday not for a celebration of her own life, but for a commemoration of her husband's - a memorial service at Trinity Church in Moorestown.
On Sunday, Lowell Wormley delayed a business trip to California to prepare for the surprise party, a good friend, Jonathan deJonge, said yesterday. Instead of his usual flight, Wormley flew from Philadelphia to Detroit and connected with Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which was to route him to Orange County by way of Phoenix.
Johanna Wormley received word early Monday that her husband was among the more than 155 people killed when the MD-80 jetliner that was Flight 255 burst into flames and crashed on a highway near Detroit's airport at dusk Sunday. On Monday, she forwarded his dental records to authorities in Detroit to assist in identifying the body.
Lowell Wormley, who was 49, was a systems analyst for Doelz Networks Inc., a computer firm in Mount Laurel.
On Sunday, he and his wife awoke early. They had recently purchased a new Ford Escort, and Wormley was proud of the car and the others the family owns. He wanted to wash them before leaving.
Later in the day, he and his wife joined friends for brunch at the Tenby Chase Swim Club, which serves their housing development in the Burlington County community. After swimming a few laps, he left to get ready for his trip.
He was going to drive in and leave the car at a parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport.
"But I said, 'I can take you and pick you up on Thursday,' " Johanna Wormley recalled yesterday. And when she left him at the airport, she said, ''I gave him the nicest, longest hug."
They had been married in Amsterdam on Oct. 19, 1969. Johanna Wormley was born and raised in the Netherlands. Wormley had been there on an extended business trip; a friend arranged a blind date.
Returning to the United States, they worked hard together, raising two children and making a home. Just in recent years they had begun to enjoy themselves - skiing trips to Vermont, beach trips to St. Croix.
The pictures from the trip to the Caribbean island, arranged in an album, will be among her fondest memories of her husband, Johanna Wormley said yesterday afternoon.
She sat under the sun that filtered through the tall oak trees in her back yard. It was the back yard they had created together, brimming with green plants and bright flowers, open to the cross-country ski trail running through the nearby trees.
Inside the split-level, gray-green house, friends did what friends do when grieving: They prepared food and watered flowers.
They did the normal, everyday things around the house so that Johanna Wormley had time for those things new and foreign to her.
The grieving is now, the adjusting will come later.
Tony Sacca Has Bears Looking Toward The Title
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222104024/http://articles.philly.com/1987-12-13/news/26206746_1_guard-bears-tony-saccaBy Gus Ostrum, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: December 13, 1987New Delran boys' basketball coach Jim Petrino likes nothing better than to have a dominant big man in his starting lineup.
Following a successful football campaign in which he led his team to the Burlington County Freedom Division championship and a spot in the South Jersey Group 2 playoffs, senior Tony Sacca will attempt to once again lead the Bears on a title march.
Last season, the multi-talented Sacca, who is a 6-foot, 5-inch forward- center, averaged 19 points per game in leading Delran to a 21-7 overall record and a berth in the Group 2 championship game.
"He's one of the most gifted athletes in South Jersey, and with Tony in our lineup, we should give any team their money's worth," Petrino said.
This winter, Sacca will have his work cut out for him as defending league champion Burlington Township will return a formidable starting lineup.
He will be supported by the return of one other starter and two non- starters who saw considerable playing time last season.
The Bears will open the new season Friday by hosting crosstown rival Holy Cross.
COACH. Petrino will begin his first season as head coach, taking over for former coach Don Constantine. Petrino had coached Delran's junior varsity squad for six seasons.
LAST YEAR. The Bears advanced all the way to the South Jersey Group 2 championship game and finished with a 21-7 overall record.
PLAYERS LOST. The following players graduated: center-forward Chris Connearney, forward George Perry, and guard Ken Thompson.
PLAYERS RETURNING. Sacca, who is also one of South Jersey's premier quarterbacks, will head the list of returning players.
"The only thing I worry about is that Tony hasn't had the practice time I would like (because of Delran's participation in the sectional football playoffs)," Petrino said. "He is undoubtedly one of South Jersey's best players, and the more practice time he gets, the better shape we'll be in."
Sacca's younger brother, Johnny Sacca, will also return. Johnny Sacca, a 6-2 sophomore guard, got some starting time last season and is expected to be a big contributor as well.
Senior guard Joe Murphy is a potential outside threat who is capable of scoring in double figures while senior guard Pat McKee and senior guard Johnny Ellison are also experienced in the backcourt.
NEWCOMERS. Delran will also have a host of newcomers who will complement the veterans nicely. Heading the list will be 6-8 senior forward-center Frank Vogel, who may blossom into a top star and take the offensive pressure off of Tony Sacca.
Other newcomers expected to contribute will be sophomore point guard Mike McKee (Pat's brother), senior guard Herbie Lefferts, and freshmen forwards Mike Jordan and Mike Martin, both of whom are 6-4 and possess enormous potential.
STRATEGY. The Bears' inside game will be one of the best around as long as Tony Sacca stays healthy. If Vogel develops this season, Delran's inside attack will be even more potent than usual.
The guards will look to develop a little consistency with the outside shooting game as well in an effort to balance the offensive attack.
OUTLOOK. This team has all of the makings to be a strong contender in the Burlington County Freedom Division, although defending champion Burlington Township will be tough to unseat.
A lot will depend on how quickly Tony Sacca makes the transition into basketball after an outstanding football season and whether he will receive offensive support from Vogel, Murphy, and Johnny Sacca.
At the very least, the Bears will be a playoff contender in the South Jersey Group 2 tournament, barring injuries.
Delran To Honor 4 Teams That Won Championships
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1988-01-24/news/26283671_1_soccer-team-state-championship-high-schoolBy Gary Sternberg, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: January 24, 1988The Delran community would have been proud if only one of its high school teams had won a championship this past fall; four teams captured titles, and the town is planning a major celebration.
The Delran Board of Education and the Township Council plan a joint Fall Sports Award Night at 7:30 Thursday in the high school auditorium.
The teams being honored that night will be the football team, which won the state championship, and the boys' cross-country team and the girls' and boys' soccer teams, which took division titles.
"I think that's some kind of record, having four teams win championships. Most schools only have one or two teams doing that. We're really going to show our appreciation to these kids for what they have accomplished," said Kathleen "Bunny" Hewko, a school board member involved in planning the evening.
Members of the four winning teams are not the only people to be honored that night, Hewko said. "We're going to honor all the unsung heroes as well," Hewko said, adding that many people in addition to team members had contributed to the school's success.
The cheerleaders, marching band and team managers will be recognized. "At least 160 students will be honored . . . every kid will leave the ceremony with some kind of award," Hewko said.
Several adult groups will recognized, too. The police and fire departments will be cited for their assistance during the games and for providing help during the parade after the football team won the state championship.
The Delran Athletic Association, a community group that runs pre-high school leagues, will also be honored. "These have been the people who have coached these kids up until high school, and all their input over the years has culminated in this," Hewko said.
The school board will pass resolutions honoring the teams, then adjourn to join the mayor and council to make presentations. Mayor Richard Knight and board President Ronald Napoli will speak. State Assemblyman Thomas P. Foy (D., Burlington) is expected to talk, also, Hewko said.
MaryAnn Rivell, a council member helping organize the event, said, "The school board has shown great initiative in honoring their teams. . . .'We're very proud, and the town couldn't be more supportive," she said. ''You can see the community spirit, and that's important."
The ceremony will conclude with the presentation to the football team, Hewko said. Led by coach James Donoghue, the team took the South Jersey Group II state championship, compiling an 11-0 record. Assistant coaches were Louis Stickel, Frank Paris, Peter Mile, Michael Kennedy, James Henion and Paul Cundiff.
The boys' cross-country team, the girls' soccer team, and the boys' soccer team were champions of the Freedom Division.
The cross-country team, under coach Dennis Smith, compiled an 11-2 record. The girls' soccer team had a 17-3 record under coach Carol Young and assistant coach Rudi Klobach. The boys' soccer team compiled a 15-4-2 record under coach John Hughes and assistant coaches Mati Reinfeldt and Richard Bender.
In Hainesport, Children Primed For Model Behavior
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150924075408/http://articles.philly.com/1988-02-28/news/26243060_1_model-behavior-parents-agentsBy Carol Leonnig, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: February 28, 1988Smiling, pouting, devilish and even seductive faces of children blanket the office walls. Some are pudgy Gerber babies, there's an occasional surfer baby with spiked hair, several are freckled boy-next-door types, and a few are preteen girls with bedroom eyes.
Welcome to the finely tuned marketing of child models at Boundary Promotions, a photography studio and networking service that offers expertise in getting a head start toward celebrity status.
The Hainesport operation, co-managed by the husband-and-wife team of Barrie Leiter and Marti Hamilton, has been preparing portfolios and helping parents of aspiring mini-models find the right booking agents in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Leiter, 49, came from the Bronx where he started his own studio more than 20 years ago. He moved to Willingboro in the late 1960s and started a studio specializing in faces and children. There he met and married Hamilton, a native of Cherry Hill, and together they started Boundary Promotions.
Working out of the basement and first floor of their home with a staff of six, the couple seem to be making a big impression on the industry if their clients' resumes are any measure. Among their success stories are:
* Jeremy Paolone, a freshman at Rancocas Valley Regional High School who made his debut as an actor/model on a December Saturday Night Live skit about Hanukah records.
* Maya Hayes, a fifth grader at Millbridge Elementary School in Delran, is auditioning to play the daughter of Robert Guillaume, of Benson fame, in his upcoming series.
* Victoria Schneebele, a 1-year-old from Audubon who is a client of New Talent Management of Bricktown, is in line for a J.C. Penney commercial in New York.
After parents make the first contact with the modeling agency, Boundary charges $125 for the initial photo session and decides whether the child has potential based on his or her photogenic quality and personality.
If both Boundary and the parents want to proceed, the office puts together head sheets - 8-by-10-inch glossies with two or three shots of the child's face - and provides advice and lists of legitimate agents and managers.
These head sheets will serve as the future "calling card" for the child. Parents send them out to agents and wait for responses.
Dorothy Gaillard-McCaden, Maya Hayes' mother, had tried other routes before Boundary, including "quite a few rip-off schools."
"I know I couldn't do this by myself, because I have tried," said Gaillard-McCaden, a Temple University graduate assistant in business education.
Of the 15 to 20 children interviewed in an average week at Boundary, Hamilton turns away about three or four, a rejection process that proves to be difficult. "They all want to hear that we turn down kids, but not their kid," Hamilton said.
The rule of thumb about what looks succeed in the business has changed dramatically over the years.
"The common wisdom used to be blue eyes, blond hair," Hamilton said, but now, all kinds of looks are "fair game."
"Middle America is comfortable with Bill Cosby, and Maya can fit into that picture easily," Gaillard-McCaden said.
Although Hamilton said that almost all kids, by nature of being kids, are marketable, a handful who are too shy, lack a sense of energy or fail to take direction, should not pursue the field.
An obedient child may be easier to work with, but the obnoxious brat sometimes benefits from his or her own brand of energy. A child "swinging from the chandeliers" has few inhibitions and will be able to deal with strangers.
Hamilton said she does not see too many overbearing stage mothers or fathers in her office. Parents seem to fall into two categories: eager and philosophical.
The first group is "desperate" for success. Their focus is on bigger- money television and commercial work, and the children usually are 4 to 9 years of age, and aware enough to want the fame for themselves.
In the second category are those parents who approach the field with a great deal of skepticism but are willing to give it a whirl. Their focus is the print medium, but ironically this group is often hit with a barrage of big-money offers in movies and television.
Once they appear in television and newspapers, do these little heads get too big?
Maya Hayes answered that she tries not to talk about her career with her schoolmates too much. "They might get jealous."
Paolone said he was extremely nervous about being surrounded by famous people on the Saturday Night Live set, but "you get used to it after a while." Although he hopes to make a career of acting, he is realistic about the unsteady nature of this business. If he fails, he said he will use the money he earned for college.
Though Boundary is sending many kids in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York on their way to fame, similar ambitions have not taken hold of Hamilton's own three children, now 18, 20, and 21.
"I had one that was remotely interested, but the other two would have slit their throats first."
Hamilton has high hopes for her 5-month-old granddaughter, but she must wait until the baby can sit up unassisted before scheduling a head-sheet session.
How do you know if your child has what it takes to be a little star?
"If people stop you in restaurants and the supermarkets, if complete strangers are moved enough to say something, that's a good criterion," Hamilton said.
Delran Comeback Gains S.j. Group 2 Title
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222135903/http://articles.philly.com/1988-03-09/sports/26275291_1_basketball-championship-tony-sacca-shotsBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 09, 1988Tony Sacca, the 6-foot-5 Delran High forward, wasn't going to let any obstacles impede his progress during his third and final effort to earn a South Jersey Group 2 basketball championship.
With his team down by 10 points with less than 2 minutes left in the third quarter, Sacca brought his already imposing game up another mind-boggling level and in doing so led a 21-2 surge that carried Delran to a 73-62 win over Lower Cape May in the South Jersey Group 2 title game at Pennsauken High.
Sacca finished with 36 points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots - and if there were a statistic for intimidated inside shots, he would have led in that category. He saved 11 of his points, six of his rebounds and four of his blocked shots for the final quarter, in which Delran outscored the Tigers by 23-9.
The win propelled Delran into tomorrow's state Group 2 semifinal against Carteret at Toms River East. It also marked the first sectional basketball championship in the school's 13-year history. Delran (18-7) was making its third consecutive appearance in the Group 2 title game, and Sacca has been a starter for all three teams.
"I am the only guy on the team to start on all three teams, and that was in the back of my mind, especially when we got down in the third quarter," said Sacca, who shot 15 for 22 from the field and 6 of 8 from the foul line.
Delran trailed by 47-36 with 5:14 left in the third quarter and by 53-43 with 1:46 remaining in the period.
"I felt things slipping a little bit," Sacca acknowledged. "Being the captain and leader, I was trying to keep us in the game. I was really going after it."
That may turn out to be the biggest understatement of the year.
Delran scored the last seven points of the quarter, five by Sacca and two by sub Joe Murphy, who came off the bench to score nine points and add some essential ballhandling.
The Bears then began the fourth quarter on a 14-2 tear, to take a 64-55 lead with 4 minutes remaining. Lower Cape May would never get within six points the rest of the way.
Another catalyst in the final quarter, surge was 6-0 senior guard John Ellison.
Ellison, who will attend Michigan on a football scholarship, scored eight of his 14 points in the final period, including two layups after receiving long passes from Sacca. The plays were reminiscent of the passing combo of Sacca to Ellison that led the Bears to the South Jersey Group 2 football title in the fall.
While Sacca was an expected contributor, Ellison was a mild surprise. He didn't even go out for the team until late January, opting to take care of his football visits first.
"This was obviously John's best game for us," Delran coach Jim Petrino said. "He didn't come out for the team until late because he wanted to make his decision concerning football first. He knew there would be a uniform for him."
Lower Cape May claimed a 39-34 halftime lead, mainly on the outside shooting of Brian Lucas and David Dills. Lucas scored seven and Dills had 10 first-half points, but the two scored just one field goal each the rest of the game. The Tigers, who were 17 for 27 from the field in the first half, finished the game, 26 for 66, including a 3 for 22 fourth-quarter nightmare.
Lower Cape May (19-7) was led by 6-5 Geoff Oprandy's 15 points. Oprandy, who scored four points in the first half before picking up his third foul, was limited to a single foul shot in the final period after scoring 10 points, mainly from inside, in the third quarter. As well as Delran's team defense played, especially in the fourth quarter, the evening and season, for that matter, belonged to Sacca.
"Sacca did it all for them," said an unbelieving Lower Cape May coach John McGaffney. "It wasn't so much his 36 points as it was his defense. He blocked four or five shots in a row, and they gained momentum. He is a great player and really carried his team to the title."
Delran Offers Recreation For Adults In School Gym
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150914034750/http://articles.philly.com/1988-03-30/news/26279229_1_basketball-program-indoor-recreational-activities-volleyball-gamesBy Gary H. Sternberg, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 30, 1988At 8 a.m. March 13, about 15 men over 30 gathered at Delran Township's Chester Avenue Middle School to play basketball.
Although that may not sound like the most exciting thing to ever happen in Delran, some local officials think of it as a giant leap for mankind - the first step toward providing indoor recreational activities for adults.
That pickup game could be the first of many, said Burt Bartok, a member of the township's Recreation Advisory Board.
"I think for the first week we had a really good turnout. I was very pleased. It was a nice, friendly game," said Bartok, who put the game together through a newspaper ad.
"I got quite a few calls, and I didn't even know most of the guys who showed up," Bartok said.
The men played informal basketball until 10 a.m. that Sunday. Bartok said he planned to continue scheduling the games through April.
He said he didn't plan to organize any programs over the summer, but in the fall, he planned to resume indoor basketball. He said he also would like to organize co-ed volleyball games in the fall.
Several months ago, Bartok attended a Delran Township school board meeting and complained that although the schools and Delran Athletic Association provided excellent athletic programs for young people, little was available to adults.
Subsequently, Bartok was appointed to the township's Recreation Advisory Board.
Bartok said he started the first game at 8 a.m. because it still gave the players most of the day to spend with their families. Future activities will be held when the participants want them scheduled, assuming the facilities are available, he said.
On that first Sunday, each player paid $2 to cover the $30 cost of having a janitor available. School administration officials were cooperative in providing the facilities, Bartok said.
School board member Mark Kaye supported Bartok's efforts and was one of the 15 who turned out that first Sunday.
"The adult population should have an opportunity to use the facility too," Kaye said.
He said he was pleased by the initial turnout and thought Bartok's basketball program would be a success.
Bartok said he hoped more adults would want to participate in recreation activities sponsored by the community. The future of the program will be dictated by what those people want, he said.
"I want to get to know the people, to find out what they want to do, and that's what we'll try to do," Bartok said.
His Career And Life Have Been In His Hands
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151017075046/http://articles.philly.com/1988-05-08/news/26262034_1_hungarian-sculptor-quarters-and-studios-dot-buildingBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 08, 1988Isaac Witkin has created some impressive works of art in his 30-year career, but he doesn't recommend sculpting as a way to get rich.
On May 19, Witkin, a former assistant to sculptor Henry Moore, will have a one-man show at a New York City gallery, the first since his bronze abstract sculpture titled Earth, Water and Sky was installed Dec. 21 outside the Annex Office Building of the state Department of Transportation headquarters in Ewing Township.
"I've made a living," said Witkin, who lives on Scrapetown Road in Pemberton, "but let's put it this way - I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it. I certainly wouldn't do it for the money. Along with ballet, it's probably the hardest known way to make a living. It constitutes the most work for the least reward."
The DOT work, a 3-ton, 23-foot-tall piece commissioned in the fall of 1986, took Witkin about a year to create. The sculpture was cast in metal with a dark patina that complements the building trim. It was contracted by the state Council on the Arts and the state Division of Building and Construction for $100,000 under the Public Building Arts Inclusion Program.
His New York show at the Hirschl and Adler Modern Gallery will include his work of the last several years, all abstract bronzes.
Witkin, 52, began his career while still in his teens as an apprentice to a Hungarian sculptor and then studied at St. Martin's School of Art in London. He was Moore's assistant from 1960 to 1963.
He came to the United States in 1965 and taught sculpture at Vermont's Bennington College for 13 years and simultaneously taught at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. His first one-man show was in 1965 in New York, and he has had about 13 in that city, he said.
In 1978 he moved to New York and lived there several years, then was invited to work at the Johnson Atelier, formerly in Princeton but now in Trenton.
"It became a marvelous place for me to resource my work." He and two other sculptors bought an old Victorian chocolate factory in nearby Hopewell and converted it to living quarters and studios. He lived in Hopewell five years until moving to Pemberton more than a year ago. It was at the Johnson Atelier that he cast the DOT work, the biggest bronze he has ever done.
Witkin was not on the original list of five people commissioned to submit studies for the DOT building. None managed to satisfy the jury, so they and two new candidates, including Witkin, were asked to submit studies.
*Dana Shearon, a first-grade student at Millbridge Elementary School in Delran, is one of five finalists for poster child for the Northeast Region of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
Dana, 7, daughter of Patrick and Teresa Shearon of Navy Drive in Delran, was diagnosed with the disease in October 1985.
Her mother is a member of a support group for the foundation that sent out questionnaires and applications.
"Dana is very much in touch with her diabetes and wanted to do something, so we submitted her biography and photos, and they called and said she is one of the five finalists," Teresa Shearon said. The winner will be announced in June.
Dana, who is insulin-dependent, performs her own blood-monitoring tests, but her mother still gives her injections. She is in excellent health except for the disease.
"Within the last year, since she found out there are specialists that treat just diabetics, her ambition is to be a doctor for diabetics," her mother said.
Poster children will be chosen in five regions. The Northeast region stretches from Washington, D.C., to Maine.
Dana, a straight "A" student who loves reading, riding her bike and swimming in the family's backyard pool, is also a member of Brownie Troop 15. In school, she has read the most books in her class in a reading program. She pores through a variety of books but particularly loves Dr. Seuss. She has just begun to keep a diary, and she corresponds with cousins in North Carolina. (Teresa Shearon is from there.)
Dana, her parents and her sister, Kimberly, 3, moved to Delran in September when her father changed jobs. He is a lumber salesman working out of Englishtown. The family had lived for 3 1/2 years in Boyertown, Pa.
Patrick Shearon's family is from the Mayfair section of Philadelphia, and some of them have moved to New Jersey, too. His parents, Lee and Mary Shearon, live on Patricia Avenue in Delran, and his aunt and uncle, Wane and Gina Shearon, live in Burlington.
After spending eight years in night school, lifelong Cinnaminson resident Mark P. Streckenbein figured that he would never want to see a school again, but he was wrong.
Five years after getting his degree (B.S. in industrial engineering), the 33-year-old Streckenbein is director of physical plant operations at Atlantic Community College in Mays Landing, and last week he received the five-year Professional Attainment Award from Drexel University Evening College Alumni Association in an awards dinner-dance in Philadelphia.
He moved to Mays Landing only last year. For the first two of the three years he has been at Atlantic Community, he commuted from his parents' former home on Salem Drive. His parents, William and Ruth, now live in Westfield Leas.
Streckenbein, 34, graduated in 1983 from Drexel University. He had worked for 15 years at National Casein in Riverton while attending classes. He started working there in the 11th grade in high school and was plant engineer when he left.
In his current position, he is responsible for all maintenance, grounds, housekeeping and security, and is in charge of 40 employees.
Eight years of evening school to get a degree is not for the weak of resolve, he said.
"I can honestly say that evening college is not for anyone who is not interested in serious education," he said. Even so, "as much work as it is and as difficult as it is - and it is difficult, because you're working full time - I can look back and say it most certainly paid off."
During the summer, Streckenbein goes to the shore often. He has a summer home in Cape May and spends most weekends there. He said he can usually be found in his aunt's store. He's the one dipping ice cream cones.
On Thursday, George A. Landwehr marks the 100th year of a very full life.
He has spent the last eight of those years at the Masonic Home in Burlington Township, where he and his wife, Florence, 88, are residents.
Ten days ago, Landwehr reminisced about his hundred years. He remembered his years as a traveling salesman (retail clothing) and his years operating a theater in Florida after he "retired" at age 65.
Asked where he was born, he replied: "The greatest city in the world. Go on. Say it - New York City."
Landwehr and Florida's hot summer temperatures didn't mix, and he eventually returned to New Jersey. (His father had moved the Landwehr brood - all 13 - to New Jersey while Landwehr was a teen.)
"He just came home one day and said we're moving," Landwehr recalled. ''We lived in Hell's Kitchen," he said, "the 'worst' district in New York City. Let me tell you, Hell's Kitchen wasn't a bad place. If you came there looking for trouble, you got it. If you came there and behaved yourself, you didn't have any trouble."
In his youth, he and his friends "used to go down to the slaughterhouse and get in the sheep pens and ride the sheep" like horses until the owners chased the boys away.
Landwehr says his sight and hearing are bad and that he no longer stands the "giant 5-2" he once did - he is now around 5 feet tall, but he is still active and alert. For exercise, he said, "I walk when I can and the weather's OK." "I'm an avid walker."
Landwehr, the seventh child in the family, was 28 years old "they sent me a postcard to report" for duty in World War I.
"We were in the cavalry," he said, "and we were on horses. But when they went to trench warfare, they took the horses away from us and we went into the infantry."
He had never been on a horse, he said, but "the Sixth Cavalry came up and taught us in Camp Dix. We got tired riding the horses, and when we curried them, they wouldn't let us take a bath. They made us go and drill with rifles."
A tenor, he sang in three different church choirs and said he was the lead singer of the Choraleers in Bricktown.
He was married to his first wife, who died, for 33 years, and has been married for 33 years to his present spouse. His son died of an aneurism at age 46, but Landwehr has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren in Maine.
"I had a wonderful life. None better," he said. "I wish everybody else could have it."
Aarp Chapter's Once And Future President
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919111600/http://articles.philly.com/1988-06-05/news/26264732_1_aarp-retired-persons-treasurerBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 05, 1988As local groups go, the Burlington Area Chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is so new that the ink is barely dry on its charter, but it represents one busy bunch of seniors, thanks in great part to its outgoing president, Frank Patrick Burke, and its incoming president, Frank Patrick Burke.
Burke will be installed June 14 by state AARP officials as president of Burlington Area Chapter 3998, a job he has held for two years, or since he founded the local unit.
Actually, two years is the limit, but the first year wasn't official because the chapter didn't receive its charter from the national headquarters until June 20, 1987.
Burke will be installed along with Leanore Lontz, vice president; Alma M. Burr, secretary; Violet Tarnoff, treasurer, and Helen Bookbinder, assistant treasurer at the Burlington Adult Center, 522 Wood St., Burlington City.
To say the chapter is successful is to understate the case. Not only are its membership rolls filled to the 200-person limit (dictated by fire regulations on occupancy at the center), but there are 60 people on the waiting list.
"We draw from Florence to Palmyra, all along the river," Burke said. "We have a pretty broad membership."
Community service is the chapter's specialty. "Mostly it's volunteers helping people," Burke said. "We do charity work in the community, but we don't publicize that. The ladies made blankets for people in homes for the aged. We give food to the needy."
There is a social aspect, too. "We go on trips. We went (on) the Spirit of Philadelphia for a two-hour cruise," Burke said. "We went on a bus to Atlantic City; we're going to Radio City Music Hall in December."
Burke, 65, who has lived on Wood Street in Burlington City for 14 years, is a retired machinist who left Gulf Oil in Philadelphia in 1981 after 35 years. A World War II veteran, he loaded bombs on B-29s on Saipan and Iwo Jima.
A widower, Burke is a graduate of South Philadelphia High School. He said all four of his children were college graduates.
He swims two or three times a week at a health club. "I play golf. I do a lot of bicycle riding. I hike a lot," he said.
*Tomorrow, Bruce Conway, a seven-year resident of Salem County, assumes the duties of president and chief professional officer of the United Way of Burlington County, and one of his priorities is putting down roots.
Is it important, then, for him to live in Burlington County?
"Absolutely," Conway said, and said he planned to move as soon as he sold his current home in Carneys Point. "I think that to do a good job, you have to be a part of the community."
Conway, 36, comes here from a position as director of the United Way of Salem County.
A graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in psychology, he went to work for Millville United Way in Cumberland County in 1974. During his more than three years there, he also served as executive director of the Millville Chamber of Commerce. In 1980 he went to Salem County.
He does not see his job as begging.
"Not at all," he said, "because most people by their nature are very generous. Most people do give to charity. I happen to believe the United Way is one of the finest charities around."
Conway said that 75 percent of United Way's funds came from industry through employees and corporate gifts. He planned no changes in the Burlington County organization.
"First of all, United Way (of Burlington County) is in great shape. They've had two great campaigns in a row, with double-digit increases. They also have a solid set of volunteers."
Conway, his wife, Elizabeth, and son Christopher, 4, like the outdoors, and go camping from Maine to Virginia. Even at his young age, Christopher is no stranger to the woods.
"He likes it very much," Conway said. "The first time he went camping, he was 6 weeks old. We take him everywhere."
Sisters-in-law Debbie Cormier and Mary Lou Kehoe were expecting their first offspring around the same time, but they managed to stretch coincidence pretty heavily when the blessed events actually occurred.
They had the same obstetrician and planned to deliver in the same hospital, but then the higher mathematics of improbability took over.
Cormier and Kehoe both arrived at West Jersey Hospital in Voorhees on May 15.
"We were due three weeks apart," said Kehoe, 27, "but she was 10 days late and I was 10 days early."
Kehoe and her husband, Greg, were moving that day from the Hollows Condominium in Marlton into a new home on Pine Valley Road in Delran when her labor pains began. "It was a hectic weekend," she said.
Unbeknownst to each other, both Kehoe and Cormier arrived at the hospital around 2 a.m. that Sunday.
By 10 a.m., Mary Lou Kehoe had delivered 7-pound, 10 1/2-ounce Lauren Marie.
Debbie Cormier, 26, who is Greg's sister and married to Michael Cormier, presented 8-pound, 7-ounce Stephanie Suzanne to the world around 6 p.m. The Cormiers live on Delancey Place in Mount Laurel.
It wasn't until the women's husbands bumped into one another in the hospital elevator that they discovered the duality of what was happening.
Both Debbie Cormier and Mary Lou Kehoe were married in 1985. Both are secretaries at Campbell Soup Co. Each of them is taking a couple of weeks off before going back to work.
Dr. Charles A. Kastenberg, an osteopath with a family practice in Mount Holly, enjoys reading, fishing, tennis, travel, gardening.
But none of them to excess, as you might expect of a person whose professional calling includes helping people with addictions.
Kastenberg, 52, who was elected secretary of the New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons at Atlantic City in April, is medical director of Parkside Lodge Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Moorestown and director of the department of alcoholism at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County.
"I don't have time" to do anything to excess, he said with a laugh. Kastenberg lives with his wife, Shirley, on Spring Mill Lane in Cherry Hill.
Medicine is actually his second career.
"I spent 13 years as a pharmacist" after graduating from Rutgers, he said. "I had my own drugstore for five years in Morris Plains - Charles Pharmacy. That helped put me through medical school - the sale of the drugstore."
The family moved to Cherry Hill when he entered the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
He began medical school at age 34. Did it bother him being "an old man" among the others?
"It was probably the most enjoyable four years of my life. After having a career, going back to school is about 75 percent more enjoyable. Everybody else was in a hurry to get out. I just sat back and enjoyed it."
Kastenberg, who is board-certified in alcohol and drug dependencies by the American Medical Society on Alcohol and Other Drug Dependencies, believes dependencies have always been a problem but that they have just become more recognized.
"In the past, it was considered more of a social ill; now it's considered a medical problem. That infers that there is treatment" available. Formerly, overcoming addiction "was considered a matter of willpower or weakness" and the treatment was "not to be weak-willed or sinful."
His big interest, Kastenberg said, is the family.
"I'm a big believer (in the family) in that the health of the population is tied in with a strong family, and I try to practice what I preach. Being in family practice, I can put that to good use."
His own family includes David, 26, a second-year resident at Temple University Hospital; Judith, 25, a systems analyst, married to Barry Klein, an attorney; and Stephen, 21, who is about to graduate from Princeton University with an economics degree and is headed for Harvard Law School.
Seasoned By World Play, Yank Nears Soccer Stardom
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151225070706/http://articles.philly.com/1988-06-06/sports/26268787_1_soccer-stardom-olympics-brent-gouletBy Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 06, 1988Usually, an American soccer player does not reach the sunshine of his sport until it rains. That is, until it rains fruits, vegetables, batteries and burning cushions on a field in some faraway place where the zeal for soccer surpasses that for football in Texas.
Peter Vermes, 21, knew he had come a long way from his high school days in Delran, N.J., when he and his teammates on the U.S. national team dodged enough debris to make a landfill during an Olympic qualifying-round game in El Salvador.
"That's one of the reasons they take us to those places, to see if we can handle that stuff," Vermes said. "You just stand there and hope you don't get hit by a bottle or something, but you can't let it get to you. It's the fans' way of trying to get to you. Or, if their team is losing, to get to them. It's crazy."
It's crazy and it's treacherous, much like the route an American has to travel to reach the international level of a game that is still in the toddler's stage in this country. But Vermes, an all-American from Rutgers and a Parade all-American while at Delran High, has just about completed the first step forward.
It's not yet official, but unless Vermes stubs his toe along the way, this son of a former Hungarian professional will be part of the first U.S. national soccer team in 16 years to qualify on the playing field for the Olympics.
The United States, eliminated in the opening round of the 1984 Games, gained entry that year because it was the host country. In 1980, the United States was reinstated after the international governing body of soccer upheld a protest against Mexico, which had eliminated the United States during first- round play. However, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games ended that team's advance.
Vermes, whose clever give-and-go pass led to goal by Brent Goulet in a 4-1 victory over El Salvador on May 25 in the final Olympic qualifying match in Indianapolis, has become a fixture along the forward wall of a U.S. team that has qualified for the Games, to be held in September in Seoul, South Korea.
This month, his plans include trips to Seoul for the President's Cup tournament, and to Lyons, France, for further Olympic tuneups, to which no borderline players have been invited.
U.S. coach Lothar Osiander, who is also a maitre d' at a San Francisco restaurant, strongly suggested that he would not leave for the Olympics without Vermes.
"I'm counting on him to be there in Korea," Osiander said. "I like his speed, his drive to the goal, his ability to crack a ball . . . all the things you need in a forward. He had some bad habits he developed in college, like most college players - like turning into a defender instead of getting the ball off. But he's very coachable, and he learns fast. He does his homework."
Vermes, who recently graduated from Rutgers, said participation in the Olympics was "something I've always dreamed of, because it would mean you're among your country's best."
He also has other dreams, such as playing for a professional club in Europe and in the World Cup in 1990, to be played in Italy, and again in 1994, when the world's most widely viewed sports event probably will be held on American soil for the first time. As the host country, the United States would be an automatic qualifier in 1994.
If all of those dreams come true, Vermes would be making a decent living, something that premier American athletes in other sports take for granted.
But American soccer players out to make a comfortable living twist and turn while they dream, and for good reason. Unlike many of this nation's track and field stars, who get hefty appearance fees, and its basketball players, who vault from college and immediately collect fat paychecks from the National Basketball Association, the elite soccer players must kick open the doors of other countries to get the chance to pay their bills.
The only professional soccer outlets for Americans are the American Soccer League, which is in its first year, and the Major Indoor Soccer League, which, according to the game's aficionados, blunts the growth of a player because it offers a bastardized way to play the game.
"You really can't make good money starting out, and, if you ever do, it takes a long time to get there," said Vermes, who plays for the American Soccer League's New Jersey Eagles. "Your real love is outdoor soccer, but right now, the only place you can play big-time outdoor soccer is to leave the country, and it creates hard feelings among American players, because they wish they could do it here.
"I mean, you go to another country by yourself. You don't speak the language. You're leaving all your friends and family. You're trying to take a position from another guy who probably doesn't want to be your friend and who doesn't want you there. It's definitely tough.
"But you've got to do what you've got to do, because in our country, the opportunities just aren't there yet."
Vermes had 10 game-winners among his 21 goals at Rutgers last season, and he finished fourth in the Missouri Athletic Club balloting for college player of the year, soccer's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
He has attracted interest from clubs in Switzerland, West Germany, France and Spain, and he said he probably would try to squeeze in a tryout with a club in Switzerland before the Olympics.
"It will take time for Peter to make it with a club in Europe, which is the way it is for most Americans," Osiander said. "Nothing happens overnight for them. But he's tenacious enough that, say, in three years he could be playing regularly for a European club. A problem for our players who want to play in Europe is indoor soccer. It hurts their game, but on the other hand, it pays them some money."
Vermes has expressed his tenacity in numerous ways. He earned his Rutgers degree even though he missed close to a month of classes the last semester while scrambling from Guatemala to El Salvador to Florida to California for training sessions and matches. He overcame the death of his mother to have a brilliant collegiate career.
Then there was last summer, when he drove 13 hours from Austria to Frankfurt, West Germany, to talk to an interested coach from a German club.
"I went with a friend and we got lost on the Autobahn and had no idea where the place was where I was supposed to meet this guy," Vermes recalled. ''I finally pulled off the road and called him to find out where this cafe was where we were supposed to meet. It turned out the cafe was right where I was making the phone call from.
"The thing is, we spent all our money on gas and didn't have enough to get a hotel room. So we ended up sleeping two nights at Frankfurt airport. What an experience."
Regardless, Vermes will take it one dream at a time. And playing in the Olympics may provide the launching pad he needs to realize his other dreams.
"A lot of scouts from other countries will be at the Olympics, so a lot of good things can come out of it," Vermes said. "Plus, if you're on your country's national team, you've already gained a certain amount of respect. It tells them you're one of your country's best. And that in itself is a great feeling.
"Years ago, when I looked ahead to this year's Olympics, I figured the timing would be right, with me graduating from college just in time. So far, things have worked out."
To Tony Sacca, his senior year at Delran High always will...
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151225212426/http://articles.philly.com/1988-06-26/sports/26266924_1_full-football-scholarship-sports-memories-football-programBy Don McKee, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 26, 1988To Tony Sacca, his senior year at Delran High always will remain a campaign with his friends.
"My biggest memories of high school definitely will be the sports," he said. "You can never forget playing with all your friends, guys you played with since age 7 in the athletic association.
"Having such great seasons was just icing on the cake."
Sacca was an integral part of three Delran teams that won South Jersey championships this year.
Last fall, he completed 96 of 176 passes for 1,666 yards and 24 touchdowns, and led the Bears to their first South Jersey Group 2 football title.
The yardage total is a Burlington County record. The touchdown total is a South Jersey record. (Sterling's Brian Broomell had thrown 23 touchdown passes in 1977.)
He also rushed for seven touchdowns, played outstanding defensive back (he had been an Inquirer all-South Jersey safety as a junior), and led Delran to an 11-0 record.
Sacca was named The Inquirer's Offensive Player of the Year for 1987.
In February, he accepted a full football scholarship to Penn State.
This winter, he led Delran to its first South Jersey Group 2 boys' basketball championship, averaging 31 points and 20 rebounds in six playoff games, as the Bears advanced to the state final before losing.
For the season, Sacca averaged 26.9 points a game, the fifth-highest average in South Jersey. He added 15 rebounds a game, and was named first-team all-South Jersey.
This spring he started for the third straight year on a team that won its second straight South Jersey Group 2 baseball title.
Sacca batted .308 for the season, with 16 RBIs in 27 games. He drew 25 walks and stole nine bases (no mean feat on a 6-feet-6, 210-pound frame).
As a pitcher he was 6-1 with a 2.67 ERA.
The Bears finished the season ranked No. 1 by The Inquirer in South Jersey.
For his varied accomplishments - not the least of which is a 3.3 grade- point average - Tony Sacca has been named The Inquirer male athlete of the year for 1987-88.
"I liked all the sports," said Sacca, who lives in Delran Township with his parents, Peg and John.
"I had no favorite up until 11th grade, when I realized football would be my thing in college."
Although he said that his sports memories of the school year would be especially strong when it comes to football, he conceded that "basically, I always liked the one I was playing at the time."
Delran has been a baseball power for 10 years and has enjoyed some success in basketball, too.
But the football team had never had a contending season (the program began in 1975) until Tony Sacca made the team.
"Our football program, a few years ago, really wasn't anything," Sacca said. "But in the four years our class went through the school, we had a lot of success, and capped it off by winning the championship.
"That's something to remember, because it had never been done at our school before."
Delran has had four straight winning seasons, but had never had a winner before the current streak.
Football coach Jim Donoghue, who built Delran from an 0-9 record eight years ago to its 11-0 record last fall, said Sacca has all the tools to be great.
"Tony's greatest assets are a combination of his composure and his competitiveness," Donoghue said. "I haven't seen him flustered too many times in the three years he's played varsity - not even in the face of adversity or throwing interceptions."
As an example, Donoghue cited last year's Delran game at Florence, a school whose home field is nicknamed "The Pit."
It is not a fond nickname for visitors, and is not a place many teams like to play. Vociferous fans circle the field and ardently back their team.
So strong is Florence's home-field advantage that no Burlington County team had won in Florence since 1984.
When Delran walked off the field at halftime last Oct. 17, the Bears were trailing, 6-0. Sacca had thrown three interceptions and attracted the wrath of the fans.
"I was kind of worried," Donoghue said, recalling the incident after the season. "I asked Tony if it bothered him and he smiled and said, 'It doesn't bother me at all.'
"I knew right then that we'd win in the second half."
Sacca threw two touchdown passes in the second half and Delran won, 21-6.
"He's very competitive," Donoghue said. "He's into it 100 percent of the time. He's constantly capable of making the big play, either on offense or defense.
"He loves to play football and it isn't limited to one side of the ball. He comes up and puts a knock on people. He plays like a linebacker back there."
Even in one of Delran's lowest moments, after having been upset in the state baseball final by lightly regarded Pequannock, Sacca said his greatest thrill was playing beside all his classmates.
"There are about eight of us on this team who began playing baseball together in the Delran Athletic Association when we were 7 years old," he said. "Almost literally, the whole team has been together all of our lives.
"And I owe a lot of my success to them. If you don't have good players around you, it's hard to get noticed."
Sacca will have only a short summer vacation. He is due in University Park on Aug. 7 to begin preseason camp with the Nittany Lions.
"I have not set any goals," he said. "I don't know what to expect. I just want to give it my all to get ready to play."
Watching Tony Sacca play in their own back yard is a privilege the people of Delran no longer will be able to enjoy.
Owner Got His Diploma; The Dog Didn't
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151225194300/http://articles.philly.com/1988-06-26/news/26267095_1_obedience-class-graduation-party-spirit-awardBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 26, 1988His purpose in driving to Palmyra High School last year, Bob L. Gonzales Sr. of Riverside said, was to enroll his dog in an obedience class.
Both he and the dog got sidetracked.
The canine is still unschooled in obedience, but Gonzales, 64, is now the proud possessor of a high school diploma.
When Gonzales arrived at the school, he found a brochure on adult education and decided, "I might as well go back and finish.
"While my wife was alive, she said she wanted me to finish and so did the boys," Gonzales said, referring to his four sons. His wife, Julia, died in 1982.
Gonzales, who has lived on Polk Street for 32 years, said he had completed the 10th grade at Northeast High School and then studied for a year at a night school in downtown Philadelphia. That was "around 1938 or 1939," he said.
"When I dropped out, very few finished high school," Gonzales said. "I went to work because there wasn't any money around. People had to go to work."
Eventually, he was drafted and served with the Engineers in the Army.
After the war, his brother-in-law helped him get a job at the Philadelphia Gear Works in King of Prussia, and he worked there for 38 years, retiring two years ago as a gear cutter.
On June 3, his sons, Bob Jr., Gary, Dominic and Greg, and five grandchildren threw him a graduation party, and 32 people showed up. "They were so proud," Gonzales said.
"I said I didn't want any gifts and presents, and I gave them all back, because between this graduation and my retirement, I'll have my family broke," he said.
The school has had graduates as old as 78 and has many students in their 50s, but Gonzales didn't know that going in. He worried that he was a half- century out of sync, educationally.
"I didn't know whether there would be any mature people there," he said. ''I was surprised. Even the young people called me Bob. Age difference didn't seem to matter."
Gonzales paid the obedience-school registration fee for his dog Damien, a black Great Dane, after he drove to Palmyra, but Damien still hasn't gotten there because obedience school conflicted with Gonzales' human classes. ''Maybe I'll take him in the fall," he said.
*The Young Republicans of Burlington County this month named as the first recipient of their spirit award Edwin D. Kohlbrenner Jr. of Westampton, whom the five members of the all-Republican county Board of Freeholders no doubt wish would get out of their hair.
Kohlbrenner, 31, an enthusiastic political animal who initiates debates, brings matters to the attention of the club and was described by an officer as a "die-hard Republican." He is president of Kohlbrenner Recycling Enterprises in Mount Holly, which has brought suit against the county, alleging that it invaded the private sector when it established a county recycling center in Delran in the spring.
Despite the county's competition, Kohlbrenner said the company, in which he represents the third generation, was "very, very busy."
Recycling "is here to stay," he said, which is why he works six or seven days a week. "We can't keep disposing of these materials in the ground or the ocean or the air," he said. "And the only way it can work is with public- private cooperation."
Legislation requiring deposits on bottles or cans will not necessarily hurt the recycling business, he said. "If they put in deposit legislation, we would try to work with the manufacturer" of bottles, he said.
Kohlbrenner also corrected a common misapprehension about recycled cans. ''They don't take the can and wash it and resuse it," he said. "They take it to a firm like ours; we crush it, and we take it to Alcoa in Tennessee. They do that . . . now, even with glass. It's still crushed up, most of it, and sent back to a glass house, where they make a new bottle out of it. It's a lot cheaper than trying to completely clean the bottle out again."
Kohlbrenner, who has been a member of the Young Republicans since about 1984, said the group sponsored voter registration drives and ran a booth at the county fair each year.
Kohlbrenner and his wife, Kathleen, and daughter, Kate, 2, live on Kanabe Drive and are expecting another child. For recreation, it's the shore for the family and golf for him.
"I shoot in the low 90s," Kohlbrenner said. "I don't get out that much. Maybe once a week. When I was younger, in high school, I played constantly."
When he goes to the Young Republicans meetings every month, he often has newspaper clippings in tow or something controversial to toss into the conversational stew.
"I keep the Young Republicans informed of what the old Republicans are doing," Kohlbrenner joked.
On a slow day, Barbara Caruso of Delran sees up to 50 children in her capacity as school nurse at Memorial Middle School in Medford Township, which has about 900 students.
She treats cuts, bruises and sprains and sometimes has to deal with broken bones.
But for the seven years that Caruso has worked in the school system, applying bandages and antiseptics has been a fraction of what she does - a fact recognized by the Medford Education Association, which named her humanitarian of the year last month.
She has been student council adviser for two years and serves on the faculty advisory council for the National Junior Honor Society. In addition, Caruso is a member of SCOP - a community-service project to prevent drug and alcohol abuse.
Under programs with which Caruso has been involved at the school, the students have:
* Adopted a grandmother at Buttonwood Hall to whom they wrote weekly letters and whom they visited on holidays and her birthday.
* Financially supported and wrote to an Appalachian child.
* Sent letters and cards at Christmas to servicemen overseas.
* Staged a fund-raising dance to benefit muscular-dystrophy research.
* Visited the pre-kindergarten handicapped children at the school every week.
In addition, she arranged to get a Big Sister for one of her students and to get clothing for needy students.
Caruso, who lives with her husband, Michael, and 8-year-old son, Michael 3d, on Purdue Drive in Delran, never doubted her career choice.
"I always wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl," she said.
After getting her nursing degree from Temple University and her bachelor's degree from Glassboro State, she worked as an operating-room nurse at local hospitals. Then she started at Medford.
"I got into school nursing because I thought it was time for a change in my life," she said. "I had started my family, and I love to work with children."
At home, Caruso likes to read, work in her garden and knit counted cross- stitch ornaments for the family. She also likes to walk. "I have become an avid walker," Caruso said. "I try to walk at least a mile in the morning and at night, if not more. It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up." She has been walking since mid-May and intends to keep it up "forever."
Most of the members of Community Accountants of Philadelphia are, naturally, accountants. The volunteers in the nonprofit agency provide pro bono financial-management assistance to emerging small businesses and grass- roots nonprofit organizations in the Delaware Valley.
But the group also needs people with administrative, management and marketing skills, and that's why it invited Patricia A. Peacock of Palmyra to join the board of directors this month.
"Ninety percent of the members are CPAs," Peacock said, "and a smattering of us are marketing and management experts and attorneys. The role of the board is to continually promote the program and to encourage practicing professionals to get involved in and go back to their communities."
The free services are offered to such organizations as Family Counseling Services of Camden County, hospitals, nonprofit groups and clubs.
"It may be assistance with tax filing or with developing a balance sheet so they can can pursue a loan at the bank," Peacock said.
The agency is financed by the United Way, in addition to other foundations, corporations and individuals. "Most of the Big Eight (accounting) firms make their staff available," Peacock said.
A native of Piscataway who received her first two degrees in Colorado, Peacock has been back in New Jersey for about 10 years. She has been director of the Rutgers-Camden Regional Small Business Development Center for about two years and worked for the state the previous seven years in the Department of Education.
"I'm one of these people who took 13 years to get a bachelor's degree," she said, but once she got it, she kept right on going and now has a doctorate from Rutgers in administration, supervision and policies.
She and her daughters - Carolyn, a senior aeronautical engineering student at Purdue University, and Kristin, who just graduated from Palmyra High and is headed for Rutgers University to study biological sciences - have lived for 10 years on Harbour Drive, where Peacock is on the board of trustees for Palmyra Harbour Condominiums.
She is on a lot of other boards - "that's what limits my play time," she said - including those of the Latin-American Development Association in Camden and Family Counseling of Camden County. In addition, Peacock is active with several chambers of commerce, engages in public speaking and tries to help new businesses find money.
She relaxes, too. In her spare time, she reads and sings (soprano) in the Christ Episcopal Church choir in Riverton.
Trade Member's Visit To China Was All Business
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160409093858/http://articles.philly.com/1988-07-17/news/26234729_1_china-pins-beijing-and-other-citiesBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 17, 1988When Nancy C. Myers of Cinnaminson traveled to China, she packed a lot more than her luggage and a toothbrush. She hauled along several satchels of good will.
Not only did she take more than 1,000 "New Jersey and You" pins from the state Department of Tourism, but she also stuffed her duffel bags with "a lot of small toys from Disney World and a lot of candy."
The pins "were the greatest hit," said Myers, who made the journey as one of 55 members of a delegation chosen by the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Associations. That delegation was part of an overall entourage of about 800 people who took part in a U.S.-China session on business and trade.
The pins were a great icebreaker, she said. "They gave me an opportunity to introduce myself. They were just one-inch pins, but they were prize possessions."
The candy included Tootsie Rolls, "jawbreakers," Life Savers and salt- water taffy. "Nobody knew what to do with the jawbreakers," she said. ''The children in school were spinning the jawbreakers on their desks. But they loved the New Jersey pins. I always carried a map so I could show them where New Jersey was.
"One of the best things you can do in China is . . . take pictures of the children and give (the photographs) to them. At the Great Wall, I ended up having all these children handed to me and then we would take their picture with an American woman.
"The food was magnificent. We ate our way across China. We had octopus and pigeon and a lot of things we didn't recognize."
Myers, 48, said China is "a sleeping giant of a country."
"A lot of people there are dying to have American products, and there are a lot of products in China that Americans don't know about."
About a month ago, Myers resigned after serving one year as vice president of marketing for a tobacco-firm subsidiary. Before that, she worked 10 years for Datapro Research Corp in Delran.
She brought back a "wish list" for the Chinese, and she foresaw joint export-import ventures for U.S. firms and perhaps a new job for herself. In China, she said, managers told her of their needs: "I want new machines." ''I need a designer." "I need someone to market a product."
Her group visited Beijing and other cities on a 19-day trip ending July 4. She said Hangzhou, a sister city to New Jersey, will be sending a trade delegation to the state in September.
"I think China is very much open to American investment and technology," she said. "Right now they see export business as their primary need, but I think they really need American expertise and American management and our quality control.
"Their major impediment is the quality. They have incredibly inventive minds, but they don't have good management in productivity situations," she said. "Once they pull that in, I don't see anything that is going to stop them from being a major force in the world in a very short time."
*
Today is her birthday, but it wouldn't be surprising if Pat Cerulli, the orchestra director at Cherokee High School in Marlton, is working. It's the nature of her job.
Cerulli, 46, received two grants in June to further music education. The American String Teachers Association financed her proposal to create a brochure promoting string education that will be distributed throughout the state's public schools.
Although some school districts have a regular string program built into the curriculum, she said, others have none. She said a public-relations program would help correct the deficiency.
"This program will hopefully provide an opportunity for students to play a stringed instrument and participate in ensembles and orchestras," she said. ''The music program is not complete unless it provides for this family of instruments."
Band literature is written for three families of instruments - percussion, woodwind and brass, Cerulli said. This has been traditional through the ages of music and excludes such instruments as the violin, viola, cello and string bass, she said. "When you include string instruments," she said, "you have an orchestra."
Her second grant, from the Lenape Regional Board of Education, is to extend the curriculum for string students, and she is in the midst of a four-week program in which the students perform in an ensemble. The pupils come from the elementary schools within the districts for Lenape, Shawnee and Cherokee High Schools.
Because the students perform publicly, Cerulli often works nights and weekends.
There is also plenty of music in the Cerulli household on Little John Drive in Medford Township. Cerulli's husband, Robert, who has taught music for 19 years in the Cherry Hill School District, arranges music for Columbia Pictures Educational Division and school orchestras. He is also principal bass player with the Trenton Symphony, and he teaches a music education course at Rutgers University's Camden campus.
"We met at what is now the University of the Arts" in Philadelphia, she said. "Bob had just had come from playing two years with the Buffalo Philharmonic, and I was going back to school to further my education. I was 22. He was 26."
The music theory and literature course was too large, so the teacher said he would divide the class. "I volunteered to go to the afternoon class, and my husband, who was standing in back, said, 'No, stay in this class.' " Beautiful music followed.
There is no musical competition between them, although she plays the violin and the piano and has performed in the Glassboro orchestra and the Haddonfield Symphony. "In addition to teaching, his focus is on arranging music and his playing career," she said. "My focus is strictly education. I want to be known as a teacher. I'm very proud to be a teacher."
In the four years since she resumed her career after raising her children - Nick, 20, a third-year finance and economics student at Rutgers, and Nancy, 17, a senior at Lenape High - she has taught in Mount Holly, Pennsauken and Medford.
"My one interest outside of music is poetry," she said, and several of her poems have been published. Also, she said: "I love dance. I have taken several courses in dance - artistic dancing in particular. If I had the time, I would like to develop an ability in the fine arts - particularly sculpting and painting."
That's on a wish list, however.
"This type of job is more of a vocation than a job," she said. "It's a very time-consuming commitment, and you have to love it, and you have to appreciate young people."
Thirty students in the United States, 15 girls and 15 boys, were selected to participate in the 1988 summer school program at Homerton College of the University of Cambridge in England.
Jeanne Del Colle, a senior-to-be who is in the last graduating class at Kennedy High School in Willingboro, was one of them.
Del Colle, 17, left July 9 on her 21-day journey, with an option to stay 10 to 14 days longer.
She is studying architecture and English history. The students are taken to historic sites and briefed on their history.
The curriculum "will be like classroom courses," she said. "They run it like a regular school day, from 9 to 3, with a midmorning break and lunch at midday."
An Anglophile, she said: "I want to get to a lot of museums, to see cathedrals. After reading so much about it, I feel like I've already been there."
The trip should be the high point of what has been a busy high school schedule. She is president of the Z Club, which performs community service, and last school year, she was a tri-captain of the varsity girls' soccer team, and as halfback was named an All-Liberty Division honorable mention.
She also plays the clarinet in the marching band and the oboe in the school orchestra and concert band. She manages the school jazz band.
But her goal is to enroll at Rutgers University, become an archaeologist and work in a museum or become a curator.
"I got interested a long time ago by watching National Geographic shows and reading books," she said. "I'm really fascinated with pyramids."
Rosenbaum Makes A Splash At State Meet
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919005931/http://articles.philly.com/1989-03-18/sports/26127219_1_rosenbaum-senior-nationals-swimmersBy Ronni Finkel, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 18, 1989State championships in individual swimming events have been rare for swimmers from South Jersey in recent years.
But Delran's Jason Rosenbaum was up for the challenge last Saturday. Twice.
Rosenbaum, a sophomore, went into the 50-yard freestyle seeded second, and he finished first.
His time of 21.07 seconds qualified him for the senior nationals at the University of North Carolina March 21-28 and automatic consideration for an all-America spot.
"Jason just blew away the entire field," said Delran coach Mike Kennedy.
Rosenbaum missed the state record by .1 seconds, but he broke his school and Burlington County League records by almost half a second.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Rosenbaum was seeded third - and again picked up a championship.
"In the first 50, he was slightly behind the pack," Kennedy said. "In the second 50, he just took off."
His time of 46.94 seconds qualified him for the junior nationals in Pensacola, Fla., March 28-April 1.
That was the first time Rosenbaum swam under 47 seconds in the event, and no one else in the meet accomplished that feat.
"It was a real surprise," Rosenbaum said later. "It still hasn't really sunk in yet. What really amazes me is that I made senior nationals in the 50."
Teammate Peter Wright was seeded second in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, and he came in second in both events.
Wright, also a sophomore, was at a slight disadvantage, though.
Most swimmers shave off most of their body hair in order to shave split seconds off their times, but Wright did not do so.
Most swimmers taper off the amount of yards they swim in practice to build up energy and intensity, but Wright kept to his rigorous training schedule.
Still, he swam two personal best times: 1:41.95 in the 200 and 4:33.78 in the 500.
In both races, he lost to John Kennedy of St. Joseph's of Metuchen, whom coach Kennedy described as "one of the finest distance swimmers in America."
"John Kennedy didn't expect me to stay with him the way I did," Wright said. "I wasn't tapered and did my best times. That's why it's unusual."
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Rosenbaum, Wright, Dean Hutchinson and Brian Thomas proved to be better than their predicted seeding of fifth.
After the trials Saturday, Delran was seeded first in the event, and St. Joe's was seeded fourth.
But St. Joe's came in first with a time of 3:11.31, and Delran took second with 3:13.74.
"St. Joe's is like the General Motors of swimming in New Jersey," Kennedy said, "and we were like the Hoosiers.
"We dropped our time and met the challenge. We gave them a real race."
Wright said: "The relay was incredible. We went a lot faster than we expected. We were glad to see that Brian left his senior year on such a good note."
Hutchinson, a junior, came in first in the consolation rounds of the 50 and 100 freestyles. He swam his personal best times in both events.
Both times, Kennedy said, would have gotten him fourth place in the championship heats.
Dancing To A Worldwide Drum
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151019042827/http://articles.philly.com/1989-04-01/news/26144749_1_dance-studios-latin-music-and-dance-european-danceBy Dwight Ott, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: April 01, 1989As she sat in the desk at Camden High, 17-year-old Janicka Newbill was worried.
A Camden teacher had thrown down a challenge.
"She wants me to sing in Ukrainian," the high school senior gasped to a friend as she waited to join a group of student dancers practicing in the hallway after school.
"You wouldn't believe the words," said Newbill. "Some of them you can't even spell. You have to go phonetically."
The woman who is pushing Newbill and other students into dizzying challenges is Valentina Bereshny Sierra, who has organized a performing-arts group at Camden High School known as the Cultural Dance Ensemble.
Sierra, who lives in Delran, holds the view that dance can be used not only for entertainment but also as a vehicle to educate teens about the different races and cultures at their school.
The group, which performs on request throughout the area, has a repertoire that focuses heavily on Latin music and dance and also includes Asian, Aztec, Mayan, African and European dance.
To make sure the educational point of it is not lost on its audiences, the dancers intersperse their music and dancing with information about Indians, Europeans and Africans who settled the New World. Sierra calls this mixture the "new spirit" of America.
Last week, the ensemble was preparing for a performance in the Camden County Teen Arts Festival at Rutgers University's Camden campus, a competition that features some of the best teen talent in the county in the categories of dancing, singing, music, art and theater.
Despite heroic efforts of students such as Melissa Ugarte, 17, who practiced despite dizzy spells from the flu, the group did not perform in the festival because too many of its dancers had been felled by the flu.
But this organization takes such setbacks in stride. After all, it has been selected as a finalist in the competition for the last four years to represent Camden County in the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival.
The group currently is rehearsing to perform in the Afro-American Bazaar in Philadelphia on May 13 and is also scheduled to be featured as part of a profile of Camden High in Monday's installment of PBS's Learning in America series (Channel 12, 10 p.m.).
The school's principal, Ruthie Green-Brown, has emphasized innovative approaches to education, including a recent effort to expose youths to culture by having classical music piped into the hallways during school hours.
For the last five years, using whatever tools are available - empty hallways as dance studios (when the auditorium is occupied), hallway trophy cases as mirrors, the teacher's own, old dance costumes - Sierra has volunteered close to 10 hours a week after school to improvising a world of dance as a vehicle for culture for her students.
"I enjoy it a lot," said Ugarte, a Camden High senior and veteran dancer with the group. "I'm learning things I never knew. I knew nothing about the Ukraine before. Now Ms. Sierra is using tapes to teach us Ukrainian dance steps."
Angelique Barge, 20, of Camden, an alumna of the group, who was visiting the campus last week, reminisced as she listened to a practice session:
"To anybody else, the types of things we did (with the dance ensemble) would be a fairy tale," she said, recounting her own experiences. "To us, it was real life. Ms. Sierra would bring costumes. It was like she was sharing a part of herself with us. Through the dance group she showed us how all the cultures are interrelated and that we are only separated because we choose to be."
"We are like family," said Ugarte. "Friends forever. We help each other think clearer."
Luis Rivera, a student writer for the school newspaper, the Castle Crier, wrote in January 1987: "Intending to be only a hasty 15-minute assembly for Hispanic Month, the Cultural Dance Ensemble grew to become one of the most impressive innovations Camden High has witnessed."
He added: "With the purpose of wanting to break up the barriers between the cultures . . . and wanting to unite them, she has succeeded by including dancers, skits and involving members of various backgrounds so that each culture can identify with it."
Herself a Ukrainian-American who is married to a Colombian and teaches Spanish at Camden High, Sierra pushes her student dancers through sweaty practices for two hours each evening after school.
"I loved to flamenco," said Sierra, a diminutive woman who herself was once a dancer. "I decided to explain the different cultures of the world through dance."
She said she discarded the idea of studying international law 11 years ago when she began teaching at Camden High.
She fell in love with teaching at the school.
"People always talk about the bad apples when they speak of Camden. But there is so much talent here. So many good students."
Of her own background, she said:
"My father and mother worked hard," said Sierra. "Ukrainian culture was always stressed. (But) they stressed (that) you have to learn about your own culture and learn about others. . . . They told us you have to keep an open mind. You don't have to accept everything, but you should at least know about them, they told us. It is a belief I want to pass on."
Honoring A Hero And Role Model Peter Vermes - Soccer Star And Pride Of Delran
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151221192736/http://articles.philly.com/1989-04-02/news/26146082_1_soccer-team-local-hero-national-anthemBy Douglas A. Campbell, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: April 02, 1989The good people of Delran, their courage unbroken by allegations of Pete Rose's gambling or Wade Boggs' womanizing or Ben Johnson's steroid injections, yesterday pointed their young toward their own local hero and, saying he was an example to follow, gave a soccer park his name.
His name is Peter Vermes (Ver-MEESE). He is 22, about 6 feet tall, has a jutting jaw, cheeks that dimple when he smiles and a right foot whose skill with a soccer ball has made him the U.S. Soccer Federation's Olympic player of the year and national team player of the year for 1989.
There have been many other honors in Vermes' young life:
He has kicked his way to titles as a high school all-American and all-state player of the year.
He has been a collegiate all-American at Rutgers University, as well as Rutgers' male athlete of the year (1987).
And he has been a professional soccer player for the last year, under contract for the Rabo Eto team of Hungary.
The folks in Delran knew he was skilled all along.
When he was about 8, Vermes led a Delran traveling soccer team to a state championship, recalled Albert Porreca, 53, whose sons played with Vermes. "He was a superstar (even) then," said Porreca, who at noon yesterday was one of several Vermes fans toting video cameras into the Chester Avenue School gymnasium.
Others were filing into the seats wearing white "Peter Vermes Fan" sweat shirts or clutching copies of a poster with a black-and-white photograph of Vermes in soccer action.
Nine months earlier, the people of Delran had discovered that their tenacious soccer tyke - still a Delran resident - had grown into an aspiring Olympian. That was enough of a reason to honor him, said Don Deutsch, chairman of the township's recreation advisory committee.
Someone said, " 'Hey, you know Peter's trying out for the Olympic team? Let's do something,' " Deutsch recalled. "It just snowballed."
Shortly after noon yesterday, Deutsch was sitting on a dais in the gymnasium, along with the mayor, the schools superintendent and Vermes' high school athletic director, two of his former coaches, a representative of the U.S. Soccer Federation, a state assemblyman and a local business leader. In their midst sat Vermes.
The basketball backboard had been swung out of the way over their heads. Behind them, a broad blue banner measured Delranians' enthusiasm about themselves: "Delran: A good place to live, a good place to work."
With Vermes, they felt they had something a bit better than good.
"You don't get many Olympians in the neighborhood, or the Seventh District," Assemblyman Thomas Foy said just before the festivities, while a tape player was filling the gymnasium with the echoing sounds of marching music.
After the boom-box had played the national anthem, the dignitaries stood to praise their local hero.
They called him "a very special young man" and told him, "The respect you have in your home town is no April fool's joke."
They praised his devotion to soccer. He was "never satisfied" with his skills, they said.
"Peter Vermes is an example of what the (Delran Athletic) Association hopes all of our children will become," one speaker said.
Another gave Vermes a plaque in appreciation for his "influence on the youth of Delran."
And the soccer player was hailed as "a true gentleman, an outstanding human being."
Then Vermes, dressed in a blue Olympic blazer, blue pin-striped shirt, red tie, chinos and soft loafers, thanked his home town for the love and support. He told the 200 people in the gymnasium stands that he was nervous about the honor they were giving him - naming the township's two new fields on Tenby Chase Drive as the Olympian Peter Vermes Soccer Park.
A half-hour later and two miles away, the young athlete, again flanked by politicians and mentors but now dressed in his white Olympic warmup suit, cut a red ribbon at the new soccer fields with a pair of gold scissors and then kicked in the first ball to inaugurate the park.
With a biting wind blowing, he patiently autographed the programs and soccer balls of dozens of fans.
"Keep kicking" he wrote.
The Desire To Fight Fires Still Burns In Ex-marshal
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150915071653/http://articles.philly.com/1989-05-21/news/26112706_1_fire-marshal-suspicious-fires-fire-alarmsBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 21, 1989Now that Evan K. Kline has retired as the county fire marshal, he finds he has a little extra time to invest in something he really loves - answering fire alarms.
No matter that Kline retired April 30 as chief fire official in the county, he continues to live on Mill Street in Mount Holly, right across from the America Fire Company. And when the signal sounds, well . . .
"I don't aim to quit now," said Kline, who still teaches at the County Fire Academy in Westampton and reviews construction plans for compliance with fire codes in Mount Holly. If an alarm comes in and he feels help is needed, he goes, he says.
Kline said that now that he's without the red fire marshal's car, he doesn't get to fires as quickly as he used to, but that his own car still takes him to the scene.
At 67, Kline has been fighting fires 50 years and says he still can cut the mustard. "Anything the rest of them can do, I can do," he said, adding, ''It's an exciting profession, a gratifying profession to know you've helped save someone, or their house or their property."
Born in Hammonton, Kline began fighting fires for the state forest fire service in 1939 while a senior at Mount Holly High School. He rose to district warden and stayed with the service until about a decade ago. "I ran the tractors, the bulldozers, drove the pumpers," he said. "Periodically, I even spent time up in the towers."
In 1942, Kline moved to Mount Holly and joined the America Fire Company. He worked his way through the ranks to captain, assistant chief and, finally, chief, and eventually became the township fire inspector. In 1970, he was named fire marshal, becoming only the third person in county history to occupy the post. It was Kline's job to investigate the origin and cause of suspicious fires, which numbered close to 200 a year.
This was not Kline's first career, however. He worked 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service, wearing out a vehicle every two years stuffing mail and catalogues into farm mailboxes on rural routes through Lumberton, Hainesport, Eastampton and Mount Laurel - almost 60 miles a day.
"I don't know that I miss the mail route, but I miss the people," Kline said. "At one time, I had close to 800 on the route."
Kline and his wife, Ginnie, have two sons, a daughter and two granddaughters. Close to 400 people honored him at a dinner May 5 at the Lenola Fire Company.
*All Peggy Knight wanted to do was get her nursing degree. Now she's going to China.
The Delran woman, wife of Mayor Richard Knight, was invited by People to People International to represent her profession at an international conference on nursing June 1 to 17.
Knight is in the midst of what amounts to her third career.
Early in her marriage, she worked six years in business and marketing, then retired for career No. 2: rearing sons Kevin, 19, and Christopher, 16. The family lives on Kevin Road in Delran.
But she always wanted that white uniform. "It's been my personal goal since I was a child," she said. "I always talked about being a nurse. I think my husband got tired of hearing about it."
So she went back to school, and five years ago, she got a bachelor's degree in nursing from Holy Family College in Philadelphia, and today she is nurse coordinator of the addictions treatment center at Zurbrugg Hospital "and loving every minute of it."
It was tough juggling a family and college, she said, "but they all supported me. It was the family project - mom going to school."
"In my senior year of college, he ran for mayor and I was his campaign manager," she said. "That was the 'fun year.' I did a lot of (personal) stress management that year. But we won the election. That's the other part of my life. Nursing is my profession. Being the mayor's wife is my hobby."
Knight is the chairwoman of a drug and alcohol awareness group in Delran and is a member of the New Jersey Bipartisan Coalition for Women's Appointments, which consists of female legislators and commissioners. The group interviews gubernatorial candidates, meets with state chairpeople and lobbies for women to be appointed to key state posts.
Knight said her "career is going to be shorter than the average person's. I had to kind of condense myself."
Linda Weaver is another who decided later in life that she wanted to be a nurse, and the culmination of that choice occurred May 5 when she was named nurse of the year at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills.
Weaver, who with her husband, Walter, an Air Force flight engineer, and daughters Alycia, 13, and Tina, 11, has lived for four years on Kingsley Road in Mount Holly, received an associate's degree in nursing from Burlington County College in 1986 after working for 13 years as a licensed practical nurse.
"She is a role model to student nurses and to newly graduated students," said Christine Tobin, director of nursing service at Deborah.
Weaver arrived at Deborah in September 1981 and, while working full time there, pulled college courses for the next four years to get her cherished R.N.
It was tough, she said, "but I was very luck working at Deborah. They let me switch shifts whenever I needed to." Now she works a regular day schedule in adult cardiology. Down the road, she'd like to acquire a bachelor's degree in nursing.
A native of Rome, N.Y., she met her husband, who was stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base there, and the two picked up the hobby of dog-sled racing.
"We went to watch his boss race, and we watched one race, and we couldn't wait to get into it. We had only one dog, and we would go around and borrow friends' dogs. Eventually, we got our own," she said.
They raced in the Adirondacks in central New York. "My husband drove the team, and I was the handler, taking care of the dogs and hooking them up.
"We had 13 dogs, and we raced for six years. They were three- to five-mile races. We were amateurs. It was just a weekend sport. We raced every weekend.
"You always see pictures of people riding the back of the sled," she said, "but if you ride the sled you tire the dogs, so you have to run behind the dogs. And you have to train them every day. It takes two to three hours a day, but you get your exercise at the same time as they do.
"It's a great sport. It's natural. The dogs are command-trained only." Each driver invents his own commands. Her husband's was "let's go."
"You didn't have to tell them twice," she added. "They go crazy any time they get near the other dogs because they know they're going to run. They're crying, whining, screaming. We really miss it."
The Weavers once had 13 Siberian huskies. When they moved here, they sold all but one, and he has since died. But they have his issue, 8-year-old Crystal, in case they decide to resume racing.
Nina Malone has been on a fast track since college and shows no signs of getting ready to downshift.
A resident of Crofton Court in Mount Laurel, she was named director of public relations for Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill in March, a natural progression for this cum laude graduate of Rider College.
"I was a journalism major, and I always intended to go into public relations or promotion," she said.
She said her new position is challenging because it also encompasses marketing and advertising.
Originally from Ridgewood, Bergen County, Malone has lived in Mount Laurel for a year and a half and before that in Maple Shade.
She decided to matriculate at Rider because "it was far enough from home that I could live away but not too far." She loved Rider, the professors, the size of the school, and she threw herself into the collegiate scene.
"I never wanted to be just a Social Security number at school. I got overinvolved and never stopped."
Malone was president of her sorority, student center manager, a radio disc jockey for four years, promotions and production director for the college radio station, a member of the communications fraternity, chairwoman for a high school press day workshop and one of four students picked to conduct new- student orientation.
"It snowballed once I got involved. I couldn't stop," she said.
In 1987, she spent a semester as an adjunct instructor of communications at Rider, and she now divides her time between providing public relations counsel for the Leukemia Society and supervision for public service performed by the college chapter of her sorority.
She enjoys the latter "very much," she said. "It's rewarding to be able to see someone grow and to have some input to their lives. It's amazing to see how they change during the year.
"I am as organized as I can be," she said, but she still has little spare time. The closest she comes to a hobby is creative writing. She writes short stories and poetry. "I am collecting rejection slips," she said.
One of her unfulfilled goals is teaching. She enjoyed being an instructor at Rider and said that's something she'd like to do more.
Professor Will Examine 'Deadheads'
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102142513/http://articles.philly.com/1989-06-06/news/26105522_1_deadheads-first-lady-female-joggerBy John Corr, Inquirer Staff Writer Contributing to this report were the Associated Press, United Press International, the Washington Post and USA Today
Posted: June 06, 1989Deadheads, devoted fans of the Grateful Dead rock group, are about to become the object of an academic study by Rebecca Adams, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina. Adams calls the Deadheads an American subculture worthy of study. "I'm interested in the Deadheads, not the (Grateful) Dead," Adams said. "How do their beliefs and their values and the rules they live by differ from the mainstream American culture?" Her preliminary impression, she said, is that being a Deadhead is a "state of mind or attitude" and "a belief in the ability of people to get along with one another."
MADONNA AND BERNHARD
Madonna and Sandra Bernhard, who caused a commotion with a bump-and-grind rendition of "I Got You Babe" at a recent benefit, have something to say about their relationship in this week's People magazine."Don't believe those stories you heard about us," Madonna said. Bernhard's response was "Believe them. Madonna and I have a heart and soul friendship. Beyond that, it's nobody's business." The two appeared together at a "Don't Bungle the Jungle" benefit aimed at protecting rain forests.
FIRST SPOUSE?
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter had some unconventional wisdom to offer when she spoke Sunday to graduates of the private Oakland School in Pittsburgh, where her nephew, Kevin Christopher Smith, was one of the 19 graduates. She said, "Maybe one of you will be president someday. Maybe one of you will be first lady. Or, maybe one of you young men will be first spouse."
Such a prospect might not be especially attractive, according to humorist Roy Blount Jr., who toured the White House while researching his new novel, First Hubby. He didn't like the place. "For one thing," he said, "the thing was full of pictures of Ronald Reagan."
MICKEY ROONEY'S CAUSE
Mickey Rooney, on tour with a variety show also featuring Donald O'Connor, is helping to raise money for a trust fund for the female jogger who was raped and beaten in the infamous Central Park "wilding" incident seven weeks ago. Rooney also is asking his colleagues to do the same. The woman, meanwhile, is expected to be moved soon to a neurological rehabilitation center near her parents' home in Pittsburgh, according to a report in this week's Newsweek magazine. The hospital at which she is now being treated would not confirm the report. The 28-year-old investment banker, the hospital said, has continued showing improvement since coming out of a coma, but doctors said she probably would never return to normal.
HYPING THE FIGHT
Ring announcer Michael Buffer of Delran, N.J., who will be calling the June 12 fight between Thomas Hearns and Ray Leonard, is taking an unusual route to talk up the contest. He'll attend a women's aerobics class today at a Center City fitness club to discuss the bout, which will be televised locally at a number of closed-circuit locations.
LAST WORDS
The last words of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were: "This (life) is an arduous path. Try not to sin." Then, a little later: "Turn out the lights. I want to sleep." The last words were reported to the Islamic Republic News Agency by Khomeini's daughter, Zahra Mostafavi.
ELVIS' GRANDDAUGHTER
Elvis Presley's granddaughter has been named Danielle Riley Keough, a family spokesman said yesterday. Lisa Marie Presley delivered the 7-pound, 2- ounce girl by natural childbirth on May 29, with musician-husband Danny Keough at her side.
BEST AND WORST
Spy magazine polled its readers, asking who they thought would be the best and the worst weekend house guests. Everybody's favorite was actress Teri Garr. The worst were Donald Trump, Dan Quayle and Tammy Bakker. Getting about an equal number of "best" and "worst" votes were Madonna, Sean Penn, Michael Jackson, Roseanne Barr and Whoopi Goldberg.
SIZZLING SAMMY
Drugs, orgies and Satanism, it's all part of life at the top, according to the new book Why Me? by Sammy Davis Jr. Highlights: a porn party for such friends as Milton Berle, Lucille Ball and Shirley MacLaine, a love affair with Linda Lovelace of Deep Throat fame, and dabbling in Satanism for "sexual kicks." Davis says the book is not a "kiss and tell, but an explanation."
ROTH WRITES
Novelist Philip Roth has written a new preface for the 30th anniversary edition of his first novel, Goodbye Columbus, which will be distributed by Houghton Mifflin this fall. Roth was a 25-year-old English instructor at the University of Chicago when he wrote the novel.
TEMPTED
Martin Scorsese (The Last Temptation of Christ) has directed his first television commercial - for a new fragrance from Armani for men. The black- and-white commercial reportedly has to do with the end of a relationship, in which a spilled bottle of the stuff reminds a woman of a man who is no longer around. Filmed in Milan, the commercial will debut in the United States on Thursday.
DEJA VU?
Actor Rob Lowe, accused of inducing a 16-year-old girl into having sex and of videotaping the action, will portray a character who makes a pornographic videotape in his next movie, Bad Influence. The screenwriter for the movie, David Koepp, says it's a "coincidence." The mother of the girl who allegedly took part in a pornographic videotape with Lowe filed a civil lawsuit on May 12 seeking unspecified damages from the actor. Lowe has denied the allegations.
A DAUGHTER'S DEBUT
Two years after the courts declared her the illegitimate daughter of the late country-music legend Hank Williams, Jett Williams, 36, made her professional debut as a country singer. She was given a standing ovation Sunday at the annual Hank Williams Memorial Celebration in Evergreen, Ala., where she opened her 20-minute performance with her father's classic "Your Cheatin' Heart." "I'm meeting a lot of people who knew my father," she told the crowd of 4,000 people, "and I'm getting to know him through them."
THE QUEEN BEACHCOMBER
Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth was honored yesterday on the 10th anniversary of her installation as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, an ancient but no longer arduous post. Her title gives her the right of claiming any flotsam or jetsam washed up on England's southeast coast. She also is required to pay for the burial of stranded whales. Cinque Ports, from the French for five ports, is the title given to five coastal towns in southeast England.
Announcer Rumbles From Nowhere To Stardom
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151221204416/http://articles.philly.com/1989-06-11/news/26106500_1_michael-buffer-ring-announcer-rumbleBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 11, 1989Tomorrow night, Michael Buffer will step to the center of the ring, raise the microphone to his lips and reach down an octave or two to summon that trademark phrase he booms out to launch all the big boxing matches: "Let's get ready to rumble."
Buffer, 44, who hangs his hat in Delran (although he's hardly ever home), epitomizes what every ring announcer would like to be - resplendent in tuxedo or dinner jacket, radiating a handsome magnetism that disconcerts a considerable portion of the females in the audience.
From nowhere a half-dozen years ago, Buffer has become the pre-eminent ring announcer because he is liked a lot at Top Rank Inc., which promotes much of TV's ring action and brings tomorrow's Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns battle to television.
Life is great for Buffer. Because of his good looks and his "ready to rumble" catch phrase, he has become an institution. Celebrities pal with him and write cameos for him in their movies. Budweiser cast him in a commercial promoting tomorrow's fight. Women's clubs invite him to speak at their meetings.
Buffer rose to fame after his eldest son disagreed with the manner in which a decision was delivered by another announcer in the ring seven years ago and suggested his father could do better.
Buffer had done voice-overs for commercials in the Philadelphia-New York area. He decided to give the ring a shot.
He packaged a letter and photograph, and since he stood 6 feet, 165 pounds and wore a 40 regular, he suggested that the announcer's image should be changed.
"Practically anybody could say the words," he said, but historically, the announcers were little guys wearing pinky rings who droned the ubiquitously boring and nasal "Ladi-e-e-s-s and g-e-ntlemen . . ."
But promoters hired the announcers, and "no matter how big the fight, whether it was in Vegas or televised worldwide, they would just use the local announcer," Buffer said. We already have a guy in New York, they told him. Or Chicago. Or wherever.
Fortunately, Top Rank and chairman Bob Arum wanted a change and decided to use Buffer in Atlantic City, and a few months later in Madison Square Garden.
In the beginning, "I got to see a lot of fights. The pay was nothing," Buffer said. But the work increased, and he made something of it. He developed a style.
Over the next six years, he began announcing all the fights on cable's ESPN, except in Las Vegas.
Eventually, Buffer's image grew so strong the locals couldn't refuse him there, either. He did the Mike Tyson fight in Tokyo, and he has called them from Trinidad, London and France.
Born in Philadelphia and reared in Abington, he wasn't always the world traveler. In the early '70s, he was divorced and uncertain where he was going. He was, he said, "almost 30 years old. I was a car salesman, the worst one in the world."
"I went to see an agent. Two days later, I was in a fashion show for Gucci in Philadelphia at Nan Duskin's before 600 old ladies drinking tea," he said. ''I was scared to death, but the pay was great and I didn't have to work myself to death. I haven't had a (regular) job since."
He moved to an apartment in Delran 13 years ago because it was only 20 minutes to Philadelphia, but his second home is in the air. He has logged a quarter-million miles on TWA alone. "I have all these free tickets to the Orient and no time to go," he said.
Ring announcing, once 30 percent of his work, now constitutes 75 to 80 percent. He still models, but "my agents go crazy trying to make my bookings."
He visits women's clubs and gives autographs. "A lot of women want me to sign something a little personal," he said, without getting specific. At mixed groups, "men come up to me and say, 'Could you give me an autograph for my wife? She isn't here, but she just loves you.'
"Appearance has been my forte," Buffer said. "I try to do the thing with the voice - deepen it. It's all part of the image. I always wear the latest in formal wear."
He is affiliated with a large manufacturer of formal wear that supplies him with such an elegant wardrobe that "I'm afraid to go out to the supermarket now in my jeans."
"The big fights attract lots of celebrities," he said, and he has met and became friendly with Eddie Murphy, Gene Hackman and Mickey Rourke. "They would say, 'Gee, I've got a project and you'd be just right.' "
He just shot a piece of a Murphy movie, Harlem Nights, with Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Arsenio Hall, putting in two 14-hour days at the old Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, which was converted to look like Madison Square Garden.
In a one-day shoot in Asbury Park, N.J., he played a ring announcer in a movie with Rourke - "a big fight fan. It should be out this summer." It's called Home Boy.
Whether his scenes survive or end up on the cutting room floor is the usual gamble. "Hopefully, the editor will be kind to me," he said. "You never know in Hollywood."
He has no off-season. ESPN boxing draws an audience of 5 million, and somewhere in the country, Buffer is on television every week. He may continue to announce for another 10 years. "It would be nice to retire at 55."
But then he would miss such telephone calls as the one he got three years ago. A woman on the line said, "Hold for Cary Grant."
Buffer anticipated a put-on.
"Is this Michael Buffer?" said the voice that came on the line.
"It sounded just like Grant," Buffer said. "A great imitation."
"Last week on ESPN you had on a yellow bow tie and a butterfly (wing) collar," said the ostensible Grant.
So Buffer, conjuring up his best imitation, came back with a typical, schmaltzy, 1940s Grant rejoinder, "Yes. Yes, I did."
After some small talk, the voice at the other end of the line rebuked him, ''Excuse me but you're doing me quite badly."
"Well," Buffer said, "I went back to my regular voice and said, 'Who is this really?' "
And it really was the legend himself.
Grant liked the shape of the bow tie Buffer was wearing and wanted to know where he could obtain one in black.
"He was a fight fan, and he watched every week," Buffer said. "We ended up having a 20-minute conversation. He said, 'I used to box a little bit when I was young.' "
Buffer said he apologized for the mimicry. "It happens all the time," Grant told him. "I can't even make dinner reservations."
"We kept in touch," Buffer said. "A few times we were going to meet and we just missed each other. He died six months before I got chance to meet him."
Wrought Iron And Art Deco Pieces Aplenty
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151019203053/http://articles.philly.com/1989-06-17/news/26109139_1_art-deco-outdoor-furniture-feature-vintage-clothingBy David Iams, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: June 17, 1989For years Esther Carroll patrolled the auction and flea market trail, buying and selling. Mostly, she just bought.
Eventually her acquisitions exceeded the capacity of the garage at the house at 161 Hartford Rd. in Delran, that she shares with her husband, John. Soon they were scattered around the yard as well.
Eventually, township officials got tired of the sight of the possession- filled property and told the Carrolls to get rid of the stuff. Today and tomorrow they will do just that, at an auction at the house to be conducted by Michael Chiaccio, a free-lance auctioneer who normally works at S&S Auctions in Repaupo.
According to Chiaccio, an old friend of Esther Carroll's, she specialized in wrought iron and art deco pieces, for which she found a market among New York buyers. And both categories will be amply represented at today's and tomorrow's sessions, both of which start at 11 a.m.
In addition to wrought-iron garden furniture, there are sections of iron fence and chandeliers, a baker's rack and a five-foot-high bird cage. Besides the wooden art deco furniture, there is a red and white enameled-iron kitchen table and matching chairs, one of the better items in the sale.
But the wrought iron and art deco account for only a small percentage of the acquisitions Carroll must sell. "Things would just be lying there," she said yesterday, explaining her habits. "Or I'd see something and say to myself, 'Ooh, that's cheap.' "
And so she bought 12 painted panels from a carousel that once operated in the Coney Island area. There is considerable interest in them, Chiaccio said, because they are initialed by their presumed artist.
There are hundreds of paintings, big and small, good and bad, new and old, including one that was stretched across a room divider and may go back to the 1700s. Among the paintings are two unrestored Franklin D. Briscoes, according to Chiaccio.
There is also a glass-doored china cabinet with carved lion decorations, an 18th-century blanket chest, a modern bronze room divider and hundreds of vintage and designer dresses, some with price tags as high as $1,300.
The panels, the cabinet, the Briscoes and the bronze room divider will be sold tomorrow, along with most of the other better items in the sale. Today's session will feature vintage clothing, a lot of the outdoor furniture and other miscellaneous items.
Umpires Honor Holy Cross Team
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150911195033/http://articles.philly.com/1989-06-25/news/26107347_1_baseball-umpires-major-leagues-baseball-teamBy Peter Van Allen, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: June 25, 1989When a few baseball umpires get together, it's not all talk of strikes, fouls and balks.
Last week, members of the South Jersey Umpire Association got together at Holy Cross High School in Delran to honor retiring umpire Frank Atzert and to present the group's annual William Cosme Sportsmanship Award.
The Holy Cross baseball team received the Cosme Award for the third time in the award's nine-year history. The 86-member association unanimously selected Holy Cross for reflecting Cosme's "hustle and respect," said Don Brauchmann, president of the group.
"Bill Cosme was one of our mentors," Brauchmann said. Cosme died of cancer in 1978. He had been an umpire in the Freedom and Liberty Divisions of the Burlington County League for 18 years.
Holy Cross won 19 games and only lost five this year, and was runnerup for the South Jersey Parochial A group title.
"Everyone wants to win - no one wants to lose," said fifth-year Holy Cross coach Greg Luzinski, whose teams have twice won the award. "My philosophy is that you should profit from any loss."
After a loss, coaches sometimes theorize that only the umpire separated their team from a win. That notion was not apparent at the small awards ceremony. No dirt was kicked, no animated exchanges between coach and home- plate umpire occurred, and no one was ejected for using foul language.
But in 14 years in the major leagues Luzinski - a former outfielder for the Phillies and Chicago White Sox - was never known for on-field antics. Nor is he as a coach.
"In my career, I never argued with the umpires," Luzinski said. "I didn't feel it contributed to the game."
But retiring umpire Atzert, who called balls and strikes for 3,000 games in 35 years, tried one last time to unravel Luzinski. As Atzert presented the wooden plaque to Luzinski, they couldn't stop chiding each other.
Luzinski turned to Atzert and said, "We only argued once."
"He yelled at me once this season," Atzert said smiling, wearing a New York Yankees T-shirt. "We got over it."
The two have a long history together. Atzert was Luzinski's mail carrier in Willingboro, where the former Phillie lived as a player.
"He knows my wife and kids better than I do," Luzinski said of Atzert, who retired after 31 years of mail carrying.
While Atzert said his days of umpiring are over, at least one person disagreed.
"He's been an umpire for 35 years and been retiring for 20 years," said Chuck Higgins, vice president of the South Jersey Umpire Association.
"It's the end of the road after many years," Atzert wistfully said of his retirement.
Said Higgins: "That's what you said last year."
Cherokee High Teacher Honored
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150918172124/http://articles.philly.com/1989-07-09/news/26132619_1_biology-teachers-science-and-mathematics-program-innovative-teachingBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 09, 1989Patricia L. Sidelsky's interest in biology was a matter of genes.
"I guess my family was responsible," she said. "My whole family is oriented to science.
"My uncle was a veterinarian. My mother was a biology major. My cousins are all doctors and nurses. My aunt raised dogs. My great uncle was Theophilus Zurbrugg."
He was the builder of the historic Watchcase Factory in Riverside and the man for whom the Zurbrugg Hospital in Riverside is named.
Last month, Sidelsky, a teacher at Cherokee High School and a Marlton resident, was named biology teacher of the year by the National Association of Biology Teachers, an award earned through innovative teaching and a focus on education.
"She's a very caring, dedicated teacher," said Walt Seibel, supervisor of the science and mathematics program at the school. "She's very innovative. She does anything for the kids, and she's here all hours.
"She has presentations all the time for the new curriculum. She has workshops. She developed a curriculum at Rutgers for high school students. She teaches at Rutgers during the summer. She goes to school at night. It's hard to believe she does all this. And she's available for students nights and Saturdays. I don't know how she does it."
Sidelsky, 44, has taught advanced biology and chemistry at Cherokee for 10 years.
Her summers are spent at Rutgers University with such programs as the Douglass College Summer Science Institute to encourage women to pursue math and science.
For the past three years, she has spent time at the Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education working on modern curricula such as molecular genetics and microbiology, which she takes back to Cherokee and introduces to her classes.
"It's been a lot of fun, and the students do real well," she said. "In fact, they're fantastic."
One student, John Sari, developed an inexpensive method of electrophoresis - separating protein, enzymes and DNA - with a technique using a Rubbermaid container and five nine-volt batteries. It is an inexpensive experiment that can be duplicated cheaply instead of at the usual cost of several hundred dollars with more sophisticated equipment.
In the past academic year, she inaugurated a trial program during nights and weekends, in which students worked on individual projects. The Lenape School District has given her a grant to continue the project.
Science, she said, "was my first love. It was a major interest as a child growing up. When I find students who don't like science, it's a challenge to make them love it as much as I did when I was growing up."
Sidelsky was born in New Hampshire, spent her youth in Riverton, attended Moorestown Friends School, received a bachelor's degree in biology from Bucknell University and completed a master's degree in biology at Rutgers last year. She is beginning work on a doctorate in either education or biology.
She has worked nights and weekends as a medical technician in a clinical laboratory for 10 years.
And for recreation, "I love sports," she said. "I like all the sports the kids play at school - field hockey, football. I'm into all the Philadelphia sports. And golf is my favorite sport," although she doesn't find much time to play. When she does, it's in the evening, alone, when it's quiet.
There, on the course, she doesn't worry about biology, or teaching - or even breaking 100.
*In 1992, Heidi Kaye will be 16.
She hopes she will be competing for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team by then, and the next few years should provide a good estimate of her chances.
Heidi, 13, the daughter of Mark and Judy Kaye, of Delran, already has begun to command attention, and if she finishes among the top 12 from July 21 to 31 at the U.S. Junior Gymnastic Championships at the Olympic Sports Festival in Oklahoma City, it is off to the races.
Heidi competes in the junior gymnastics division, for those 14 and younger, and she qualified for the competition in Oklahoma City by finishing seventh in a meet in Oakland, Calif., and eighth in a meet in San Antonio, Texas, this year. Her best event is the floor exercises, but she performs them all.
The top 12 at Oklahoma City will be chosen to compete in world-class meets for the U.S. junior national team for one year, providing wide exposure.
"If you make the national team, you get to travel internationally and compete against the Russians and the Romanians," Heidi said.
"If you make the national team as a junior, then you make a name for yourself, and people start looking for you in the big competition."
Heidi has been training with the Parkettes, an Allentown gymnastics club, under Donna and Bill Strauss, who were 1988 U.S. Olympic coaches, and it has required intense dedication by the whole family to put up with the schedule.
With mom driving, Heidi said, "we commute five days a week. It's 77 miles one way."
During the past school year, she used the time to do her homework from Delran Middle School.
The family spent about $10,000 in the past year on Heidi's training. She is an only child.
"If she weren't, we couldn't do this," Mark Kaye said.
The Oklahoma meet represents a pleasant change.
"The Olympic Committee is paying for everything, the first time we've gotten anything," Mark Kaye said.
"This is a very prestigious event, like a mini-Olympics. It's going to be on ESPN."
Heidi trains six hours a day, five days a week, but starting this fall, she will board in Allentown and end the long commute.
At the age of 4 1/2, her parents took her to dance class and then to a gymnastics school, where at age 8 her potential was identified.
"They saw she was flexible, strong, very motivated," Mark Kaye said. ''She got some fine training there; they moved her along, made her part of their competitive team."
Along the way, she took up competitive diving, winning 12-and-under titles in the Tri-County and Burlington County Leagues. At 11, she gave diving up for gymnastics.
"She is very motivated," Mark Kaye said. "You have to be very physically and mentally motivated to train 30 hours a week. It's too dangerous a sport to go in with a half-hearted attitude."
Her father is a guidance counselor at Truman High School in Levittown, Pa., and her mother teaches at Maple Shade Elementary in Croydon.
When her gymnastics career is over, she'd like to go into the field of science and become a veterinarian, perhaps. She is not sure.
Etched in her mind for now is just a date: 1992.
When Pernilla Bilfeldt came to the United States from Sweden last fall, she had never heard of field hockey and could not speak a word of English.
She rectified both omissions in quick order, as the records will attest at Burlington City High School, where in just one academic year she was named the school's best athlete in field hockey, given a trophy for outstanding contribution to the track team and learned the language pretty well.
Bilfeldt arrived as an exchange student and stayed with William and Carole Moore in Edgewater Park. On July 16, she will return to Norrkoping, where she lives with her father, Anders.
Although she graduated from Burlington City High School, she has two more years of schooling left in Sweden before college, where she will major in economics.
"I want a job where I can travel a lot," she said, an addiction acquired partly through the Moores, who took her to Florida and South Carolina.
She played center forward on the Burlington field-hockey team. On the track team, she ran the two-mile run. In Sweden, she had played soccer since age 6, and she is best at that and handball, she said.
As for field hockey, "I liked it," she said. "We don't have it in Sweden, but I liked it a lot. It was fun. It's different."
Bilfeldt, 18, learned to read and understand English in the fourth grade but never how to speak it.
When she arrived here, she said, "I could not speak at all. I understood much better than I could speak. It was hard in the beginning. As soon as I started to think in English, it was much easier."
She is looking forward to seeing her family again but sad because she is leaving behind a lot of friends.
Visiting here "helped me be more independent, to think on my own," she said.
The school is looking for one or two host parents in Burlington City or Edgewater Park for the coming school year. For details, call Mattilyn Rochester, superintendent of the high school, at 387-2566.
It was 2 a.m. Kathleen Milano, 28, of Medford Lakes, had been out with friends and was alone in her car, heading back to New Jersey over the Tacony- Palmyra Bridge.
"I saw a man lying in the road," she said, and performed a K-turn, jockeying her car around to block oncoming vehicles so bridge traffic would not hit him.
"I stayed with him and told him not to move, that everything would be fine until the police came," she said.
Milano apparently arrived on the scene seconds after a gang had dumped the man out of his car, which they had stolen.
"He had been beaten up; he was bloodied," she said.
All this happened Sept. 18. On May 23, the South Jersey Police Chiefs Association cited her for meritorious service to law enforcement for her involvement.
It was strictly spontaneous, Milano said. She said she probably would do it again because "I just can't leave somebody there." But she is not anticipating a repeat performance.
"I don't need that much excitement in my life," she said.
Milano lives with her parents, Anthony and Sonia Milano. She is employed at La Patisserie Francaise in Haddonfield as a counter clerk, but she does not sample the merchandise much because she is allergic to preservatives, sugar and additives.
Pa. Teen Takes Offensive In Bid For Olympic Berth
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919075720/http://articles.philly.com/1989-07-27/sports/26134320_1_table-tennis-kristey-reed-barney-reedBy Ron Reid, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 27, 1989OKLAHOMA CITY — Tiny and quick as a hummingbird, Kristey Reed may be the most endearing competitor at the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival. Time and travel will tell if she also becomes one of the most enduring.
At age 13, the 4-foot-11, 80-pound eighth grader from Enola, Pa., is pursuing an Olympian ambition in the sport of table tennis.
One of the youngest athletes on any Olympic Festival roster, Reed is coached by her father, Barney Reed, who introduced her to the sport four years ago.
He soon discovered that his precocious daughter was the table-tennis answer to Mary Decker Slaney, who also competed internationally at age 13.
To sharpen her game, Reed has competed in tournaments in nearly every state in the union, as well as in Sweden, the European hotbed of the sport.
Her status, however, has yet to make her a celebrity among her friends at home and at Cumberland Valley High School, outside Harrisburg.
"They don't really know how big the sport is," Reed said of her friends, ''but they think it's really neat I get to go everywhere."
Singles competition starts at noon today in what already has been a moderately successful tournament for the smallish contender. Earlier this week, she was awarded a bronze medal, her first of the Festival, in the team competition.
"We had a chance for the gold, but we lost," Reed said later. "We did really good. We could have got the gold, but some of us messed up. . . . How do you read what you're writing in that notebook?"
Richard Butler of Iowa City, Iowa, commissioner of the national governing body for table tennis, points out that there is a vast difference between the game almost everyone has played at one time or another and the Olympic medal sport, which requires cat-quick reflexes.
"Table tennis at this level in this country," Butler said, "is almost an underground sport. To get to the level of the players in this room" - which included his nationally ranked sons, Jim and Scott - "takes a lot of table time.
"It's so fast, it's an instinctive game," Butler said. "The ball comes off a (serving) paddle at 70 m.p.h. and, through wind friction, it slows to about 50 m.p.h. in a 10-foot span. Even so, that doesn't give you much time to plan your next move."
Butler says that in eye tests conducted by amateur sports bodies, table tennis players are the fastest in the Festival.
Quickness is a singular quality in Reed's game, but her attacking style of play and the way she holds her paddle excite table tennis officials even more.
"She has the potential to be very good," Butler said. "She's an attacking, intelligent player, and the one thing she has in her favor is that she uses the penhold grip rather than the (Western) shake-hands grip. Without getting too technical, it offers some advantages."
The penhold grip, with the paddle held between the thumb and forefinger, is the one used by most Asian players. Used with the rubber-backed paddle, it revolutionized the game in the 1950s.
To reach world-class level, however, Butler said that Reed would have to see more of the world.
"How well she does, and what kind of career lies ahead of her, will be predicated on her training and foreign experience," Butler said. "You've got to go out of the country if you really want to reach the Olympic level."
Since the 1950s, China and Japan have dominated the game, and Sweden has made inroads over the last few years.
"In Stockholm on almost any weekend," Butler said, "you can play in a dozen tournaments, with probably 500 participants each.
"It's really tough in this country to get it done. If you beat the best player in this country, it doesn't mean you'll do well internationally."
In the last world championships, the U.S. men finished 19th, the U.S. women 10th. Butler's 18-year-old son, Jim, went to the second round, but no other American advanced as far.
It would seem probable that as the difference increases between Kristey Reed's height and that of the table she plays on - an increment now measuring 23 inches - the pressure will grow with her.
One hopes it won't diminish the obvious fun this girl has playing her game so well.
*A new generation of athletes will start the long road toward the 1992 Summer Olympics tomorrow, when women's gymnastics begins its three-day Festival run at Myriad Arena.
Gone are the girls who used to be the most prominent in the sport: Kristey Phillips, Phoebe Mills, Shelly Stack, Brandy Johnson, each sprung from Bela Karolyi's gym in Houston.
But Bela's wife, Marta, who trains girls on the balance beam, assessed some of the talent yesterday. "Kim Zmesskal reminds me of Mary Lou (Retton)," she said. "She is very small (4-foot-3, 65 pounds) and very energetic."
Marta Karolyi also quietly suggested that 13-year-old Ericka Stokes (4-10, 80 pounds) and 14-year-old Amy Scheer (4-9, 72) might be the names to follow between now and '92.
In addition to Karolyi's girls, the gymnastics field will include Heidi Kay from Delran, N.J., and Jana Reardon from Bethlehem, Pa. Both train under Bill and Donna Strauss in Allentown, Pa.
No fewer than 26 Olympians are entered in the Festival track and field competition, which starts today at the University of Oklahoma track in Norman.
Those from the Delaware Valley include sprinter Dennis Mitchell (Sicklerville, N.J.) and ex-Villanovan John Marshall, who, like his wife, Debbie, will run the 800 meters.
Sixty-four ice hockey players from the Festival manifest of 80 have been drafted by clubs in the National Hockey League.
Only one among that number has been selected by the Flyers. He is Steve Scheifele, 21, a Boston College forward from Greenbelt, Md., who played for the 1988 U.S. Junior national team.
Scheifele, a righthanded shooter, was taken by the Flyers in the sixth round of the 1986 draft.
Sacca: Most Unhappy Fella At Happy Valley
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160104090951/http://articles.philly.com/1989-09-13/sports/26104662_1_penn-state-unhappy-valley-delran-highBy Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: September 13, 1989Two years ago, quarterback Tony Sacca chose Penn State over the scores of other schools on the college football map that were salivating over him.
Because, Sacca said, it was close to his home in Delran, N.J. Because Joe Paterno's program brimmed with prestige. And because Sacca, probably the most athletic quarterback to land in State College, was under the impression that State's ultra-conservative offense was about to join the 21st century.
Now, though, Sacca is closer to disenchantment than to Delran. Six losses in the last seven games, dating to last season, have drained some of the prestige from the Nittany Lions. After one game, Saturday's dismal, 14-6 loss to Virginia, State's offensive game plan still looks as basic as a paint-by- numbers drawing. And Sacca is not quite sure where he fits in.
Perhaps no one in Unhappy Valley is more frustrated about all this than Sacca, who made it quite clear yesterday that he was not clicking his heels over the limited role he played against Virginia as backup to starter Tom Bill.
In fact, the 6-foot, 5-inch sophomore from Delran High indicated that his frustration may be near the boiling point. Asked if he had considered transferring, Sacca said: "I haven't done that yet. But if things don't change, that's definitely a possibility."
Sacca and Bill, a senior with two remaining years of eligibility, dueled for the starting job in the preseason. Sacca, speaking in short, definitive bursts, said he thought he had played well enough to earn the starting position.
"I know Joe favors the older guys, so I felt I had to outplay Tom Bill by a lot," Sacca said. "But from the first day of practice, (Bill) was put on the first team, and I was put on the second team. It was almost like they were saying I wasn't going to be given a shot. But during the preseason, I felt I played well enough to beat him out.
"It's too early to say I'm disappointed with my situation here, although I'm not sure what my situation is. But if nothing changes in the next few games, I'm definitely going to be disappointed."
Paterno announced before the opener that Bill was his No. 1 quarterback. For now. But Paterno added it was only fair that Sacca see plenty of action, suggesting that the competition would carry into the season.
Against Virginia, Sacca was on the field for only two first-half series, both times with the second unit. He stood along the sideline for the entire second half, when State managed only two field goals.
Bill went on to complete 10 of 27 passes for 101 yards and an interception. Sacca went 0 for 2. In fairness to Bill, at least five of his passes were dropped.
Asked if he thought he was being given an equal chance to win the job, Sacca said: "I only played two series, and you can't do much in two series. I'm confident I can do the job, and I think I should get a chance to do the job. But I have to play more than two series to show I can do it on the field. I really don't know what's going to happen, because they don't tell you too much. They kind of leave you in the middle."
Sacca also expressed concern that the use of two quarterbacks prevented cohesion.
"You look at what happened Saturday, and I think it probably does," he said. "Neither one of us got any rhythm going. I've never heard of it working anywhere else. But if that's the only way I'll get playing time, I'm not going to complain."
Yesterday, Paterno conceded that Sacca hadn't gotten enough playing time to show his wares, and he said that he did intend to give Sacca the opportunity to do so.
"I don't think there's any question Tony's probably upset," Paterno said. ''If I were him, I'd be upset, too. He's a competitor. He badly wants to play. It's difficult to go in there and not have much luck. But there are a lot of players disappointed and frustrated with the way we played.
"So I don't begrudge Tony those feelings. But if he says he won the starting role in the preseason, then we probably have an honest disagreement on that. But I have no problem with him being upset about not playing more. He ought to be upset."
In evaluating Bill's performance, Paterno said: "Tom started off a little shaky. And then when he got back in there, he did some things well. I don't think he got a lot of help. He did not play as well as I thought he would play, but he hadn't played in quite a while. Certainly, he can do better and will do better. I'm not concerned with either quarterback. It's a long season. I think both will be effective."
Bill started the first three games last year before a dislocated kneecap ended his season. Sacca started the next five games and became the first true freshman quarterback to do so under Paterno. After a solid performance against Temple in his first start, Sacca struggled and eventually lost his job to Lance Lonergan. He ended the season 54 for 146 for 821 yards, four TDs and five interceptions.
After Saturday's loss to Virginia, Sacca said he had been told he would play in the second half. He said yesterday he hadn't been told why he didn't.
"Nobody's said a thing about it," he said.
It's no secret that for all its past success, Penn State has never been a haven for explosive quarterbacks. Still, Sacca, considered one of the nation's top high school passers and an excellent runner, went there anyway.
"I just thought that if you're able to pass, they would pass more often," Sacca said. "The impression I got when I came here was that that was going to happen. I don't have any regrets, yet. But we'll just have to see what happens."
Paterno Bans Bill For Drinking; Sacca Lions' Qb
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151227200640/http://articles.philly.com/1989-09-20/sports/26100518_1_sophomore-matt-nardolillo-tom-bill-penn-stateBy Dick Weiss, Daily News Sports Writer
Posted: September 20, 1989Sophomore Tony Sacca no longer has to worry about competing for the quarterback position at Penn State.
The job was handed to him when coach Joe Paterno suspended starter Tom Bill indefinitely Monday, hours after the fifth-year senior was cited by a campus police officer for public drunkenness.
Sacca will be the starter when the Nittany Lions (1-1) host Boston College (0-2) Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Sophomore Matt Nardolillo will be his backup.
Paterno refused to go into details of Bill's suspension. Reading from a prepared statement at his weekly news conference yesterday, Paterno said: ''The specifics of the infraction will be between Tom, the coaching staff and the squad."
But according to court records, Bill was picked up at about 2 a.m. Monday while sitting on a curb outside his apartment. District justice Clifford Yorks, of the State College magistrate's office, said Bill was "in a state of intoxication."
Bill, 21, had been arrested twice previously in State College for drinking violations. After the second arrest, he reportedly was warned by Paterno that he would be suspended if cited again.
Paterno said he suspended Bill Monday morning and told the team about the move that afternoon. "We're disappointed to have to take such measures," Paterno said, "but the interests of the squad are best served by putting Tom Bill on temporary suspension."
Paterno indicated he would review the situation once he was satisfied that Bill "had achieved an acceptable resolution to the problem." According to sources, Bill, who has one more year of eligibility remaining after this season, has been told to enroll in an alcohol treatment program if he ever wants to play for Penn State again.
Bill was unavailable for comment yesterday. His father, Edward, contacted at his home in Flemington, N.J., said: "As expected, Tom's very upset with himself."
Bill has 10 days to appear before Yorks or mail in his plea. If he pleads not guilty, a hearing date will be set. Public drunkenness carries fines ranging from $98.50 to $348.50.
Bill was cited for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct in March 1987 and paid $222 in fines, according to court records. In November 1988, Bill, then 20, received a citation for underage drinking and paid in $173.50 fines, court records show.
It is hard to tell how this latest development will affect Penn State's progress as the team enters the meat of its schedule. But if nothing else, Paterno's decision will bring a temporary end to the quarterback controversy that has raged in Happy Valley all summer.
Sacca, a 6-5 former high school All-America from Delran, N.J., came to Penn State last year as one of the most highly rated prospects in the country. He began his freshman year as a backup to Bill, but wound up starting five games of a 5-6 season after Bill suffered a knee injury against Rutgers. Sacca completed 54 of 146 passes (37 percent) as a freshman for 821 yards and four touchdowns.
Sacca's percentage was not good, but he did have his moments. He completed a 60-yard touchdown bomb to Michael Timpson in his first start against Temple and passed for 215 yards against Syracuse.
This summer, Sacca was relegated to second team on the first day of preseason practice, and although Paterno said the competition was close, the job was awarded to Bill. Paterno said he based his decision on Bill's ability to react more instinctively on the line of scrimmage.
Paterno alternated both quarterbacks in the first half of the Lions' 14-6 opening loss to Virginia, but Bill played the entire second half and Sacca wound up attempting only two passes. In last week's 42-3 rout of Temple, Bill completed six of 10 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns and Sacca mopped up in the fourth quarter.
During the week following the Virginia game, Sacca expressed concern and dissatisfaction over his lack of playing time and indicated he might transfer if nothing changed by the end of the season. He has been unavailable for comment ever since, and Paterno has accused the media of increasing tensions by reporting Sacca's comments.
"I think Tony Sacca is ready to play physically," Paterno said, "but he has to get more into the game, which I think he will. I think he can become the leader of this football team very quickly. We're hoping that's what will happen. The squad will look to him and help him. We'll get on with it."
According to Paterno, the transition should not be that difficult.
"All three quarterbacks have been alternating during passing drills and ballhandling drills," Paterno said. "The only difference is that Sacca has been working with the green (second unit) line instead of the blue line (first unit) during scrimmages."
Sacca Gaining Paterno's Confidence
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222140827/http://articles.philly.com/1989-10-21/sports/26118847_1_tom-bill-matt-nardolillo-dave-jakobBy Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: October 21, 1989Penn State quarterback Tony Sacca went into last Saturday's game against Syracuse teetering on a balance beam. One misstep, and the gifted sophomore from Delran (N.J.) High would fall from the starting job.
At least that's the impression State coach Joe Paterno gave when he indicated before the Nittany Lions' impressive 34-12 win over the Orangemen that it was high time for Sacca to show he was learning from his mistakes.
And even though Sacca's numbers against Syracuse were hardly the stuff of legend, he raised his stock in the eyes of Paterno.
"I think Tony's gotten over that little bit of immaturity he had," Paterno said this week. "He's no longer berating himself after each missed pass. He didn't let the (Carrier Dome) crowd bother him, and he didn't let that early interception bother him. The throw he made on the touchdown was a great throw, and he made the right decision there. The outside throw he made to O.J. McDuffie was a big-league throw with a lot of zip on the ball."
"Tony's becoming a real competitor," Paterno added. "He was in complete control of the huddle. He was ready, and the team was ready to play for him. I saw the team respond to his attitude. Obviously, we still have to be more consistent with our passing game. That's no secret. But his passing will get better. In the meantime, he's showing the kind of intangibles you need from a quarterback."
Paterno's endorsement of Sacca is a reversal from the thinly disguised criticism the coach had earlier for his quarterback. Earlier this season, when Sacca played behind Tom Bill, Sacca did not exactly endear himself to his coach when he indicated that transferring would be a possibility if he didn't see more action.
Sacca became the starter when Bill was suspended following the second game of the season after being cited by campus police on Sept. 18 for public drunkenness. Bill was reinstated the Monday before State's Oct. 7 game against Rutgers, and he played the last series against Syracuse after No. 2 quarterback Matt Nardolillo saw some action.
Against Syracuse, Sacca completed 6 of 14 passes for 77 yards, with two interceptions and a 7-yard TD pass to tight end Dave Jakob. Sacca was running a bootleg to the left when he threw an excellent off-balance pass to Jakob for the score. Paterno blamed himself for one of the interceptions, saying Syracuse's defense surprised him by putting a safety on State's tight end.
"I think quarterback will become a strong point for us," said Paterno, whose 5-1 team is idle today.
Thus, it appears Sacca has a stronger grip on the starting job. It's now his to lose.
SOUTHERN DUEL. Tennessee (No. 6 AP, No. 5 UPI) and Alabama (No. 10 AP, No. 8 UPI), who will match unbeaten records for the first time since 1973, play for first place in the Southeastern Conference today (Channel 10, noon) in Birmingham, and the Vols, almost totally reliant on the running game, must make up for the loss of tailback Reggie Cobb.
Cobb, who was averaging 123.2 yards a game, was kicked off the team this week for alleged drug use. Tennessee reportedly spent $10,000 for Cobb's treatment last year, when he failed three drug tests.
It will be up to redshirt freshman Chuck Webb, averaging 78.6 yards a game as Cobb's backup, to fill the void. That will be no easy chore against a stingy Tide defense that has allowed a mere 66.4 yards a game on the ground, best in the SEC.
A win for the Vols (5-0) could launch them toward their first unbeaten season in 34 years. They will be favored in the rest of their games. Alabama (5-0), which plays Penn State in Happy Valley next week, still has to play Auburn.
THE GENERAL. Oklahoma State may be down and on NCAA probation this year, but Cowboys quarterback Mike Gundy still seethes with competitiveness.
Gundy was supposed to sit out last week's game against awful Kansas State because of a bruised knee. But when it became apparent that OSU might lose, Gundy insisted on playing. So all he did was complete all eight of his passes for 120 yards and the winning TD, a 15-yarder to Brent Parker with 1 minute, 37 seconds to play, for a 17-13 victory.
On his first play, Gundy told his teammates in the huddle, "Would you rather go out and party after losing to Kansas State, or should we beat them?"
"That," Gundy said later, "generally gets linemen going."
Said Cowboys coach Pat Jones, "Mike is the leader of this team. If anyone thinks I am, he's crazy."
SALT IN THE WOUND. Michigan State has lost to top-ranked Notre Dame, second-ranked Miami and Michigan (No. 5 AP, No. 7 UPI) by a total of 17 points. But the Spartans received no sympathy from Michigan coach Bo Schembechler after last week's three-point loss to the Wolverines. "The best team won," Schembechler said. "Close only counts in horseshoes. When you lose, you lose."
MSU coach George Perles, as you might imagine, didn't appreciate Schembechler's remarks. "I guess the most profound statement he made was the best team won . . . a nice, humble statement."
The Spartans (2-3) test their resilience today (ESPN, 12:30 p.m.) when they host Illinois in a Big 10 matchup.
OH, REALLY? The Society of Eternal Optimists has a candidate in Missouri's Michael Jones. The Tigers were down 43-0 against Nebraska last week when Jones scored on a 1-yard run. Afterward, Jones said, "I thought it might turn the game around." Instead, Nebraska turned around and scored again to win, 50-7.
QUOTABLE. Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz on today's opponent, Southern Cal. ''They're like Colorado. They're on a mission. We're on a mission, too. But I don't know where."
Battleground Is Civility Now A No-show For Eagles Games At Vet?
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151230033512/http://articles.philly.com/1989-12-17/sports/26159095_1_fans-ostroff-gatesBy Jere Longman, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: December 17, 1989Jim Gallagher has been an Eagles season-ticket-holder for 19 years, ever since he was 11. He sits in the 200 level at Veterans Stadium. You see that many games, you come to expect certain things. One of them is that most of the violence will occur on the field, not in the stands.
"If I had seats in the 600 or 700 level, I'd have given them up long ago," said Gallagher, who lives in Acton, N.J. "Most of the games are turning into drunken brawls. The players are better behaved on the field. People who aren't fighting seem to be there to watch it. It's like going to watch gladiators - thumbs up or thumbs down. I want to see football. I'd stay home and watch TV if I wanted to see the World Wrestling Federation."
Fans who were there and psychologists who study such behavior believe the snowbrawling at the Eagles-Cowboys game last Sunday resulted from a volatile confluence of alcohol, insufficient snow removal, inadequate security, the ''bounty" hype and a legacy of rambunctious behavior by Philadelphia fans.
This ugly episode was simply the latest in a disturbing pattern of abusive fan behavior at the Vet, spectators said. In short, the stadium has become an uncomfortable place to watch Eagles games. Many women and children no longer attend, fans said, and the family atmosphere has disappeared. It is not uncommon to see people urinating on ramps, throwing ice, glass and other projectiles, and fighting in the seats.
The coarseness raises the broader, unsettling issue of fans in the seats becoming more of an intrusive element at sporting events as they emulate the aggressive behavior of athletes on the field.
"Communications have made quite a bit of change with respect to sports," said Steven Rosenberg, a Center City sports psychologist who works with several of the Flyers. "People are fantasizing more. They're trying to get into the game, into the heat of the action. They have dream weeks now, where you can be a pro player for a week. You fantasize about being an athlete. You start to feel the adrenalin pumping. There has to be an outlet. It's almost like getting into the game. People throw toilet paper or snowballs. They shout at the refs."
When Len Ostroff of Medford, N.J., and his wife arrived at the Vet last Sunday, they parked on a snow-covered lot, tramped down an unplowed sidewalk and gingerly navigated a slushy ramp to the stadium gates. At the entrances, Ostroff and other fans complained, few gates were open, and thousands of spectators were forced to wait in long, wet, inconvenient lines. Fans said only one turnstile was open to the 100-300 levels and that only one turnstile was open to the 400-700 levels at Gates A and B. The pushing and shoving led to panic and anger, they said.
"The stadium contributed to making people more irritated," said Ostroff, a season-ticket-holder for 15 years.
Ken Shuttleworth of Delran, N.J., arrived at the stadium gates 20 minutes before game time with his son. He got to his seat just before the 1 p.m. kickoff. The 200 or 300 fans behind him in line weren't so lucky. When Shuttleworth was standing in line, he figured something might be in the air. Something like snowballs.
"A guy behind me - he had to be 24 or 25 - was giving another guy a rundown on the legendary examples of bad behavior by Eagles fans," Shuttleworth said. "He told him about the snowballing of Santa Claus. He was obviously relating the story with pride."
It was almost as if the fans had an Animal House reputation to live up to.
"It was like they were coming into the Delta frat house," Shuttleworth said. "The spirit of John Belushi lives."
When Suzanne Fisher of Merion Station got to her seat in the 200 level, she was, as usual, one of only two women in her row. She said there used to be couples all around her and her husband and plenty of families tailgating in the parking lot. No more.
"I never see any women five rows above and below me on a regular basis," Fisher said. "Some guys bring their girlfriends. As far as families, mothers - you never see anyone like me. People go as long as they can until, finally, they've been defeated and they stop.
"It's mostly young guys now," Fisher said. "You get enough 25-year-old boys together, you're going to run into trouble if they're not supervised.
"The security people's hands are tied unless they see something personally. People are afraid to say anything. Maybe, if the security force was better disciplined, it would help. They are women, people who look like your grandmother. And older men. They are more like targets than security people."
An Eagles-Dallas game is always emotional. This one was fuel-injected by charges from the Cowboys that the Eagles had put bounties on kicker Luis Zendejas and quarterback Troy Aikman for the teams' Thanksgiving Day game. The Eagles had responded by calling the Cowboys crybabies. The NFL let the controversy simmer for two weeks before deciding the charges were unprovable. By then, the fans had been stoked white-hot by the possibility of brutish revenge and painful retaliation in the rematch.
"The NFL let this thing brew as long as it could," said Gallagher, the longtime season-ticket-holder. "Buddy (coach Buddy Ryan) used it to fire up his team. The fans wanted to see people hurt. People were there expecting blood. When they couldn't get enough on the field, they transferred it to the stands."
The nearest available weapon was unremoved snow.
"That was like leaving loaded guns," said Ostroff, whose tickets are in the 300 level. "The minute young fellows see snow, they're going to make snowballs. They don't have to be drunk. Kids will be kids."
So the snowballs rained down. Some were ice-packed. Some, according to police, were stuffed with batteries. A referee was decked. The announcers in the CBS-TV booth had to duck for cover.
"Look at the style of play of the Eagles and the way Ryan has shaped and molded that team - swaggering, cocky, taunting," said Joel Fish, director of the Center for Sports Psychology in Center City. "I think that very much influences fan behavior."
With cable television and all-sports channels, fans have more access than ever to sports. They can watch sports 24 hours a day. They are closer to the players, closer to the game. Sometimes, they can begin to feel almost like part of the team.
While fans have become closer to players, though, the relationship has become ambivalent, Fish said. On one hand, fans idolize athletes. On the other hand, they are repulsed by drug scandals and resentful of skyrocketing salaries. Loyalties become skewed. The Cowboys weren't the only targets of snowballs last Sunday. The Eagles drew incoming missiles as well. Even the Eagles' cheerleaders had to make a run for it.
"If there are mixed feelings toward athletes, fans are more likely to boo or treat them in a more aggressive way," Fish said. "Even toward the home team, there can be a lot of ambivalence. Look at the way Mike Schmidt was booed."
Alcohol, of course, can turn a brush fire into a towering inferno. The Eagles, as part of the NFL, are sending out undeniably mixed signals about drinking. On one hand, the entire NFL is afloat on beer sales. Each week, the best players are voted "Miller Lite Player of the Game." Budweiser frames the screen with its logo as it sponsors kickoffs on TV. Breweries pay big money to advertise on sports programming on the networks, which pay big money in rights fees to the teams, which pay big money in salaries to the players. On the other hand, the Eagles now have decided to ban beer sales at the Vet.
"The hypocrisy is so blatant," Fish said. "That's going to have to be addressed in the '90s. We can't have drug and alcohol problems in this country and wild scenes at the Vet and continue to have beer companies sponsor the overwhelming majority of sporting events. I think the owners are trying not to take responsibility for what they contribute to the problem."
"You have the 'Bud Bowl,' where famous athletes are competing for a case of beer. The premise is that the players will do anything they have to do in order to get that case of beer. By the time of the Super Bowl, I'll probably have seen that commercial 50 times. What is that communicating to anyone watching?"
Jim Gallagher doesn't have to be told what it communicates. Eight years ago, he had a broken leg, so he switched seats with a guy on the aisle. The guy who moved into his seat was hit by a piece of glass. He needed eight stitches in the eye.
"I glance over my shoulder every few minutes - you don't know what's coming down behind you," Gallagher said. "Every year, it gets a little worse. I blame the Eagles' management and the stadium management. The place is run shabbily, and the people treat it shabbily."
The next Eagles home game is the day before Christmas. While many will be in the Christmas spirit, Gallagher predicts that there will be more than a few Scrooges. People upset that those in the skyboxes can continue to drink beer. People defiantly opposing the beer ban in the rest of the stadium.
"The message is 'If you're rich, you can drink,' " Gallagher said. ''People are going to take vengeance, just to prove a point: 'You can't stop us, so you might as well start serving beer again.' It's going to be a nightmare."
The Right Stuff Roman Guard's Friends, Skills Equally Impressive
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102225730/http://articles.philly.com/1990-01-15/sports/25906935_1_dennis-seddon-school-day-cyoBy Ted Silary, Daily News Sports Writer
Posted: January 15, 1990Mike McKee sits at the right hand of power up to 10 times a week.
McKee, a 5-11 senior point guard, is driven back and forth to Roman Catholic almost every school day by none other than the mayor.
OK, so it's not Wilson Goode. That's because McKee resides in Delran, N.J., where the community's mayor is '63 Roman grad Rich Knight.
"He lives right around the corner and works for AT & T out on City Line Avenue," McKee said. "The first couple weeks (last school year), I was going with different people, sometimes taking the bus; it wasn't working out too well.
"Mr. Knight said he'd take me every day. It's out of his way, but he doesn't even charge. Just give him a cup of coffee and he's happy. To show our appreciation, we try to make sure we give him a real nice Christmas present each year. That's the kind of guy he is - he loves helping people."
The same could be said for Mike McKee, judging by how he performs on a basketball court.
Yesterday, McKee found it necessary to attempt just five field goals as Roman spanked host St. John Neumann, 90-74, in a Catholic South showdown played in front of a lively, full-house crowd.
But if you're dishing out 10 assists, doing 95 percent of the ballhandling, continually making sure that your team gets into its offense, going 7-for-9 at the line (he had 12 points total) and committing just four turnovers . . .
"Mike is so unselfish, we're constantly screaming at him to shoot," coach Dennis Seddon said. "He's probably the best three-point shooter on our team (14-for-30). He just doesn't take enough. But further down the line - for us to be successful, for Mike to prepare himself for college ball - he's going to have to take more shots.
"Mike is the traditional Catholic League point guard. He distributes the ball to the people who should get it, at the time they should get it."
Two years ago, the traditional Catholic League point guard was starting for Delran High. McKee fed, among others, his brother, Pat, and Penn State quarterback Tony Sacca as Delran won the South Jersey Group 2 championship (next-to-smallest schools, by enrollment), then lost in the state final.
In March 1988, Mike's father, Pat, a '61 Roman grad, suggested that Mike could better his situation, and increase his exposure, by perhaps transferring to a higher-profile school. Mike went to the Palestra to watch Roman play Monsignor Bonner in the South title game. Though Roman lost, McKee was impressed.
"Then I went to Roman to see the CYO tournament," Mike said. "Then I spent a day going to classes, checking things out. I liked everything - the kids, the teachers, the basketball players. You could see that Roman had so much tradition. You could feel it. It's been everything I thought it would be. I'm so proud to be graduating in the school's 100th year."
He will graduate impressively, too. McKee, who eyes a career in coaching or communications, ranks second in his class academically and, thanks to his performance in advanced-placement classes, carries a 4.0 grade-point average. He has scored 1,050 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
McKee has applied to Princeton, where his brother has played lightweight football and junior varsity basketball, and is being pursued by several Division II schools in New England - Merrimac, St. Michael's and St. Anselm's.
Yesterday, McKee thoroughly enjoyed himself passing to the likes of 6-5 Bernard Jones, 6-4 leaper Mike Watson and guard Marvin Harrison; all are juniors.
Jones, who's becoming a master at post-ups, shot 11-for-18 and 5-for-5 for 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Watson, who has exquisite timing and is ultraquick off his feet, shot 8-for-13 and 1-for-2 for 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Harrison, who next year will be a Division I recruit in both basketball and football, shot 10-for-19 for 20 points and added five assists and five steals.
Neumann received scoring from Juwan Campbell (20), Aaron Abbott (17) and Damon Reid (14), but was outrebounded, 36-19, and played woeful interior defense. For the most part, McKee was able to make entry passes at will.
"Ten assists? That's my high for Roman," he said. "One time I had 16 at Delran. I think that was very charitable, though.
"Mike and Bernard, they were horses inside. Marvin, he was just Marvin (running and working). The bench was really into the game and our crowd support was nice. Our coaches did a great job, too. They have the toughest job in the city. They don't get enough credit. It seems like it's easy to win with all the talent. But it's not. It takes work."
During his years in South Jersey, Pat McKee Sr. had maintained only slight contact with Roman. He followed the sports program through the newspapers, but attended no games.
"When my father mentioned Roman, you know what I remembered?" said Mike, who is averaging 8.2 points and 6.2 assists this season. "That time they played on TV when Speedy Morris was coaching and Lonnie McFarlan was playing (in 1980, final city title game, against Overbrook). I can remember that, even though I was young (second grade). Since I've been here, my dad has gotten a lot more involved with the alumni. He's really into it.
"With the kind of team we have, and the places we travel, it's hard not to want to be at Roman. Of course, we have open enrollment now. A teacher, Joe Randzo, has gone out a couple times this year to South Jersey grade schools to speak to students. Dennis Bohn (freshman basketball player; he's also from Delran and the son of Denny Bohn, a star for North Catholic's 1967 Catholic League champs) and I have gone with him to answer questions."
So far, no one has asked: What do you think about Delran politics?
"Mr. Knight must be good," McKee said. "One time my brother and I told him that some rims had been ripped down (at a playground) and he got them fixed right away."
He added, "And this was before I went to Roman."
Paul Vi Grad Will Wrestle For U.s. In The Soviet Union
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102215925/http://articles.philly.com/1990-01-15/sports/25907402_1_paul-vi-damon-rountree-highlandBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: January 15, 1990Rider's Adam Derengowski, a graduate of Paul VI High, will wrestle later this month for the U.S. national freestyle team at the prestigious Tbilisi Tournament in the Soviet Union.
The former state high school champion is in his fourth year at Rider, but he is being redshirted so he can wrestle for the national team. He is a two- time East Coast Conference champion at 118 pounds.
Rider has other South Jersey wrestlers, too:
* Mike Waltz, a junior from Paul VI who wrestles at 190 pounds and heavyweight, recently registered a third-place finish at the Wilkes College Tournament. He is a transfer from Clemson.
* Eric Childs, a sophomore from Rancocas Valley, finished fourth at Wilkes at 134 pounds.
* Rich Scarpa, a junior from Vineland, was 2-0 in his first two dual meets at 190, with both victories by pin.
* Three freshmen - Bob Aceto of Highland at 126, Chad Cassidy of Highland at 134 and 142, and Tom Walsh of Paul VI at 126.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL. Trish Sacca, a junior from Delran, is leading Fairfield University in scoring and rebounding. The 6-footer was averaging 21.3 points and 9.2 rebounds after her first 10 games. She scored a season high of 35 points in a 100-80 triumph over Memphis State.
Karen Dilmore, a sophomore from Williamstown, was Glassboro State College's leading scorer after nine games, averaging 13.7 points. Carol Hess, a senior from Bethel Christian, was second, averaging 8.2, with Michelle Minerva, a freshman from Collingswood, third at 8.1.
Jeanne Mooney, a senior from Collingswood, has become the fourth woman at Lehigh University to amass 1,000 points in her career. She reached the milestone when she scored 20 points in a victory over Yale. She scored 19 in a loss to Central Connecticut State the next day, bringing her total to 1,023.
Through her first 10 games, Aimee Weiss, a freshman from Bishop Eustace, was leading the Georgia Tech team with an average of 6.4 rebounds per game. She also was averaging 9.2 points.
MEN'S BASKETBALL. Damon Rountree, a sophomore from Kennedy, was instrumental in helping coach Herb Magee gain his 450th career victory at Philadelphia Textile.
Rountree stole the ball, was fouled and converted two free throws with 17 seconds left to give the Rams a 64-62 triumph over Bloomsburg in the championship game of the Bloomsburg Tournament. He finished with 19 points in 27 minutes.
After his first 11 games, Rountree was averaging 8.6 points and 2.7 rebounds and shooting 52 percent from the field.
Jim Kiefer, a Rutgers-Camden senior from Camden Catholic, has been named the college's athlete of the week after scoring a season high of 34 points and pulling down 17 rebounds in a 97-95 triple-overtime victory over Virginia State. Fifteen of his points came in the overtime periods, and he played 51 of a possible 55 minutes.
Kiefer is leading the Pioneers in scoring and rebounding through his first nine contests. He is averaging 18 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.
Brian O'Donnell, a senior from Camden Catholic, is second on the Rutgers- Camden team in scoring, averaging 15.4 points. Craig Lynch, a sophomore from Cherry Hill West, is second in rebounding, averaging seven rebounds.
Bob Green, a West Chester University sophomore from Cherokee, scored at the buzzer to give the Rams an 84-83 victory over Bentley in the championship game of the Bentley Tournament. Green, who wound up with 10 points in the title game, had tallied 16 in the Rams' 84-66 triumph over LeMoyne in the first round.
Green, who started three of West Chester's first 10 games, is averaging 6.2 points and 4.1 rebounds.
Tom Davis, a Delaware State junior from Willingboro, recently was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference's independent player of the week. Davis scored 64 points and hauled down 17 rebounds in leading the Hornets to triumphs over St. Francis (Pa.) and Bethune-Cookman. He shot 27 for 42 from the field and 10 for 15 from the foul line.
Davis recently passed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring with a 25- point effort against Mount St. Mary's.
Aaron Davis, a junior from Willingboro, started nine of Wichita State's first 10 games and averaged 12.2 points and 4.7 rebounds. He was shooting a team-leading 54.3 percent from the field and was pacing the Shockers in blocked shots with 10.
20-year-old Has Career Plans In Perfect Focus
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20130527175330/http://articles.philly.com/1990-01-28/news/25906390_1_production-assistant-school-radio-station-worksBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: January 28, 1990At age 20, Victoria A. Lim of Delran is on the way to achieving her dream - becoming a television news anchor.
The journalism bug bit Lim at age 13, and since then she has pursued the career relentlessly, compiling an impressive resume.
Although still a junior and a full-time student at Temple University, she works as a production assistant at Philadelphia's KYW-TV (Channel 3), holds one of the anchor roles on Temple Update, a half-hour news magazine show produced weekly by students enrolled in the Radio-TV-Film curriculum at the school, and works as assistant news director for the school radio station, WRTI-FM.
Lim, the daughter of Edward and Laurelee Lim, is way ahead of her peers.
At KYW-TV, she works 3:30 to 11:30 four days a week (five during school breaks) answering phones, digging up file tapes, helping on the assignment desk, assisting the newscast producer and typing "chryons" - that's the text you see superimposed on the screen to identify who's who in the video. "I am the youngest employee and the only one still in school and working part- time," she said.
This workload doesn't seem to slow her down much. She made the dean's list at school, plays soccer and lacrosse and intends to resume the piano lessons she took for about 15 years.
And this is how it all started.
"When I was in the seventh grade, the teacher needed someone to do a small article on the student of the month for the Delran middle school newspaper, so I said I'll do it," Lim recalled. "I interviewed the kid, wrote a little story and I liked doing it. I started doing more stories. Then I went to high school and did same thing and became editor of the high school paper."
In her senior year at Delran High School, she reported, anchored, edited and produced - for no pay - a segment for Storer Cable called Focus, interviewing leaders or outstanding people in Burlington County. Later, for five months, she covered high school sports as a free-lancer for the Burlington County Times.
A year and a half ago, she heard that KYW-TV needed vacation relief help and she sent in her resume. The station gave her a full-time job during the summer as a secretary in the personnel department.
"I did lots of little things," she said. "When People Are Talking was on the air, I was audience coordinator and production assistant for them. I also helped out the program department for a couple of specials. I was vacation relief help for various departments, I ran errands. Then last January, I got a call from the news department asking if I wanted to work for them."
She knows she's got a rough road ahead, and the competition is cutthroat. ''It's very hard to get up there because so many people want to do what you want to do," she said. "If you've got a job, there's always somebody who will do it for less and work more hours. You have to pay your dues.
"We have some people in my position who are 27 years old and married. I've been told by a lot of professionals in the business that I'm very, very far ahead.
"After I graduate, I plan to go to a smaller-market television station where I can not only report but can write and use the camera and edit - learn how to do everything. And work my way up to a bigger market, and a bigger market." Then, laughing at her own boldness, she adds, "I would love to reach network by age 30."
*Back when Mary Ann Kalb's life came to a fork in the road, the decision was easy.
It had been a question of selling houses or selling stocks.
She chose real estate.
"I think I was intrigued by the (real estate) field," said the Medford resident. "When it came to a choice of being a stockbroker or going into real estate, I hated to take the responsibility for somebody else's money in stocks."
That was 19 years ago, and in nearly two decades Kalb has sold a lot of houses. These days, she serves strictly as office manager for her employer.
"I've done very well," she said. "I got in the field at the right time. And I enjoyed it in the years when I did sell. I was in the million-dollar club many years. I have helped some families move four or five times, sold the same house four or five times.
"One of the rewards of a real estate career is the way you truly get involved in people's lives. You can't help them unless you get to know them. That's part of the field that's rewarding for most people who succeed in it. And in the years of real estate appreciation, it was fun to share their happiness over that."
She tends to throw herself into activities, and on Jan. 1 she plunged into a new one, beginning a one-year term as president of the Burlington County Board of Realtors.
"I think I'm a workaholic," she said. "When my children were young, I was president of the League of Women Voters and that was very time-consuming. I have done many civic things and I figured if I was going to work that hard I might as well get paid for it.
"When my children were grown, I went back and got my degree," she said. Then, after selling mutual funds for a while, she hooked up with the Hoopes- Alloway real estate firm, which begat Hoopes Better Homes and Gardens, which begat B. Gary Scott Realtors, whose Medford office she manages.
She and her husband, George, a former computer expert, have lived on Lenape Trail for 25 years. They have a married daughter, Merrill Watous in Eugene, Ore., and a 14-year old granddaughter.
To look at Joyce E. Bruch, now 67, you wouldn't think of Rosie the Riveter, as in the World War II popular song.
But that's what she was, briefly, while working on the production line for Avenger bombers at Eastern Aircraft in Trenton in 1943.
"I was not too long out of high school," said Bruch, a resident of Chesterfield for more than 50 years. Working in a defense plant "was the thing to do in those days," she remembered. Although she did a little welding, her main job was fitting fairings (a kind of collar) around the turret gun on the bombers. Most of the men were off in the service, she said, ''so the women supported the work."
She got married in '43, worked a couple of years more, quit to begin a family but then went back to work as a clerk for the military. It was the beginning of a 34-year career as a federal employee, and since her retirement in 1985 she has become active in the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE).
She was elected president of the Trenton-Delaware Valley Chapter 127 of NARFE in 1989 and re-elected for 1990 and has been named chairwoman of the 29th annual state convention of the New Jersey Federation of NARFE Chapters scheduled for May 21-23 in Ocean City.
Early in her career, she became a consolidated property officer at Fort Dix, then a supply officer at the Satellite Communications Station in Lakehurst, and, moving up all the time, commissary officer at Fort Dix. She also simultaneously ran the commissaries at Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth in New York state. It was comparable, she said, to "running a supermarket."
In 1975, she was named outstanding civilian employee of the year at Fort Dix, and in 1981, she transferred to Hawaii, where she ran an Army commissary for 4 1/2 years before her retirement.
John Chiesa, an osteopath, says he "must be doing something right."
For the second time, Chiesa has been chosen for an Excellence in Teaching award by the Foundation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Chiesa, 43, a Medford resident, was one of 10 professors selected by students and colleagues for this honor in 1982-83. He received a commemorative scroll and a $1,000 stipend to enhance his teaching efforts. To be selected again this year "came as a complete surprise," Chiesa said.
"I was notified by the dean, and there was a ceremony in Piscataway," he said. "I can use the money to purchase educational materials - books, slides, any resource that I can use in my teaching."
Section head of the gastroenterology unit at the Stratford Division of Kennedy Memorial Hospitals, Chiesa is assistant professor, Department of Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine. He has been teaching at the Stratford-based school since January 1980.
"I see patients and I do clinical work," Chiesa explained, "but I'm also a full-time teacher. I chose academics because I enjoy the stimulation. I like the idea of seeing young students come in here and in five to seven years make the change from neophyte to trained physician."
Chiesa and his wife, Lana, are the parents of two sons - Kris, 14, a student at Bishop Eustace High School, and Drew, 11, a student at Taunton Forge School.
Chiesa's goal is to become a full professor - and yes, he'd like to "go for the hat trick" and repeat his award.
When Karen McGann needed help with eighth-grade mathematics, she found it at Microcampus, a Moorestown tutoring center. She called on Microcampus again when high school geometry threatened to swamp her. Now a 17-year-old senior at Moorestown High School with most of her math problems behind her, McGann is passing on the kind of help she once received.
And recently, the Education Department at Microcampus commended the teenager for her outstanding efforts at the facility as a volunteer tutor working with Down's syndrome children and adults.
"The program is eight weeks long, and we work mostly with computers," McGann said. "Last fall, I worked with a little boy, Mark, on math, spelling and reading. This fall, my student was Franny, a 23-year-old woman. She would write stories and I would help her with spelling."
Franny, she said, did most of the work: "The ideas were hers, and the computer generated the illustrations."
McGann said that during the tutoring process, she usually learns as much from her pupils as they do from her.
The daughter of Francis McGann Jr., a shopowner, and Lois McGann, a homemaker, McGann has two older sisters already attending college and a younger brother.
Delran's Rosenbaum, Wright Excel At State Meet
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102192449/http://articles.philly.com/1990-03-11/sports/25901678_1_sean-killion-swimmers-freestyle-eventsBy Joe Berkery, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 11, 1990Vineland High opened last night's NJSIAA boys' state swimming championships at Princeton University by winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1 minute, 39.05 seconds.
So when Vineland lined up for the 400 freestyle relay to close the meet, coach John Casadia said, his swimmers were feeling confident. But in lane two was Delran's team, including Jason Rosenbaum and Pete Wright. Rosenbaum had won state titles in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, and Wright had won state titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle events. No team scores were kept.
Delran won the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:11.21, and Vineland finished third with a 3:16.36, edged by St. Joseph's of Metuchen by a hundredth of a second, 3:16.35.
Casadia was all smiles, though, after picking up a gold and a bronze in the relay events. Vineland did not win any relay events last year.
"These kids did great," he said of the Clan swimmers. "This is 100 percent a total high-school swimming team. We don't have guys swimming for the U.S. nationals and all these other organizations. This was a total team effort."
Casadia said his swimmers weren't intimidated by the likes of Rosenbaum and Wright.
"They were confident," he said. "You could just see they were ready. I don't think they were nervous at all."
Rosenbaum, a junior, surpassed last year's performances in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. He not only repeated as state titlist in both events, he also set two state records.
In the 50, Rosenbaum's 20.72 in the qualifying round broke the state record of 20.93 set in 1985 by Larry Block of St. Joseph's. In the 100, his qualifying time broke the state mark set by Eric Anton, of Paramus, in 1986. His winning time for the 50 was 20.90, and his winning time in the 100 was 46.04.
"I guess there was a little pressure to repeat," Rosenbaum said after winning his second title. "I don't think I was quite as nervous this year. It was more fun this time. Maybe it's because I'm more experienced now."
Winning the 200 and 500 freestyle events was sweet revenge for Wright. The junior finished second in both events last year.
"I was more nervous this morning in the qualifying round, because I hadn't swum in a while," Wright said. "It feels great. I just tried to stay loose and go with the flow."
Rosenbaum and Wright are already setting goals for next year. Rosenbaum is looking to break the national record of 20.19 in the 50 freestyle. Wright said he was chasing Sean Killion's state records in the 200 and 500 freestyle. Killion, a 1986 graduate of Cherry Hill East, posted a 1:39.71 in the 200 and a 4:24.04 in the 500.
Yesterday, Woodstown's John Farschon also set state records in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Farschon finished with a 1:51.17 in the 200 medley, breaking former Schalick swimmer Brent Mathers' record of 1:52.31 set in 1986. His record time of 51.18 in the backstroke was set in the qualifying round, upending the 51.76 mark set by Richard Hughes, of Moorestown, in 1982. Farschon won in the championship round with a 51.72.
THE RESULTS
200-yard medley relay: 1, Vineland, 1:39.05. 2, Lenape, 1:40.02. 3, Bergen Catholic, 1:40.94. (5, Mainland, 1:42.23.)
200 freestyle: 1, Pete Wright, Delran, 1:40.52. 2, Sean Gowrie, Morris Hills, 1:42.40 3, Matt Meier, Cherry Hill East, 1:43.95.
200 ind. medley: 1, John Farschon, Woodstown, 1:51.17. 2, Kent Tschannen, North Hunterdon, 1:51.83. 3, Dan Baumann, Teaneck, 1:53.77. (4, George Willard, Willingboro, 1:54.00. 5, Larry DeLucia, St. Joseph's, 1:58.83. 6, Sean Maher, Lenape, 1:59.14.)
50 freestyle: 1, Jason Rosenbaum, Delran, 20.90. 2, Dean Hutchinson, Delran, 21:39. 3, Pete Holcroft, Rancocas, 21.50.
100 butterfly: 1, Dan Baumann, Teaneck, 50.26. 2, Rob Morris, Moorestown, 51.05. 3, Kent Tschannen, North Hunterdon, 51.60.1
100 freestyle: 1, Jason Rosenbaum, Delran, 46.04. 2, Pete Holcroft, Rancocas, 47.05. 3, Geoff Wilcox, Ocean City, 47.37.
500 freestyle: 1, Pete Wright, Delran, 4:28.67. 2, Sean Gowrie, Morris Hills, 4:33.28. 3, Jeff Pestrichelli, River Dell, 4:39.30. (4, Matt Meier, Cherry Hill East, 4:46.74).
100 backstroke: 1, John Farschon, Woodstown, 51.72. 2, Bret Buonadonna, Vineland, 52.81 3, George Willard, Willingboro, 53.03.
100 breaststroke: 1, Jack Crawford, Morristown, 58.64 2, Rob D'Aurizio, Fair Lawn, 1:00.85. 3, Mike Harrison, West Morris, 1:01.40.
400 freestyle relay: 1, Delran, 3:11.21 2, St. Joseph's, 3:16.35. 3, Vineland, 3:16.36. (5, Shawnee, 3:23.94. 6, Moorestown, 3:24.42.)
Vermes Is Realizing His Father's Dream
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160104144613/http://articles.philly.com/1990-05-27/sports/25886712_1_peter-vermes-professional-soccer-soviet-tanksBy Jere Longman, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 27, 1990In November 1956, Michael Vermes, father of U.S. soccer star Peter Vermes, decided that his immediate absence was required from Hungary. Soviet tanks rolling through the streets may have had something to do with it.
The elder Vermes gathered his wife, an aunt and an uncle, and made a run for it. Actually, he made five runs for it. Four times, he was caught and turned back. One time, he was stopped 10 yards from the border. Another time, border guards used him for target practice and shot him through the leg. At that point, two things were out of the question. One was a doctor's appointment. Two was turning back. So Vermes fashioned his own bandage and kept going.
Eventually, his group was stopped again, and he and the others were herded into a boxcar for shipment back to Budapest. That's what the soldiers said, but Michael Vermes knew what could happen with refugee freight. It could be lost and never found. He and his wife escaped from the boxcar, and this time they made it to the Austrian border. He figures they walked 35 miles in all. Part of this little nature hike was through minefields.
"We didn't have enough sense or time to be scared," he said.
On Christmas Eve '56, Michael and Magdalena Vermes, separated from his aunt and uncle, landed in the United States at an Army camp in North Jersey. Some Christmas present. He was happy to be in America and he wasn't. His wife was pregnant, and at least she and the baby would be safe. But there's nothing like having your career interrupted by a procession of Soviet tanks. Vermes had been a professional soccer player in Hungary. Eight of his club teammates were starters on the 1954 Hungarian national team, which finished second at the World Cup. It is considered by many the greatest soccer team ever. In America, football was a popular, brutish game played by men who appeared as if they had been inflated for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Soccer was nothing.
In the States, Vermes kicked around with a few club teams until the mid-' 60s, but his impact was in coaching soccer, not playing. He coached the sport for 24 years in South Jersey, teaching it to his three sons and opening a soccer complex off Route 73 in Winslow Township. Eventually, the family settled in Delran and his youngest son, Peter, became a star, first at Delran High, then for Rutgers and the 1988 Olympic team.
In 1988-89, Peter Vermes became the first American to play on a first- division Hungarian team. This season, he became the first American to play on a first-division club in the Netherlands. Now, Vermes is a forward and the best player on a U.S. team that will soon make its first appearance in the World Cup in 40 years.
"Some people are born with a basketball; he was born with a soccer ball," Michael Vermes said of his son.
The U.S. team will make its World Cup debut June 10 in Florence, Italy, against Czechoslovakia, then play Italy in Rome on June 14 and Austria in Florence on June 19. Several months ago, the United States was considered a mere novelty, soccer's version of the Jamaican bobsled team. Now the Americans think they have a chance to advance to the second round. A slight chance, but a chance. Some people hear that and say, right, just as soon as they sign up Michael Jordan and legalize the dunk. Peter Vermes says, hey, anything can happen. Both Mike Tyson and the Berlin Wall fell, didn't they?
"Guys are starting to think we do have an opportunity for second-round qualification," Vermes said. "Before, we were hoping to get a little respect, hoping not to get blown out. The way I look at it, nobody knows anything about the U.S. team. I think some teams may take us a little easier. Or they'll get too worried about losing to the team they can least afford to lose to. That first game against Czechoslovakia, it's the first game for them and us. Both teams are gonna be tentative. Who knows what's gonna happen?"
Vermes is 23 now. Already, he has been playing soccer for 20 years. Some kids have basketball goals in the yard. Peter Vermes had two soccer goals. Later, he tried one year of baseball, but like doctors, athletes tend to specialize these days. If he would excel at anything, Vermes decided, it would be soccer. On his way to school, he played soccer at the bus stop. When he went to a friend's house, he didn't just walk over. He dribbled a soccer ball over.
"I'm serious when I say everywhere I went, I had a soccer ball with me," Vermes said.
Professionally, though, soccer is a dead-end street in the United States. Getting a reputation is tough. You always leave home without it. When Vermes showed up in Holland this past season, the newspapers greeted him with headlines that translated, roughly, "Americans? We don't need no stinking Americans!"
"A few of the guys had quotes saying, 'Why did the coach and manager buy this player to play here? How's he gonna help us?' " Vermes said. "After the first scrimmage, six guys were saying, 'This is the guy we've been needing for years.' "
Vermes played for the club team in Volendam, a fishing village 20 minutes north of Amsterdam. After a few games, he was as popular as a mug of Heineken. He lived on a dike, and on Saturday nights, the Volendam fans would walk past after last call and begin clapping and chanting his name in their sudsy revelry. Or they would ring the doorbell at 2 a.m. and ask for an autograph. At the games, they would fly an American flag with "Peter Vermes" written in the field of stars.
Of course, soccer fans can sometimes make you feel as if you were at the average Eagles-Cowboys game, too. Dutch fans have been known to lob coins, rocks, tar-covered bricks, cherry bombs and assorted bottle rockets at each other, and at the players. That is precisely why the Dutch, along with the English, will be sequestered on the island of Sardinia for the first round of this year's World Cup.
On a visit last fall, Vermes' fiancee, Susan Starr, was conked on the head by an unidentified flying object.
"I think it was a penny," Vermes said. "They're always throwing something. Usually, they don't throw at players, but when they do, they shoot fireworks onto the field. You're standing there and something lands next to you and blows up and you're like, 'What happened?' You can't believe it. It's sort of crazy sometimes. It's something you're not used to, playing in America."
Obviously, Vermes hasn't paid too many visits to Veterans Stadium lately during football season.
Forgive him. To him, football means kicking a round ball, not a spheroid.
"Some kids dream of playing in the World Series," Vermes said. "I dreamed of playing in the Olympics and the World Cup."
A father's interrupted dream can now be realized by his son.
Talented Sons The 1980 Phillies Produced Some Fine Offspring
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922112858/http://articles.philly.com/1990-08-04/sports/25933143_1_phillies-ruben-amaro-carolina-leagueBy M.G. Missanelli, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: August 04, 1990The bases were loaded with Royals and the Phillies were leading, 4-1, in the top of the ninth inning when Frank White sailed a foul pop toward the first-base dugout. Bob Boone, the catcher, threw off his mask in pursuit. Pete Rose, the first baseman, darted in as backup. Boone squeezed, but the ball popped off the tip of his mitt. The fate of the 1980 Phillies hung in the balance . . . when Rose snatched the ball from the night air for the second out. Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson. The Phils had won the World Series.
Bret Boone and Pete Rose Jr. were standing by the visiting team dugout at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, Md., last week, waving bats and talking about old times.
"Oh, I remember the play," Boone said. "It's almost like Petey and I have been bonded by it."
It was an hour before their single-A Carolina League game was to begin, and Boone, who plays second base for the Peninsula (Va.) Pilots, and Rose, a third baseman for the Frederick Keys, were reliving some shared memories.
"Petey and I used to run around the clubhouse together, take turns being batboy, shag balls," Boone said. "And then things happen and you go your separate ways. We hadn't seen each other in about six years before we ran into each other in the same minor league. Funny how things work out sometimes, isn't it?"
The 1980 Phillies are gathering this weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the team's first-ever World Series championship. Their legacy, however, is more than a championship trophy.
Three sons of men who wore the red and white pin stripes in 1980 are currently chasing the dream of making it to the big leagues - with one in waiting. Boone, the son of Bob Boone, is a highly regarded prospect in the Seattle Mariners' system at Peninsula. Rose, the son of Pete Rose, is making progress for the Baltimore Orioles' club in Frederick. Ruben Amaro Jr., son of then-first base coach Ruben Amaro, is with the California Angels' triple-A team in Edmonton, Alberta. The player in waiting is Ryan Luzinski, the son of former leftfielder Greg Luzinski, an 11th-grader who has already caught the attention of pro scouts.
Sons of major-leaguers are scattered throughout minor-league baseball. A few, such as Ken Griffey Jr., brothers Roberto Alomar and Sandy Alomar Jr., and Barry Bonds, have even made a splash in the big leagues. But perhaps no team in the major leagues has spawned as many future pros as the 1980 Phillies.
*
When Bret Boone was 6 months old, he was walking. When he was 10 months old, he hit a Wiffle Ball over his parents' roof.
"That's when I knew I had something special," said Bob Boone.
According to former Phillie Richie Hebner, Boone's son routinely amazed the big-league players with his exploits.
"The kid had to be 8 years old, and he's out there shagging flies, catching balls behind his back," Hebner recalled. "His coordination was something else. I don't think any of the players who were around back then would be surprised that Bret is now in professional baseball."
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Boone was drafted in the fifth round in June after a three-year career at the University of Southern California, where he was the school's all-time RBI leader, ahead of notable former Trojans Mark McGwire, Fred Lynn and Dave Kingman. He is currently struggling at .244, but he made the Carolina League's first-half all-star team and remains one of Peninsula's brightest stars.
"Bret's ability in the field is right up there with anybody in the big leagues," said Jim Nettles, the Peninsula manager. "Offensively, we're trying to get him to cut down on his swing. He's hit a lot of home runs in college, and he thinks he's a home run hitter. He has to learn that making contact will be good enough for him because he has natural pop in his bat."
Boone, 21, learned the game on the fields of Medford, N.J., before moving to Orange County when the Phils sold his dad to the Angels after the 1981 season. He says he's still adjusting to the pros.
"The pitching's tougher," said Boone, a righthanded hitter, whose grandfather, Ray Boone, was also a major-leaguer. "I went into an 0-for-23 slump this year, and that had never happened to me. The biggest difference, though, is that people aren't around to do things for you like they were in college. You're on your own out here."
Physically, Boone resembles his mother, Sue, more than he does Bob - he is shorter than his dad and has blond hair.
"People say that I'm less serious than my dad, but we relate well, we talk baseball all the time," he said. "I've always wanted a separate identity, though - I don't want to be judged as Bob Boone's kid. The one thing I remember him telling me, though, is have fun and don't let baseball run your life.
"I still don't know everything about the game. But I feel in my heart that I have what it takes to be a major-league player, and it's just a matter of refining my skills. I've never even thought about not making it."
Pete Rose Jr. has a strip of white athletic tape stretched across his locker with the words "To the Top for Pop" written on it in black Magic Marker. It has been up since Rose returned from a seven-day visit with his father in Cincinnati, following his dad's sentencing for tax evasion.
"We talked every day, and his message to me basically was two words: big leagues," said Rose. "My goal is to do this for him."
He won't talk much about his father's five-month prison sentence, only to answer with a question: "Suppose it was your father who was going to prison, how would you feel?"
It's tough enough pursuing a career in baseball being Pete Rose's kid, without having to deal with all that Rose has faced. In his two years in the minors, he has had to deal with heckling and questions about his father's gambling, and now his prison sentence, all while learning to hit the curve ball. But he says he's not feeling sorry for himself.
"I'd like to think I've come out of it OK," said Rose, 20. "I try to block out most of the heckling. But if you love your dad and you're human, it has to bother you.
"I've been dealing with being Pete Rose's son since Little League. Until I get my 4,257th hit, people are going to come to see Pete Rose play, not Pete Rose Jr. But that's toughened me up, I think, made me work harder."
Though he is about three inches taller than his father, at 6-1, 180 pounds, Rose bears a startling resemblance to the young man pictured on Pete Rose's rookie card - complete with trademark crew cut. Rose, a lefthanded swinger, doesn't run to first base on a walk. He does look each pitch into the catcher's glove, much as his dad used to. Whether he is as good a prospect, though, remains to be seen.
A slick fielder, Rose hasn't hit much in the minors. He is hitting .246 with just one home run in 77 games with Frederick. Last year with Erie, then the Orioles' single-A team, he hit .276.
"He's a little slower afoot than his dad," said former major-leaguer Wally Moon, the Keys' skipper. "Hopefully, he can pick up some power in the next couple of years to make up for that."
Rose's fondest memories of the 1980 Phillies center on his father's relationship with Mike Schmidt.
"I remember my dad calling Schmitty 'Herbie Lee' and Schmitty calling my dad 'Chuck,' as in Charlie Hustle," said Rose. "Schmitty really opened up around my dad, and I think that helped him be the great player that he was that year. Boy, that was really a fun year."
If Ryan Luzinski were a senior in high school, some professional baseball scouts say, the 6-1, 220-pound son of Greg "The Bull" Luzinski would have been a No. 1 draft pick this past June.
Major-league teams will have to wait at least two years, however, since Luzinski is just going into his junior year at Holy Cross High in Delran.
Luzinski hit .428 with two home runs and 25 RBIs as a starting sophomore catcher. In his first appearance in a varsity uniform, he was named the most valuable player in a 10-team preseason tournament Holy Cross competed in in southern Florida. Currently, he is playing with the Medford American Legion team, which has advanced to the final eight in the state playoffs.
Luzinski was just 6 when the Phils won the Series, but he says he remembers it.
"My mom and I were sitting in the right-field stands, and right before the final out she said, 'Let's get in the clubhouse,' Luzinski said. "I remember the champagne shooting all over the place and clowning around with Petey. It was a great night."
One of the reasons Greg Luzinski retired at the relatively young age of 34, he said, was to spend more time with his family. Today, he is the head coach of the baseball and football teams at Holy Cross. His son is glad.
"For the most part, I learned to play the game from other people because he wasn't there," said Ryan Luzinski. "His first year out of baseball, he watched me swing and told me I was terrible. In a way, I appreciated that because it told me I had a lot to learn and that he was willing to teach me. The one thing he told me that has stuck is not to be intimidated by anyone. Because if you think you can't do it, you won't."
When the Amaro boys were hanging around the Phils' clubhouse in 1980, the major-league prospect was supposed to be David, a hard-hitting first baseman at Penn Charter High. A debilitating wrist injury finished David's professional career in single-A ball, however, and his younger brother has since emerged.
Ruben Amaro Jr., a 5-10, 170-pound outfielder who played on Stanford's 1987 national championship team, is currently hitting .271 for the Edmonton Trappers of the triple-A Pacific Coast League. He is a leadoff hitter who gets on base (he had 105 walks in 115 games for single-A Palm Springs in 1988) and can steal.
"Hopefully, I've reached the stage of prospect instead of suspect," said Amaro, 25. "Things are going pretty well. I'm so close to making it, I think I'll stick around for a while longer. There was a time when I didn't ever think I'd get this close."
Amaro wasn't even sure he would seek a career in professional baseball until the Phillies went to the World Series in 1980. He was 15 years old then, a part-time batboy who said he got turned on to the game by studying the professional habits of players like Schmidt and Manny Trillo.
"I just learned so much about the game that year," Amaro said. "I was just in awe of the way those guys handled themselves as professionals. And I made the decision that year that I was going to make myself into a baseball player.
"In a way it's strange that there are three of us (in the minor leagues) right now. But if you were around the game as much as we were - and fortunately the team officials allowed us to be around - you couldn't help but pick up a few things about the game. There has to be a correlation between the excellence that came out of that team that year and the young kids who hung around."
Jersey Wahoos Swimming Team Still On Its Lengthy Hot Streak
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160223111634/http://articles.philly.com/1990-08-12/news/25932006_1_wahoos-swimmers-john-carrollBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: August 12, 1990The Jersey Wahoos Swim Club in Mount Laurel has been producing quality swimmers for more than a decade and a half, and this year's crop is no exception.
The club trains some of the best swimmers in South Jersey in a year-round program. During the fall the program consists of about 450 swimmers ages 5 to 18, and in the summer there are about 150 who train, according to fourth-year head coach John Carroll. Many of the swimmers are standouts on their high school teams.
Last week, four high-school-age members of the Wahoos qualified for the Junior Nationals, which consists of some of the top 18-and-under swimmers in the country and concluded yesterday in Boca Raton, Fla.
The four are Brian Parker, who will be a junior at Camden Catholic High; Sprague Wise, a senior at Lenape; Gwen Mayo, a sophomore at Camden Catholic, and Ann Czerniakowski, an incoming freshman at Camden Catholic.
Parker qualifed in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle. Wise entered in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. Mayo was in the 200-meter breaststroke, and Czerniakowski qualified in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. (Athletes qualified based on achieving certain times during meets.)
In addition, the Wahoos qualified 12 swimmers for a zone meet in Oakton, Va. This is for swimmers who barely missed qualifying for the Junior Nationals.
The female competitors were Jamie Burroughs, a senior from Gateway; Natalie and Gwen Wolfinger, who are sophomore twins at Camden Catholic; Dawn Sexton, a sophomore at Camden Catholic; Lauren Newan, a freshman at Cherry Hill West, and Carolyn Evangelista, a senior at Shawnee.
The male qualifiers were Will Powley, a senior at Eastern; Matt Wineriter, a senior at Delran; Jeff Thompson, a junior at Lenape; Joe Loza, a freshman at Cinnaminson; Andrew Grossman, a freshman at Cherry Hill East, and Brian Murray, a freshman from Moorestown.
In addition, Delran senior Jason Rosenbaum, a former member of the Wahoos, qualified for the Senior Nationals, which took place earlier this summer in Austin, Texas.
Rosenbaum also competed in the Olympic Sports Festival in Minneapolis with his former high school teammate Peter Wright. Carroll says Wright is transferring to Peddie Prep in Hightstown for his senior year.
The success of the Wahoos members is due mainly to the athletes' dedication, according to Carroll. He estimates that they practice 11 months a year. During the summer the athletes have two practice sessions every Monday through Friday totaling about 4 1/2 hours each day. They also work out in one session on Saturday.
"Another reason for their success is that there is a great coaching staff," said Carroll. "I have 10 or 11 assistants who have been working with me for three or four years and they do a great job."
Carroll says that the tradition of the 16-year-old team also helps to attract the cream of the crop. Probably the most prominent ex-Wahoo is former Cherry Hill East and University of California standout Sean Killion, who recently won three medals in the Goodwill Games and qualifed for the U.S. World Cup team that will compete in January in Australia.
Carroll is most impressed with the discipline his athletes show both in and out of the pool.
"I find that these people are usually among your better students," he said. "There is no idle time. Everything is organized and they really know how to use their time."
*
Triton athletic director and cross country coach Harry Beaudet is looking for an assistant cross country coach. Beaudet's assistant from last year, Jeff Evans, has taken the head coaching job at Audubon.
Applicants must have or obtain a substitute teacher's certificate. Interested people should send resumes to Beaudet at Triton.
Beaudet also announced that fall physicals for Triton would be conducted Aug. 22. Girls' soccer, boys' cross country and boys' soccer participants should report at 8 a.m. Field hockey, girls' cross country and cheerleaders report at 9 a.m. and football and girls' tennis candidates should report at 11 a.m.
A number of local players have acquitted themselves well playing in the prestigious Sonny Hill Basketball League.
Omar Foote, a 6-foot-5 senior-to-be at Haddon Heights, was averaging 11.5 points per game through the end of the regular season.
In the Bill Cosby Future League (for players entering ninth, 10th or 11th grade), Paulsboro junior point guard Quincy Lee was averaging 14 points per game. Also through the regular season, Bishop Eustace 6-5 junior Mike Melchionni was averaging 9 points per game.
Sacca Hoping To Fit In Paterno's Pocket
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922060145/http://articles.philly.com/1990-08-13/sports/25934002_1_penn-state-tony-sacca-quarterbacksBy Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: August 13, 1990On this steamy afternoon in late July, the gibes were being dealt around as freely as the pizza in the Sacca family's home in Delran.
Tony Sacca, the Penn State quarterback, teased older sister Trish, a superb basketball player for Fairfield University, that he could still take her one- on-one. Lefthanded yet. Then Tony turned to younger brother John Jr., an incoming Nittany Lions freshman, and with a wry grin warned him that Penn State had recruited "about eight other quarterbacks."
When a visitor asked John why he had selected Penn State over the bevy of other schools that recruited him out of Delran High, Tony whirled around, faced his brother and said, laughing: "Yeah, John, why are you going to Penn State, anyway?"
"Not because of you," John replied.
There have been times during his first two checkered years in Happy Valley that the 6-foot-4 3/4, 227-pound Tony Sacca has wondered why he selected Penn State. After all, Penn State is known for Joe Paterno, linebackers and tailbacks. Quarterbacks are supposed to simply blend into State's ultraconservative offense like leaves in the Mount Nittany landscape. Hand the ball to the tailback. Don't turn over the ball. Don't do anything stupid.
"I know there are some people who are disappointed in me," said Sacca, 20, who hopes to begin fulfilling his enormous potential this week when the Nittany Lions open preseason practice for the Sept. 8 opener against Texas. ''But I'm not discouraged. I know my stats haven't been good, but I've gotten a lot of playing time, probably more than if I had gone somewhere else. So I can't complain. I'm looking to take what I've learned the past two years and make it work for me the next two years.
"I'm just looking forward to playing football and putting everything else aside."
Everything else includes a 1989 season in which Sacca completed only 41 percent (56 for 137) of his passes for six touchdowns. He was intercepted five times.
Everything else includes Sacca's suggestion after last season's opener that he might consider transferring if he didn't get more playing time. It includes getting called on Paterno's carpet in the spring after Sacca told a reporter that State's offensive philosophy hurts a quarterback's statistics.
"(Paterno) called me in and showed me stats from average quarterbacks Penn State has had, and how those stats were better than mine," Sacca said. "I've been called in about a few other things, too, usually after something that's been in the newspapers. But it's no big deal. Things are fine. I just say things sometimes."
Sacca's parents, John and Peg, both schoolteachers, both outgoing and cordial, have always encouraged their four children to speak their minds.
In April, Paterno spoke his mind right back. On the day of the annual Blue- White game that concludes spring practice, Paterno, who rarely criticizes one of his players in public, threw some jabs at Sacca. He said Sacca still had lapses in concentration, still made bad decisions and still lacked touch on his short passes. In short, Paterno made it clear that he wasn't thrilled with Sacca's spring.
"He didn't think I had a good spring, but the other coaches told me they thought I had a decent spring," Sacca said. "And I thought I had a pretty decent spring. But he's right about some of his criticisms. There are things I have to work on, I know that. I have to be more consistent."
Asked to describe his relationship with Paterno, Sacca said, "It's about the same as most other players on the team - not real close. As far as I know, he really doesn't get involved too personally with any of us. Besides, I think players at most schools are much more involved with their position coaches, and I'm very involved with (quarterbacks coach) Jim Caldwell. He's a great guy. He really knows what he's doing."
Sacca paused, then smiled and said, "Joe does get pretty involved with you on the practice field, and that's usually when he yells at you."
Sacca made it quite clear that he can withstand the yelling and the criticism, and that he believes strongly that he can emerge as the quarterback Paterno wants him to be, even if it requires conforming to an offense that may not allow his talents to flourish.
"I have a chance to make this my team, and I'd like nothing more than to help us win a national championship before I'm gone," he said. "Sure, I've doubted the way I've played sometimes, but I've never doubted my abilities. I'm very excited about this season. I can't wait to get going. I've learned a lot."
Despite his rough ride so far, Sacca earned a place in Penn State football history by becoming the first true freshman to start at quarterback in the Paterno era, which will expand to 25 years this season. In 1988, Sacca started five games after the three quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart - Tom Bill, Lance Lonergan and Doug Sieg - all went down with injuries.
Last season, Sacca started the last nine games, including a win in the Holiday Bowl over Brigham Young. But Sacca didn't win the job the way he would have liked. He became the starter because Bill was suspended after being cited by campus police for public drunkenness. Bill left school in January to enter an alcohol rehabilitation center. Now a senior, he has re-enrolled and is expected to be with the team this season.
"I saw Tommy over the summer, and he looks like he's in great shape," Sacca said. "I guess his shot at playing depends on me. I'm getting the chance to run the show."
Sacca, who expected to be redshirted, was thrilled with the chance to play as a freshman. In retrospect, though, he believes that chance may have blunted his progress. Jim Donoghue, his coach at Delran High and a fine quarterback at Syracuse during the mid-1970s, agrees.
"I pushed very hard for Tony to be redshirted," Donoghue said. "But they were left with no choice, I guess. I mean, there he was, a young colt who had just turned 18 years old, being thrown into the fire. In my mind, it's too big a jump to go from the Burlington County League Freedom Division to major- college football in front of 85,000 people.
Donoghue, who orchestrates one of the area's most sophisticated high school passing games at Delran, said that Sacca's fortes were throwing while on the run, running and improvising.
"A lot of what Tony does well, the things that make him most dangerous, are the same things that Penn State doesn't want its quarterbacks to do," Donoghue said.
"Still, I believe Tony will succeed in Penn State's system. He needs to become more consistent. He needs to get it all down between the ears. I just talked to Tony not long ago, and I sensed that the light went on for him. The maturing has taken place. And I sat with Coach Paterno. He said he wouldn't trade Tony for (Southern Cal's) Todd Marinovich any day of the week. And I agree. Tony's a better athlete."
From his view on the scholastic level, Donoghue still sees the allure of Penn State in the eyes of even the most gifted passers in the area. He saw it in John Sacca's eyes.
"Even though Tony hasn't had the greatest experience at Penn State, I was ultimately not surprised John went there, too," Donoghue said. "In this area, Penn State is everybody's home team on the major-college football scene. And even though their style may raise some questions in the minds of kids who want to throw the ball, the other factors that Penn State has to offer will usually override that.
"In the cases of Tony and John, well, that's a close-knit family. Their parents are such important factors in their lives. And let's face it, the NFL scouts know a prospect when they see one."
At least Sacca enters this season with the sweet aftertaste of his best performance. Against Brigham Young in the Holiday Bowl, he was a solid 10 for 20 for 206 yards and two TDs, with one interception. Sacca couldn't help but notice, though, the stunning performance by BYU quarterback Ty Detmer, who completed 42 of 59 for 576 yards and a pair of TDs in the Nittany Lions' exhilarating 50-39 win.
"That BYU offense sure looks like fun for a quarterback, doesn't it?" Sacca said, somewhat wistfully.
An Award For The Man Behind Another Award
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150921171448/http://articles.philly.com/1991-07-07/news/25783663_1_chemistry-and-biochemistry-students-jefferson-medicalBy Charlie Frush, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 07, 1991Last year, a former student at Hahnemann University was honored as the Philadelphia institution's alumnus of the year.
This year, the Graduate Student Society got around to honoring the man who helped that student get his Ph.D. - John J. Ch'ih of Cinnaminson, a professor of biochemistry.
Ch'ih, who was born in China, received the society's outstanding faculty award. He was, it said, "a complete teacher."
Such lofty academic distinction was beyond the aspirations of 15-year-old Ch'ih 42 years ago, however, when he and his parents fled to Taiwan in the exodus with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. "That was very traumatic," he said.
Ch'ih came to the United States in 1956 to study at Southern Illinois University, and, because his father was a physician, Ch'ih majored in chemistry; it was reasonably close to medicine, and he could not afford medical school.
"I never thought I would have a bachelor's degree," he said. He certainly never envisioned being a professor "because my goal initially wasn't very high."
But he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry and got a job as a clinical chemist at Saint Mary Hospital in Philadelphia. After two years, he said, "I felt I needed further education and went to Jefferson Medical College and in 1968 got a Ph.D. in biochemistry."
That was his entree as a teacher. In 1969, he signed on as a senior instructor at Hahnemann. "And if I may say," he said, "now I'm a professor and on top of the ladder."
"I really look after my students' career goals," he said. Ch'ih teaches medical students and graduate students and sometimes undergraduate students. ''One year, I even taught Chinese cooking at evening adult-education classes," he said.
"I'm getting old, but my students are not," he said. "They're the same age every year, 21, 22. Always on the go. They keep me learning all the time. You can't teach everything according to the textbook. I think the key is to keep your students . . . and yourself learning."
(By the way, the difference between chemistry and biochemistry, he said, is that biochemistry is closer to medicine because it usually deals with living matter.)
Ch'ih and his wife, Shirley, have one son, Michael, a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Princeton University.
Five years ago, Ch'ih returned to China for a month as a visiting professor at several medical schools.
"China has changed a lot," he said, but even so "the last few days I was there I was restless. From 1956-1991 is 36 years. This is my home away from home. I missed my home here."
*His parents handed Paul B. Smith of Vincentown a camera when he was in the eighth grade.
It turned out to be a career decision.
Smith's interest in snapping photos escalated from there, and now he is a student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where he received one of four Presidential Scholarships for Photography in May, worth $5,000, for his final two quarters at the institution.
The scholarship is given for grade-point average, attendance and performance. Smith, 20, a 1989 graduate of Lenape Regional High School, has a grade-point average over 3.5.
But back to the eighth grade.
"I started playing around with (the camera)," he said. "I took a course on photography in high school, and, at that point, my family helped me set up a darkroom.
"The class taught me basics, but when I got my own darkroom, I shot ahead of everything the school was teaching me. From there, I just picked it up on my own. I started out with color photography, which is really the harder but which my uncle knew how to do; he showed me that. Then from reading and learning, I picked up black and white photography."
The course for the associate degree he seeks is eight quarters, he said, ''but it will take me 2 1/2 years because I take summers off," he said. ''If all goes well I'll graduate next spring."
Until then, he'll continue building his portfolio. "It gives an employer or client an idea of how good you are, what area you are interested in," he said.
Sports is what he's interested in.
"This quarter, I did a lot of studio stuff," he said. "Baseball players, gymnasts." He finds athletes cool. "They tend be very aware of what you are looking for. If you're shooting a baseball player, you wouldn't have to worry about him looking like a baseball player. They have certain intensities."
He's formulated no concrete postgraduate objectives.
"My career goal is to keep busting. When I graduate, I'm aspiring to work under somebody. I don't want to go in blind. I'd like to find big-time work with someone so I can take my education out there. I want to run, not crawl."
Nobody ever advised Deborah A. Cheeseman of Delran that attending college full time while working 40 hours a week was not, tactically speaking, a good idea.
So when she began falling behind, got discouraged and dropped her classes, she was convinced she wasn't cut out to be academic material.
Was she wrong.
Seventeen years later - in May to be exact - she was honored as the Lewis M. Parker outstanding leader of the year at Burlington County College, which she has been able to attend only part time the last five years because she works full time for Sheet Metal Workers Local 19.
No, this is not a takeoff on Flashdance, because Cheeseman, 35, does not wield welding tools. She used to fabricate ductwork in the shop and install it in the field, but now she's drafting plans and designing HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning) systems.
Her calling is not one in which you see many women, and it was under government pressure for unions to open up to minorities and women that she was accepted for a four-year apprenticeship, which she completed six months early.
She settled into the job comfortably enough, but every September found herself muttering, "I'm going to go back to school," even though back in 1974-75, "when I failed, I thought I was done, that I wasn't college material."
In 1986, she signed up at Burlington County College, and the school evaluated her as being college-ready except for algebra. "Math is now one of my strong subjects," she said. "It comes easy.
"I hadn't declared a major," she said. "I was just going to take courses. I didn't know what I could do." So it was one course, then two courses, then a couple of summer courses, and then she got involved in Phi Theta Kappa, the national honor society for community colleges, and her self- confidence and leadership abilities flowered.
She is president of the college's chapter of Phi Theta Kappa and was also regional president for the Middle States Region last year. She has been a student tutor and registration aide and works as a volunteer for the Family Companion program of Burlington County, which matches volunteers with families at risk. At the college awards banquet, she won an academic award for cooperative education and for academic excellence in honors courses, of which she has taken five.
She received an associate degree in liberal arts with highest honors when she graduated May 31. She had a grade-point average of 3.9.
In eight more years, she'll have earned a pension and health-care benefits with the union and plans to change careers - maybe social work or teaching.
"I feel very positive," she said. "I feel I can reach my goals."
Boone, Luzinski Have 2 Reasons To Be Proud
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150920201535/http://articles.philly.com/1991-07-17/sports/25782148_1_ryan-luzinski-fathers-ryan-and-aaronby Ray Didinger, Daily News Sports Writer
Posted: July 17, 1991LOS ANGELES — It was a family portrait guaranteed to make any Phillies fan feel old.
Greg Luzinski and Bob Boone were standing with their sons, Ryan and Aaron, at Dodger Stadium the other day, and it was the kids who were in uniform and the fathers who were wearing short pants.
When a photographer said, "OK, dads, face your sons. Now look 'em in the eye . . . ," you couldn't help noticing it was the fathers who were looking up and the sons who were looking down.
Hard to believe, Harry.
It seems like only yesterday that Ryan and Aaron were swatting Wiffle balls around the Veterans Stadium clubhouse while their fathers were busy winning the 1980 World Series.
Today, those pin-striped muppets are all grown up and taking part in the U.S. Olympic Festival, a breeding ground for amateur baseball talent, with 64 players on hand competing for 18 slots on the USA Junior Team.
Luzinski, a 6-1, 215-pound clone of his father, was the talk of Monday's workout. He was the only player to hit a ball over the leftfield fence in batting practice. It was a line drive that still was rising when it slammed into the bleachers, 390 feet away.
Greg was standing behind the cage at the time, fumbling with his home video camera. ("That's the way to swing the bat, Junior," he said dryly.)
A Luzinski goes deep at Dodger Stadium . . .
It was a blast from the past, and also a glimpse into the future.
Ryan Luzinski figures to be a first-round pick in next summer's baseball draft. Most scouts agree the Baby Bull, a catcher, is ticketed for the major leagues.
"Ryan is probably ahead of where I was, abilitywise, at the same age," said the elder Luzinski, who coaches his 17-year-old son in baseball and football at Holy Cross High School in Delran, N.J.
"He's got real good mechanics and he knows how to play the game. Just from growing up in the big-league environment, he learned a lot. He's mature for his age. He's not awed by anything.
"I'm proud of him," Luzinski said. "What he's accomplished, he has accomplished on his own. He isn't here because of his name. I didn't hit for him, I didn't catch for him. He put in the time to become an outstanding player."
Bob Boone says the same thing about his youngest son. Aaron, a third baseman, is a lanky 6-3 and still growing. He will enroll at the University of Southern California in the fall. Older brother Bret (now a second baseman in the Seattle farm system) played at USC from 1987 through '89.
"I'm not surprised to see how far these kids have gone, they have a lot of ability," said Bob Boone whose own father, Ray, was an All-Star infielder with Cleveland in the 1950s.
"Our families lived in the same community (Medford, N.J.) when Greg and I were with the Phillies, so I got to see the kids play Little League ball. They dominated their peers. As they moved up - Babe Ruth, high school, American Legion - they continued to dominate.
"It was obvious they had the skill to go as far as they wanted to go," Boone said. "This is just another step on the ladder."
It is almost eerie, the resemblance between the fathers and sons. Ryan has the same thick torso and blond hair as Greg. Aaron has Bob's sloping shoulders and body language.
At the plate, Ryan is the image of his power-hitting father: hands cocked above his right shoulder, bat pointed straight in the air. His stroke is the same, too. Quick and explosive.
"Actually, I'm spread out a little more (than his father)," Ryan said. ''I have to shift my weight to generate the power. My father was so strong, he could do this (short stroke) and hit a ball 450 feet.
"I don't know if I'll ever have that kind of power. Right now, I'm more of a gap hitter."
"The farther along he goes (in baseball), the more power he'll show," the elder Luzinski said. "When he sees more quality fastballs, he'll hit more home runs. He doesn't see many fastballs at the high school level. Teams pitch around him.
"But he's got what it takes to be a good hitter. I've been watching these other (Festival) kids and most of them hit off their front foot. They don't shift their weight properly. Watch Ryan. He's been doing it for so long, it's automatic."
Ryan was delighted by his jaw-dropping blast into the leftfield pavilion at Dodger Stadium. His coaches and teammates were awed. (Said Ryan: "I was pumped up. I talked to it all the way, telling it to go, go, go.")
OK, so it was just batting practice, and granted, the Baby Bull was wielding an aluminum bat, but still . . .
The kid hit the ball almost 400 feet on a line.
It is easy to see why the major league scouts and college recruiters are so excited about him. Bob Boone, who has polished Ryan's defensive skills, projects him as the No. 1 catching prospect in the 1992 draft.
"As good as Ryan swings the bat, he is equally good behind the plate," said Boone, who caught more games than any man in major league history during his 19-year career with the Phillies, California Angels and Kansas City Royals. He was active through last season.
"He has a very good arm, a quick release and excellent knowledge of the game. He has good power, although I'm not sure I'd compare him to his father. Greg's power was something really special."
Next year, Ryan will likely face the same decision his father faced in 1968: Should he sign a pro baseball contract or accept a college scholarship? There will be offers aplenty on the table.
Ryan, an All-South Jersey linebacker, is being recruited for football as well as baseball. Greg was in the same position when he was graduating from high school in Chicago. (Notre Dame wanted the elder Luzinski as a running back.)
Greg opted to sign with the Phillies, who made him their No. 1 pick. He signed for $60,000, a modest sum by today's standards, and played 15 seasons for the Phillies and White Sox, hitting 307 home runs.
Which path will the Baby Bull follow?
"If I'm drafted high and the money is right, I'll probably sign a (pro) contract," Ryan said. "That's always been my dream, to play in the major leagues. But if (the draft) doesn't work out, I still can go to school and take it from there.
"My father isn't pushing me one way or the other. He made his own decision and he wants me to make mine. I'm sure everything will work out. I'm not rushing it. That's still a long way off.
"People always ask if I feel pressure, being the son of a former major league star. I've lived with it for so long, I don't even think about it anymore. The bottom line is, if I produce, that's all that matters."
Over The Hill, On The Field For Seniors, A Bit Of Little League
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919104716/http://articles.philly.com/1991-07-25/news/25785149_1_senior-softball-usa-senior-world-series-basesBy Jay Searcy, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 25, 1991The catcher is a custodian. The second baseman is a school principal. The centerfielder is a carpenter. The first baseman is temporarily unemployed.
But they don't know that about one another. And they don't ask. They don't even know last names, most of them, or where their teammates live. They just come together on summer Sundays like boys on a sandlot, play hard and go home with scabs on their elbows and dirt on their knees.
They have two things in common. They are 50 or older - the oldest is 71 - and they are looking to recapture some of the good times of their youth, when they could run like Mantle and catch like Mays. Or so they thought.
With spring in their hearts, if not in their legs, they play weekly doubleheaders from April through July and make up the South Jersey Over-the- Hill Slow Pitch Softball League, more than 150 graying boys out to play. Most of them grew up without the grandeur of Little League, with string balls and rag bases, and their childhood memories include the Great Depression, ration lines and World War II.
This is the Little League they never had, with birth certificates required to prove ages, with an annual player draft, with 18-player rosters, an 18- player batting order and an everybody-must-play rule, with real umpires, with T-shirt-and-cap uniforms, which most players pay for themselves.
Although senior softball has been around for years in Clearwater, Fla., it began to mushroom four years ago in California, Michigan and Texas. Now there are senior players in every state, more than 50,000 players in all, and the Senior World Series will be held for the third year in September, in Palm Springs, Calif.
Bob Mitchell, 61, president and founder of Senior Softball USA, said senior softball is beginning to challenge Little League in numbers in some states.
The players in South Jersey also pay for the umpires and the insurance, and use hand-me-down bases (some from Little Leaguers), for this league operates on a shoestring, with games on recreation and school fields in Moorestown, Delran, Blackwood, Pennsauken and Voorhees.
Spectators are wives, children and grandchildren, who cheer them on one minute and howl at their ineptness the next (20 errors a game is not uncommon for some teams). It is not unusual for a runner to be thrown out at first base from left field.
To reduce the risk of collision, two first bases are used - one for the runner and one for the fielder. Metal spikes are banned. No fake tags or takeout slides. Younger players serve as courtesy runners for older teammates. No smoking. No alcohol.
"Hey," said a recovering alcoholic, "this is great. First time I ever remember playing sober."
The season started with a 17-by-32-inch mat serving as the strike zone behind home plate - the pitcher had to hit it on the fly - but a torrent of walks, as many as 25 a game, caused that rule to be dropped at midseason.
Joe Tavani, manager of one of the expansion teams, instructed his players to hit the ball on the ground "because you have three chances to get on base."
"Somebody's got to field it," he explained, "somebody's got to throw it and somebody's got to catch it. The odds are with you."
To prevent home-plate collisions, a rule provided for a scoring line drawn beside the plate. If the runner reached the line before the ball reached home plate, he was safe. But that rule, too, was dropped by popular demand.
Despite the concern for safety, and assurances from the league commissioner that the emphasis should be on fun, not winning, there have been a number of injuries - two broken wrists, a broken nose, a broken finger and a dislocated shoulder so far this season, and uncounted sprains, tears and pulls.
Typically, after the first practice in March, only seven of 16 players on one team were able to walk normally the day after.
But the worst of all, perhaps, fell on Rido "Scratch" Barbone from Stratford, a 58-year-old rookie catcher who went between innings into the woods to answer nature's call and contracted a serious case of poison ivy. He was out for two games.
"The idea in starting the league," said its founder and commissioner, Hank Becker, 65, of Maple Shade, "was to give older guys a chance to play without having to compete against the young guys." Becker, who pitched for 45 years - until he was 63 - in area fast-pitch leagues, got the idea from an American Association of Retired Persons newsletter.
The Over-the-Hill League is a member of the New Jersey Senior Softball Association, which in two years has grown from one league in Monmouth County to 14 counties and about 2,000 players. (The only recognized league in southeastern Pennsylvania is in Chester.)
The South Jersey league began when Becker put a notice in a few suburban New Jersey papers last year and 90 men showed up for an organizational meeting on a rainy Sunday. Six teams competed last summer and two more were added this summer, and about 50 players on the waiting list started a four-team satellite league in Voorhees. A team from Philadelphia will join next summer. A fall league will begin in September.
"I just thought it would give some older guys something to look forward to," said Becker, an engineering technician for a shipbuilding design company in Marlton and a pitcher. "It's a chance for everyone to come out and enjoy themselves. But I've since learned that whether you're 20 or 60, the will to win is very strong. They want to be competitive. After a while the fun is secondary."
And so some tempers flare. Umpires and players insult one another. Teammates bicker among themselves. The manager of an expansion team left the field in a huff during a game when one of his players tried to tell him how to play third base. He never returned.
But when the doubleheaders end each Sunday, players shake hands around the infield, laugh at themselves and limp home to heal in time for next week's games.
The regular season ended Sunday, and now the playoffs begin.
First game: The Church Street Chiropractors vs. Platt's Memorial Funeral Home.
Unplugging The Mystery Project Is Key To Banner Puzzle
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151017224846/http://articles.philly.com/1991-08-08/news/25804315_1_banners-fund-raising-lightsBy Gordon Mayer, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: August 08, 1991It all started with the banners.
Three of them, brown and gold, exhorting Delran residents in 3-foot letters to "LIGHT UP DELRAN."
They mystified the townspeople.
"We would be walking and someone would say, 'What's Light Up Delran?' " recalled Don Deutsch, one of the 17 Delran residents in the know from the beginning. He said many people thought the banners were calling for an anti- crime all-night vigil.
"Nobody really knew what Light Up Delran was," Deutsch said.
The banners were the first announcement of a $65,000 project to install lights on Delran High School's playing fields, so children can play night games there. Delran is one of the few area municipalities that lacks lights, Deutsch said.
To procure the lights without spending tax dollars requires a fund-raising event, Deutsch said, so after he and Joe La Monica came up with the idea in early June, they got started.
The banners have attracted more attention than he expected, but Deutsch said he was even more pleased with the support his project has so far received in town.
"Everybody's behind it now," Deutsch said. At the last Township Council meeting, members publicly expressed their support. The council paid for the banners and had the fire department put them up on Haines Mill Road, in the Mill Side Shopping Center on Route 130 and on Chester Avenue, Mayor Richard Knight said.
Knight, who called the project to install the lights "another opportunity to do things together" for the community, said it had garnered support for two reasons.
First, Knight said, Delran High School teams that would use the fields have been performing well for about five years. He also cited neighboring Moorestown's success with a similar project in 1986.
Moorestown residents, with the help of the high school's athletic director, Mike Palenza, raised more than $100,000 to pay for lights as well as new seats and a track. Palenza, a Delran resident, is now helping his town follow in Moorestown's footsteps.
He said Moorestown's fund-raising campaign went very well. It took about a year to raise the money, Palenza said.
Palenza said Light Up Delran's 17-member fund-raising committee planned to use many of the same strategies Moorestown used to get money: letters to local businesses, knocking on doors, selling tickets to dances and a bus trip to the Meadowlands for the Penn State-Georgia Tech "Kickoff Classic" football game Aug. 28, and selling commemorative plaques at the Delran stadium.
For $50, donors can "buy" one of Delran High School stadium's 1,600 seats. In return, a plaque on each seat will mark the name of its purchaser, Deutsch said. For $500, donors get a commemorative plaque at the entrance to the fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Write to Light Up Delran, P.O. Box 914, Delran, N.J. 08075, or call Don Deutsch, 461-5862, or Joe La Monica, 461-6156.
Rosenbaum Goes Out A Winner For Riverdel
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151017205351/http://articles.philly.com/1991-08-08/news/25807754_1_tri-county-championships-dead-heat-competitionBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: August 08, 1991The Burt German Tri-County Swimming Championships last weekend offered something more than top-flight competition.
There was the tradition associated with a championship meet that was being staged for the 35th consecutive year. There was a surprise winner in the team competition. And there was an individual performer, Riverdel's Jason Rosenbaum, who swam in the event for the last time and went out in style.
Deerbrook Swim Club of Medford won the team championship, scoring 655 points to edge Burlington County rivals Riverdel of Riverside (639 points) and Pheasant Run of Cinnaminson (634 points) in one of the closest finishes ever. The victory came a week after Deerbrook finished third behind champion Pheasant Run and second-place Riverdel in the Burlington County Championships.
"We're obviously very pleased," said Gary Hill, Deerbrook's first-year coach, who swam for 10 years for some of the powerful swim teams of Greenfields in West Deptford, beginning in the mid-1970s. "It's one thing to have a chance to win and another to do it. This is such a great moment, winning this meet."
Said meet referee Burt German, after whom the meet is named, "The last time it was this close was in '65, when Woodbine won by one point over Wenonah. This was an outstanding event."
The competition, at Kingston Estates in Cherry Hill, produced no fewer than 11 meet records, and even a dead heat. In the boys' 13- to 14-year-old 100- meter individual medley, Tim Tallman of Haddontowne and Kristian Demonsi of Erlton recorded identical times of 1 minute, 4.96 seconds.
"I once (before) had a dead heat, but never in a meet like this," said Demonsi, who later edged Tallman in the 13-14 age-group 100-meter freestyle, winning in 56.36. Tallman finished second in 56.58. "I'm just glad that I won."
Said Tallman, "I didn't realize (the medley) was that close. I'm still happy that I didn't lose."
For swimmers in Camden, Gloucester and Burlington Counties, the Tri-County meet is the Super Bowl. More than 1,000 swimmers from the 36 swim clubs participate in this annual affair; a crowd estimated by meet officials at 3,500 watched this year's competition. It is the tradition of competition among neighboring swim clubs that makes this competition a special event.
No one embodied that tradition better than Rosenbaum, who punctuated his brilliant Tri-County career with an exclamation point.
Rosenbaum, 18, has been competing in the Tri-County since he was 7, beginning at Tenby Chase and switching to Riverdel when he was 14. A recent graduate of Delran High, Rosenbaum is considered one of the country's top up- and-coming swimmers. At a winter meet, he said, he swam the 16th best 50- meter freestyle time in the country.
A straight-A student who is headed to Yale, Rosenbaum capped his local career by winning four events at the Tri-County Championships. He was a member of Riverdel's winning medley and freestyle relay teams, and set meet records in winning the 15-18 age group 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter butterfly.
With all that he has accomplished in his career, his performance in the 100 freestyle marked the first time that he had set a Tri-County individual record. He swam the event in 50.18, breaking the record of Sean Killion, who turned in a 51.30 in 1986 for Cherry Hill's Old Orchard club. Killion, a former Cherry Hill East High School standout, is a national caliber swimmer who is competing in the Pan-American Games in Cuba.
"I never had an individual Tri-County record, and it means so much to me," said Rosenbaum, who will compete next week in the U.S. Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Sean is someone I always have looked up to. When I see him at the nationals, he always asks if I have broken his records. I hope to someday see someone from this area at the nationals, and I will ask them the same thing."
With his growing national reputation, Rosenbaum easily could have bypassed the Tri-County meet, but he never considered it.
"It was very important for me to compete here," he said. "I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't start in Tri-County. It was a major steppingstone in my career. I thought I owed it to them to perform the best I could. Even though it's my last competition, I hope I can come back here and be a coach. This organization has been truly special."
RESULTS
GIRLS
8-and-under 25-meter freestyle: Allyson Hafner, Pomona, 16.27 seconds.
9-10 50-meter freestyle: Kristel Haesler, Haddontowne, 30.99 (meet record).
11-12 50-meter freestyle: Marisa Chuliver, Tenby Chase, 28.55 (meet record).
13-14 100-meter freestyle: Jamie Cona, Old Orchard, 1:01.95.
15-18 100-meter freestyle: Jen Miksis, Old Orchard, 1:01.46.
8-and-under 25-meter backstroke: Becky Sayer, Wedgewood, 20.54.
9-10 25-meter backstroke: Leslie Hoh, Tavistock Hills, 17.13.
11-12 50-meter backstroke: Dawn DeLuca, Meadowbrook, 33.99.
13-14 50-meter backstroke: Robyn Haesler, Haddontowne, 33.42.
15-18 50-meter backstroke: Tammy Kouser, Greenwood Park, 30.73 (meet record).
8-and-under 25-meter breaststroke: Sarah Robertson, Sunnybrook, 20.59 (meet record).
9-10 25-meter breaststroke: Kristel Haesler, Haddontowne, 18.15.
11-12 50-meter breaststroke: Adrienne Sutton, Chestnut Run, 35.39 (meet record).
13-14 50-meter breaststroke: Mandy Burke, Covered Bridge, 36.56.
15-18 50-meter breaststroke: Anne Fletcher, Greenfields, 36.64.
8-and-under 25-meter butterfly: Allyson Hafner, Pomona, 16.52 (meet record).
9-10 25-meter butterfly: Dana Bobb, Greenwood Park, 15.78.
11-12 50-meter butterfly: Dawn DeLuca, Meadowbrook, 30.78.
13-14 50-meter butterfly: Shannon Hafner, Pomona, 31.40.
15-18 50-meter butterfly: Tammy Kouser, Greenwood Park, 29.68.
12-and-under 100-meter individual medley: Adrienne Sutton, Chestnut Run, 1:09.92 (meet record).
13-14 100-meter individual medley: Robyn Haesler, Haddontowne, 1:12.26.
15-18 100-meter individual medley: Trista Pszwaro, Greenfields, 1:08.68.
8-and-under freestyle relay: Cherry Valley, 1:15.24.
9-10 freestyle relay: Riverdel, 2:21.90.
11-12 freestyle relay: Riverdel, 2:05.65.
13-14 freestyle relay: Greenfields, 1:59.37.
15-18 freestyle relay: Greenfields, 1:55.37.
9-10 medley relay: Whitman Square, 1:13.85.
11-12 medley relay: Riverdel, 2:20.57.
13-14 medley relay: Woodbine, 2:15.70.
15-18 medley relay: Greenfields, 2:09.24.
BOYS
8-and-under 25-meter freestyle: Jon Galas, Pheasant Run, 16.56 seconds.
9-10 50-meter freestyle: Jeff Miksis, Old Orchard, 31.57.
11-12 50-meter freestyle: Jon Maslow, Barclay Farms, 26.14 (meet record).
13-14 100-meter freestyle: Kristian Demonsi, Erlton, 56.36.
15-18 100-meter freestyle: Jason Rosenbaum, Riverdel, 50.18 (meet record).
8-and-under 25-meter backstroke: Dan Artale, Riverdel, 19.29.
9-10 25-meter backstroke: Matthew Haggerty, Pheasant Run, 18.30.
11-12 50-meter backstroke: Jon Maslow, Barclay Farms, 30.68.
13-14 50-meter backstroke: Cliff Bircks, Haddontowne, 30.13.
15-18 100-meter backstroke: Eric Shangle, Deerbrook, 1:04.06.
8-and-under 25-meter breaststroke: Jan Galas, Pheasant Run, 20.76.
9-10 25-meter breaststroke: Greg Barone, Barclay Farms, 18.74.
11-12 50-meter breaststroke: Shaun Anderson, Whitman Square, 36.58.
13-14 50-meter breaststroke: Kevin Morris, Woodbine, 32.84.
15-18 100-meter breaststroke: Kevin Maher, Deerbrook, 1:10.33.
8-and-under 25-meter butterfly: Stephen Connlain, Pheasant Run, 17.68.
9-10 25-meter butterfly: Jeff Miksis, Old Orchard, 15.49.
11-12 50-meter butterfly: Tim Bieg, Willowdale, 31.68.
13-14 50-meter butterfly: Chris Otmani, Downs Farm, 28.47.
15-18 50-meter butterfly: Jason Rosenbaum, Riverdel, 25.55 (meet record).
12-and-under 100-meter individual medley: Ryan Sprang, Greenwood Park, 1:12.37.
13-14 100-meter individual medley: (dead heat) Tim Tallman, Haddontowne, 1:04.96 and Kristian Demonsi, Erlton, 1:04.96.
15-18 200-meter individual medley: Andrew Grossman, Woodcrest, 2:17.63.
8-and-under freestyle relay: Greenfields, 1:11.90.
9-10 freestyle relay: Pheasant Run, 2:19.30.
11-12 freestyle relay: Barclay Farms, 2:02.90.
13-14 freestyle relay: Downs Farm, 1:50.57.
15-18 freestyle relay: Riverdel, 1:41.29.
9-10 medley relay: Woodbine 1:12.50 (meet record).
11-12 medley relay: Barclay Farms, 2:19.68.
13-14 medley relay: Downs Farm, 2:04.36.
15-18 medley relay: Riverdel, 1:54.53.
MIXED
8-and-under mixed medley relay: Pheasant Run, 1:18.58.
Searching A Different Frontier Ben Stankey Is A Man With A Mission. And It Has To Do With Ufos.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150619055933/http://articles.philly.com/1991-09-11/news/25801863_1_mutual-ufo-network-number-of-ufo-sightings-aliensBy David Lee Preston, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: September 11, 1991* Probes enable aliens to control a person's brain.
* Aliens have secret bases on the dark side of the moon.
* A UFO with a sophisticated laser system helped win the war with Iraq. The U.S. government got the craft in exchange for mineral rights.
In a carpeted room with cinder-block walls at the public library in Cinnaminson, Ben Stankey, doctor of metaphysics, divulged this information to a dozen adults, some of them listening intently while others browsed through Stankey's collection of tabloid articles about UFOs.
Ben Stankey is a space cadet. Just ask him.
Stankey - who says he is a reincarnated alien sent on a mission to teach metaphysics and spiritual truths - told the group that the number of UFO sightings since fall 1990 was "mind-boggling." South America alone has reported 4,000 sightings during that time, he said.
Not surprisingly, Stankey is used to being viewed as odd.
"I've been ridiculed, even called satanic, heretical and other things, but in the final analysis, in terms of the truth, I think I'm going to have the last laugh," he says.
The group that came together last week - some traveling many miles to get there - had shown up for the first 1991-92 meeting of Stankey's organization, the Jersey UFO Psychic Phenomena Metaphysical Association.
Among the group were three men who said they represented the Texas-based Mutual UFO Network.
"We're interested in what was on those (video) tapes," said Joe Stefula of Browns Mills, who carried a hefty valise filled with folders and documents.
He said the trio was there to gather information about a UFO that was recovered by the Air Force after crashing in New Mexico in July 1947.
"It's the one saucer that didn't get away," said Richard Butler, an engineer who had driven from the Atlantic City area to attend the meeting.
For almost two hours, these folks focused on a small TV screen that presented two crudely produced films: The World's Greatest UFO/Flying Saucer Video and Volume II: Second Best of UFO Actual Videotapes Filmed.
At least two people said the organization offered them a support group, having had personal encounters with UFOs - an experience Stankey himself claims.
Gloria Frank, 62, of Palmyra, a retired school nurse, said she and her husband had seen a UFO from their bedroom window when they lived in Cinnaminson a few years back.
"Our whole house shook," she recalled. "It must have broke the sound barrier. It had flames, like exhaust coming up underneath. We watched it. It went right over Philadelphia and hovered there for a while with bright lights, and then it vanished."
Larry Saylor, 35, of Medford, the association's assistant director, said he also had seen a UFO.
"One night in 1964, when I was a boy, I saw a UFO over my family's house in Camden," said Saylor, a technical support specialist with Okidata in Mount Laurel. "It was like a triangle-shaped thing, with lights."
Saylor said his interest in the organization might stem from a previous life.
"A friend of mine, who is a psychic, told me that in my last life I was a German pilot in World War II," Saylor said. "He blurted it out one night."
Domenic Bilardo, 59, of Delran, a member of the group since Stankey founded it three years ago, said he had come to the meeting because he was interested in the subject and also because he respected Stankey.
"I believe in UFOs. They don't come from this planet. They gotta come from somewhere," said Bilardo, a retired carpenter. "I think he's an intelligent man. He must know what he's talking about. He's been following it for quite a number of years."
Uhhh . . . Woooooo . . .
Uhhhhh . . . A-woooooo . . .
Uhhhhh . . . Wooooooo . . .
Benjamin John Stankey Jr., the 250-pound founder/director of the Jersey UFO Psychic Phenomena Metaphysical Association, is seated in the cedar-paneled basement of his Palmyra home, the audible intonation of his mantra sucking him into a meditative state.
Eyes closed, head tilted back slightly for the Uhh . . . as if gathering strength for the lengthy, head-downward Woooooo . . . , he allows nothing to interfere, not even the telephone at his side, which b-r-r-rings persistently.
After a half-hour, Stankey is still in the basement, meditating in silence. Upstairs, his mother lets in a man she has called to kill bees. "We tried to call you back," the exterminator tells Helen Stankey, 72. "But no one answered the phone."
Her son, Ben, 46, said he had learned much by ignoring doorbells and phone calls. It was during deep meditation, a year ago this month, that he discovered his reason for being - to spread his knowledge of metaphysics.
He learned, he said, that he originally lived on the planet Hectius, in the star system Pleiades. He doesn't know of anyone else who hails from Hectius.
"I visited Hectius in the fourth dimension and was told by an etheric being, a male, that my mission on the planet Earth, in the third dimension or Earth plane, was to teach metaphysics and spiritual truths to planet Earth," Stankey said.
If anyone is qualified for this task, it is Stankey, who grew up like any other child before he discovered his calling.
He grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and in Palmyra; spent 10 years as a catcher in the Midget, Little, Pony and Babe Ruth Leagues; graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran in 1963; earned a bachelor's degree from Temple in administrative management. He has been a tax accountant and a notary public.
It was after he graduated that he got into metaphysics, earning three degrees from the University of Metaphysics, a mail-order school in North Hollywood, Calif., founded by Paul Leon Masters.
Helen Fox, administration officer at the university, confirmed that Stankey obtained the degrees and said the school had "a huge file" under his name.
His master's thesis was titled "The Basic Ideas and Relationships Between Life After Death, Reincarnation and Karma," and his 200-page doctoral dissertation was called "The Phenomenon of Meditation: Medical Aspects."
He also studied advanced channeling and parapsychology at the Life Nourishment Center in Langhorne.
Stankey said that his studies had enabled him to contact his father, a machinist who died in 1986, and several animals - including a horse named Jersey while on a hay ride, and his beagle, Taffy, who once told him in a clear voice: "Mommy leaves me inside the house during the day. Why are you leaving me outside?"
One night, while Stankey was in bed, a 4-foot "bulbous-head alien" came through his bedroom window and exited the same way, he said.
"I have been sent to upgrade planet Earth," Stankey said.
These days, Stankey has lots of time to devote to his mission. In April, he was laid off from his job as a micrographics technician with Electronic Data Systems.
At the group's next meeting, scheduled for next month, he said, he plans to discuss reincarnation.
At Chemistry, Delran Student Is No. 1 In County, No. 2 In State
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1991-09-29/news/25803026_1_chemistry-award-barber-physics-competitionBy Louise Harbach and Judy Baehr, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: September 29, 1991For Scott Barber, 17, of Delran, chemistry adds life to life.
"It's a very hands-on kind of science," Barber said. "What makes chemistry so exciting is that you can see it in everyday life. Plus, I like to know the explanation for the things I see."
Barber, a senior at Delran High School, has noticed a lot, apparently. Not only did he do well enough on the advanced placement test in chemistry to bypass the traditional freshman chemistry course when he goes to college next year, but he also earned enough points in state competition to win a chemistry award as the best chemistry student in Burlington County and the second best overall in the state.
Barber is a member of the New Jersey Science League, which holds written competitions in biology, physics and chemistry throughout the year. Competitions take place among clusters of schools within a county, and at the end of the year, the test scores are added up and the winners announced.
Barber won that competition with his performance in a written competition that took place during the statewide Science Day in May. That performance also won him a silver medal and the honor of being ranked the second highest in the state.
Delran student Dan Lange was named the county winner in the physics competition during Science Day. Lange is now a freshman at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
Barber credits his achievements in the examinations to Frank Schuenemann, who teaches the advanced placement chemistry course at Delran.
This year, Barber is taking three advanced placement courses: physics, English and calculus.
Although chemistry may be Barber's main academic interest, he also enjoys music and is the drum major for the high school's marching band. He is also on the varsity wrestling team and was honored last year for his contributions to the team by the South Jersey Wrestling Coaches' Association.
Sacca's Farewell To Uncle Joe It Wasn't All Roses Between Qb And Coach
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150921033903/http://articles.philly.com/1991-12-29/sports/25808877_1_tony-sacca-penn-state-biggest-flopBy Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: December 29, 1991The shrill voice pierced Tony Sacca like a dart.
Another pass by the Penn State quarterback had fallen aimlessly to the turf. And now, Joe Paterno was screaming.
"He called me the biggest flop in college football history," Sacca recalled recently.
"He told me I couldn't direct a Pop Warner team. I mean, the things he was saying were hysterical. He was over by the stands, and we all started laughing. I was a sophomore, and it was so bad that a lot of the guys still bring it up. He went on and on. 'The biggest flop in college football history.' I thought, 'Oh, man.' "
Sacca, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior from Delran, will make his 40th and final start for the Nittany Lions against Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day. And after four often turbulent years under Paterno, it's not likely he will bid the legendary coach a misty farewell when the game is over.
That tirade during a spring practice session in 1989 was one of several Sacca recalled recently in his first in-depth interview about his four-year relationship with Paterno. It's widely known that the player and the coach had some stormy moments. But Sacca says the successful season he has had is all that's saved him from an entirely bitter experience.
He will not miss, he said, being constantly badgered by Paterno. He will not miss being humiliated in front of his teammates and becoming so exasperated at one point, he felt like transferring to another school. He will not miss a relationship that was, in his opinion, a one-way street.
"I felt like I was playing against my coach as well as against the other team. It got kind of ridiculous," Sacca said. "I'm kind of relieved it's almost over. It's time to move on."
This year, the relationship improved a little, Sacca said. After three years of bickering, either through the media or face to face, the free- speaking quarterback and the unrelenting coach found a way to coexist.
By seldom speaking to each other.
"At practices this year, it was almost like I didn't exist," Sacca said. ''Maybe it was his way of letting me go, letting me do what I want. That's our relationship."
Paterno does not feel this way. He says that yes, he was tough on the young man he expected to lead his team and that he made it a point not to coddle him. But he is sorry to see Sacca leave and wishes he had him for just one more season.
Earlier this year, Paterno called Sacca the best quarterback he had had in his 26 years as head coach at Penn State. He said his decision to play Sacca as a freshman was among the most difficult of his career and, after a pause from detailing Sacca's many gifts, he lowered his voice and said, "Imagine how good he'd be if we had him back next year, the way I'd planned it when he came here?"
Who? The biggest flop in college football history?
"I was hard on Tony because I knew how great he could be," Paterno said. ''But I really like Tony. He's a tough, tough kid."
The problem, according to Sacca, is that Paterno never told him that. "I don't think he could ever bring himself to say those things to me personally," Sacca said.
Instead, Sacca said Paterno repeatedly told him to keep his mouth shut; to stop complaining about the conservative offense; to stop telling him he should be throwing the ball more often; to stop being so sloppy with his footwork, his throwing mechanics; to make better decisions at the line of scrimmage; to stop getting sacked so often; to stop thinking he could get by simply with his marvelous physical talents, the way he had at Delran High. And, for crying out loud, to get with the button-down program and start saying the right things and stop being so brazen.
"Joe and I never really went at it face to face," Sacca said. "Just about everything that transpired between us was usually the result of what he read that I'd said in the newspapers or what I'd heard he said about me.
"I don't ever recall having a heated argument in his office. I can remember going into his office and he would say some outrageous things to me. He once told me I was the worst quarterback that ever came here and this and that. I'd tell him it's tough to complete passes when you only throw on third and long, when you only have two receivers to go to.
"After a while, though, I would just sit there and not say anything and grin, and I think that upset him more than anything. Then I would just get up and leave after it was all over. It just got to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore, so I wouldn't say anything. The fact I'd just sit there and nod and agree with everything he'd say probably upset him more than anything.
"Besides," Sacca added, "when you talk to him, he doesn't even let you talk. I think he wants you to say something back so he can tell you to shut up. Instead, I'd just sit there and nod my head."
Or stand there and shrug.
"Tony would come off the field, and I'd ask him what went wrong or why didn't he see the open guy, and he'd give me one of these," Paterno said, adopting a cavalier pose. "But he never, ever blamed one of his teammates. He just wouldn't say anything."
In an interview with ESPN's Roy Firestone earlier this season, Paterno was asked about his the stormy relationship with Matt Millen, who played at Penn State in the late 1970s. Paterno's screaming matches with Millen, on and off the field, were well documented. "I've got a kid like that now," Paterno told Firestone. "His name's Sacca."
Asked recently to expand on that comment, Paterno said, "Matt was not in awe of me, and Sacca's not in awe of me. If I gave Matt a smart remark, he'd give it right back to me. It's almost the same with Sacca. I'd tell Sacca to keep his mouth shut, and he'd give me this look. I'd look back and say, 'What's that supposed to mean?' He just shrugs and says, 'I still think we should throw the ball more.' Tony and I are two Italians who like to shoot off our mouths.
"Hey, if you can't deal with kids like that and enjoy it, you don't belong in this business. It just takes a little longer to turn them around."
Although Sacca concedes that his feelings toward his coach have been softened by his superb season, he can't dismiss the confrontations quite as easily as Paterno does. He believes that Paterno's constant criticism cut into some of his teammates' confidence in him during those first three years.
"Because of what Joe did to me in practice and some of the things he said about me in the papers, I think a lot of the players up until this year believed I was incompetent," Sacca said. "I think a lot of them believed what Joe was saying about me."
Sacca said the low point came at the end of his sophomore season, when he was yanked in the final three games in favor of Tom Bill. Bill began that 1989 season as the starter but was suspended from the team because of an alcohol- related incident.
"I'll never forget the team meeting we had the day after Tommy was suspended," Sacca recalled. "Joe announced that I'd be the starter, but he seemed almost bitter about it. In effect, he told the team, 'Now let's see if Sacca can live up to what he's been saying in the newspapers.' "
After Bill returned, he replaced Sacca late in games during the stretch run of the season.
"That's when I came closest to transferring," Sacca remembered. "What kept me there? It's funny, but I think it was the fact I was having so many problems with Joe. I didn't want him to get the best of me. And by leaving, that would have meant he'd gotten the best of me, and I wanted to be bigger than that. It's like it became a personal duel between me and him, and I wasn't going to let him win by leaving."
Perhaps, then, what Sacca describes as Paterno's incessant badgering was the coach's way of dangling the carrot of success just beyond the quarterback's reach until Sacca finally grabbed it.
On the surface, at least, the results indicate as much. Forced to start as a freshman because the three quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart went down with injuries, Sacca completed only 37 percent of his passes, throwing four touchdowns but five interceptions. Surrounded by a mediocre team by Penn State standards, Sacca and the Nittany Lions went 5-6 in 1988, their first sub-.500 season in 50 years.
In 1989, Sacca again misfired more often than not. He completed 41 percent of his passes for six TDs and five interceptions, and his obvious talents surfaced only in short bursts.
"Through it all, I never doubted my ability," Sacca recalled. "I just doubted if Penn State was the right place for me."
Sacca slowly smoothed over the bumps in his game in 1990, when Paterno turned him loose against Notre Dame, and Sacca responded by coolly leading a 24-21 upset over the top-ranked Irish in South Bend, Ind.
This season, it all came together for the quarterback. He threw 21 TDs and was intercepted only five times. Sacca holds 14 of the university's single- season and career passing marks. He made Associated Press first-team all- East, and NFL scouts regard him among the top half-dozen quarterback prospects in the nation.
"Tony matured," Paterno said.
Then all the brow-beating worked, right? Not really, Sacca said.
"Well, that's the way he does things, but it didn't work in my case," Sacca said. "It didn't help me when I was younger. Looking back, it doesn't bother me as much now, because I was able to have a good year. But when I think of it, it became a feat just to go on the field."
The last Paterno-Sacca public go-around occurred last spring when a reporter told Paterno during a teleconference that Sacca had complained that he wasn't getting the chance to throw more frequently. Paterno responded that Sacca should just shut up and worry more about leading the team his senior year.
"The fact is, I hadn't even talked to the media since the end of my junior year," Sacca said. "The reporter brought up something I'd said the year before. Joe blasted me in the press, and my parents got so upset. My parents called me and asked me if I'd said that again. Then they called Joe and had it out with him for like an hour and a half.
"Joe called me in the next day and apologized. He said he just went off. And things have been pretty quiet since."
Two years ago, Paterno said, Matt Millen brought his family to visit Paterno at his home. Paterno told of how Millen's son was one of those kids ''who's into everything."
"I thought to myself, 'Good, you deserve it'," Paterno said, laughing. ''Matt and I are friends."
Does Sacca ever see himself returning to State College to visit Paterno some day?
The quarterback paused.
"Right now, no, I can't envision myself doing that. I just can't."
Local Football Talent On Display
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150921004130/http://articles.philly.com/1992-01-01/sports/26037817_1_pound-luke-fisher-virginia-quarterback-matt-blundinBy Marc Narducci, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: January 01, 1992College football players with local roots are making an impact in bowl games this season.
For instance, if you watched the Gator Bowl on Sunday, you would have seen Virginia quarterback Matt Blundin of Ridley High, who entered the game with 1,902 yards passing and 19 touchdowns. He also owned a single-season NCAA record for throwing 224 passes without an interception. Blundin and Virginia suffered an off night, losing by 48-14 to Oklahoma.
Virginia freshman Mike Frederick of Neshaminy was a starting defensive lineman for the Cavaliers.
Iowa, which tied Brigham Young, 13-13, in the Holiday Bowl on Monday, was led throughout the season by Leroy Smith, a senior stand-up defensive end from Edgewood High. The 6-foot-2, 214-pound Smith was named the Big Ten defensive player of the year after setting a conference record with 18 sacks. Teammate Mike Devlin, a 6-3, 275-pound junior from Cherokee, was named a first-team all-Big Ten center after earning second-team honors last year.
Tulsa, the only team to defeat Texas A&M; in the regular season, defeated San Diego State, 28-17, in the Freedom Bowl on Monday night. The Golden Hurricane was led in the regular season by all-American offensive guard Jerry Ostroski, a 6-4, 305-pound senior from Owen J. Roberts.
UCLA, which beat Illinois, 6-3, in the John Hancock Bowl yesterday, received a strong season from redshirt freshman defensive back Marvin Goodwin of Woodrow Wilson. Goodwin, The Inquirer's South Jersey player of the year in 1989, is a valuable reserve safety. Since UCLA often employs six, and sometimes seven, defensive backs at a time, Goodwin has been able to see extensive action.
East Carolina, which faces North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl today, will have a formidable target in 6-3, 237-pound senior tight end Luke Fisher of Shawnee. Fisher, who played quarterback at Shawnee, has caught 48 passes for 686 yards and four touchdowns. Teammate Chris Hall, a 6-2, 184-pound senior from Pemberton, has been a valuable starter all season at cornerback for the Pirates.
One of North Carolina State's key return men is junior Reggie Lawrence of Camden, who has returned nine kicks for 216 yards (a 24-yard average).
Ohio State will have two local starters when it plays Syracuse in today's Hall of Fame Bowl.
Alonzo Spellman, a 6-6, 285-pound junior from Rancocas Valley (the same high school that produced Franco Harris), was selected first-team all-Big Ten. Spellman, a defensive end, had 47 tackles, including nine for losses. Jason Winrow, a 6-6, 290-pound sophomore from Cumberland, has started all season at tackle and was recently voted the Buckeyes' best offensive lineman.
Clemson will meet California in today's Citrus Bowl, and one of the leading members of the Tigers' offensive line is Kelvin Hankins, a senior from Woodrow Wilson. The 6-3, 305-pound Hankins has started all 11 games for the 9-1-1 Tigers.
Probably the area player who has received the most attention is Penn State senior quarterback Tony Sacca of Delran. Sacca leads the Nittany Lions into today's Fiesta Bowl against Tennessee. This has been Sacca's finest season. He has competed 169 of 292 passes for 2,488 yards, 21 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
Paul Siever, a 6-5, 278-pound senior from Downingtown, regained a starting spot at offensive tackle late in the season and is expected to see extensive time against Tennessee.
While most people will be focusing on Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard as Michigan meets Washington in the Rose Bowl, area fans hope to get a glimpse of Michigan junior wide receiver John Ellison of Delran.
Ellison, who was Sacca's favorite target in high school, has often been used as Michigan's third wide receiver.
And Notre Dame, which meets Florida in the Sugar Bowl, has received a solid season from junior Irv Smith of Pemberton. Despite playing behind all-American tight end Derek Brown, Smith has three touchdown receptions, which is just one fewer than Brown. He has also been a valuable blocker when Notre Dame goes into its two tight-end set.
The talented players competing in bowls from the area don't include Wisconsin senior defensive back Troy Vincent of Pennsbury, who is projected as a first-round draft choice and might be the first area athlete selected in the 1992 NFL draft.
Camden's Big Day Arrives Aquarium Opens Amid High Hopes
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150926124244/http://articles.philly.com/1992-03-01/news/26017595_1_baltimore-aquarium-florio-first-day-visitorsBy Nancy Phillips and Chris Conway, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Posted: March 01, 1992The city without hope finally has reason to be hopeful.
Camden's $52 million waterfront aquarium opened its doors yesterday to nearly 8,000 visitors in a debut that is being heralded as a new beginning for a city long mired in poverty and despair.
Yesterday's opening, which began with speeches and music and ended with fireworks over the Delaware River, capped an eight-year effort by business and civic leaders who envisioned an aquarium as the magnet that would attract new development to the city's waterfront and spark Camden's resurrection.
Political leaders weary of skeptics spoke confidently yesterday about the future of the city of 85,000, where 35 percent are on welfare, more than 60 percent receive public aid and roughly 13 percent are unemployed.
Mayor Aaron Thompson called the event the "rebirth of a great city." Gov. Florio expressed confidence that the aquarium would do "for Camden what the Baltimore aquarium did for Baltimore." And former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, a crucial early supporter, spoke of Camden "going on to great heights."
"A city, a great city, is about hope and it's about opportunity and it's about children and it's about education. And that is what today is all about. That is what this aquarium symbolizes," said Kean.
Those hopes were amplified in song by the Camden Boys' Choir, which sang ''What a Wonderful World" before Florio and Kean cut the ribbon. "The words speak for themselves," the choir's director, Richard Allen Wilson, said. "Camden coming back is a wonderment in itself."
The state-financed aquarium, with its striking views of the Philadelphia skyline, is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan that is already transforming Camden's aging waterfront. About 850,000 square feet of new office and light- industrial construction has begun there, and more is planned.
With its sharks and seals and a 760,000-gallon tank that re-creates the ocean off New Jersey's coast, the aquarium expects to attract more than 1 million visitors in its first year, approaching the Philadelphia Zoo's 1.3 million annual visitors.
First-day visitors began lining up in sub-freezing temperatures outside the aquarium before 8 a.m. yesterday, enduring a biting wind to be among the first to see the inside of the domed complex.
Lee Miller of Delran was one of the early arrivals. She showed up with her husband and three children at 8:15 a.m. and stood outside for more than an hour.
"We can't wait," said Miller, and once inside, she wandered through the complex, marveling.
"Look at that!" she exclaimed as she watched a sea turtle swim by. She pressed her finger to the tank, tracing the turtle's path like a delighted child.
"It's marvelous, wonderful," she said. "You have to come back a couple of times to see everything."
But her husband, Bill, seemed less impressed. He said the fish were smaller and less exotic than he had hoped.
"Have you seen the aquarium in Baltimore?" he asked a visitor. "The fish are a lot bigger."
Camden's aquarium has sought to distinguish itself from its more globally oriented counterparts in Baltimore and New York by spotlighting regional underwater life and emphasizing its preservation.
But comparisons to Baltimore were inevitable, given that about 30 percent of Baltimore's 1.5 million visitors come from the Philadelphia region, according to Camden aquarium officials.
"There is more variety down in Baltimore, because the emphasis here is on New Jersey. I'll still go to Baltimore as well as to here. They're different and you would want to see both," said Sue Wilkins of Mount Holly, a science teacher.
Pam Davis of Pine Hill, visiting with her 2-year-old son, Brandon, called the aquarium "fantastic. The hands-on exhibits are great for kids. They can touch the animals and feel what they're like. And the exhibits are very natural, realistic. It's nice, because it shows what's in our area."
Visitors streamed into the aquarium non-stop during the eight-hour opening day, so many that as closing time approached some had to be turned away.
"We admitted as many people as we could. The only limitation was how fast we could sell the tickets," the aquarium's president, Judith Wellington, said.
She said she hoped to be able to increase efficiency of ticket sales.
Inside, the atmosphere was festive as actors dressed as pirates, sea horses, starfish and other sea creature patroled the hallways. Crowds lined up to peer into the ocean tank's 38-foot-long window. Children squeezed along a shallow tank where they were invited to touch a small shark or ray. And divers fielded questions from visitors, answering over a special microphone hook-up while sharks cruised by them.
Outside, nearly 100 protesters picketed the opening to draw attention to demands to expand employment opportunities for city residents and give them a greater role in redevelopment efforts.
"They come in and give us the janitor jobs and the security jobs and the food-handler jobs, and all the upper-management jobs we don't have a chance for," one of the leaders, Mangaliso Davis, said.
The only other blemish to the day was at the parking garage, where some visitors became angry when they were forced to wait up to 90 minutes in their cars during a noontime back-up.
Anthony Scarduzio, garage manager, blamed the delays on too many people leaving the aquarium at the same time and on a stalled car that backed up traffic.
So far, the Thomas H. Kean New Jersey State Aquarium has been credited with keeping the Campbell Soup Co. and General Electric/Aerospace from leaving the city and taking thousands of jobs. More than $100 million in waterfront building is under way to house those companies.
More construction is scheduled to begin this year on a new $25 million headquarters for the Delaware River Port Authority next to the aquarium's parking garage.
More good news came Camden's way last week when the proposed South Jersey Performing Arts Center, also planned for the waterfront, won a $4 million state grant. Another $5 million in government support and $9 million more in private donations must still be raised.
Plans are also on the drawing board for a $33 million hotel on Camden Harbor, just south of the aquarium.
Camden is one of several cities that have turned to aquariums in recent years following the success of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where a recent study showed that the facility had brought $128.1 million into the region in 1990 and had created more than 1,600 full-time jobs.
Other cities have sought to duplicate that success. New aquariums have opened recently in New Orleans and Corpus Christi, Texas, and are attracting more visitors than expected. This spring, aquariums are scheduled to open in Oregon and in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The idea that an aquarium might be Camden's salvation arose following a study released in 1983 that concluded that the city would need a major waterfront attraction to bring in new development.
A coalition of interests that included Campbell's, the Philadelphia Zoo, then-Mayor Randy Primas and the city's legislative delegation sold Kean on the idea, and he backed it enthusiastically as governor.
Primas, who remembers being advised after becoming mayor in 1981 to change Camden's name because its image was so bad, said yesterday that he had an ''incredible feeling of happiness to see something that went from a dream to a reality."
"I had a poster on my wall that said if you build dream castles in the sky, you must first put a foundation under them. And I think for sure the foundation has been laid in this city."
Stepping Up To A League That Plays Hardball
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1992-04-19/news/26002391_1_steve-sigler-msbl-world-series-hardballBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 19, 1992William Curzie has been smelling trampled grass, dirt and sweaty leather lately. He sees snappy uniforms, cleats, visored caps and airborne baseballs. He can hear the crack of bat hitting ball, and the grunt and ground-churning slide of a baserunner resound in his ears.
The 57-year-old Delran resident calls it his "Field of Dreams thing."
Curzie, a former high school baseball player, has not gone so far as to build a ball field in his back yard. But early next month, he hopes to recapture some fond memories by organizing several adult hardball baseball teams and joining them with the national Men's Senior Baseball League for adults 30 years and older.
"Now men over 30 don't have to go to a bar to strike out," says an MSBL ad, appealing to age, goading softballers to play hardball.
It was the MSBL World Series in Arizona last year that got Curzie all excited about playing.
Since its inception in 1986, the MSBL has grown to about 1,500 teams and an estimated 22,000 players worldwide, according to founder and president Steve Sigler. There are a few adult hardball leagues in southern and central New Jersey, but they are not affiliated with the MSBL.
"Last year, I wanted to go out and play hardball, but they didn't have enough room," Curzie said, referring to unaffiliated teams in Willingboro and Pennsylvania.
While nothing definite has been established, Curzie feels that glorious opening-day pitch is not far off.
His fledgling effort took a stride in that direction April 11, as about 15 MSBL wannabes, ranging in age from 31 to Curzie's 57, held an organizational meeting at Delran High School.
Sam Peterson, 50, of Delran said he wanted a faster pace than softball. Steve Miller, a Maple Shade resident who gave up hardball in 1982, said he had a point to prove.
"I kind of got hungry. I know I can still do it (play hardball)," said Miller, 37, an umpire in the Rancocas Valley League. "I want to try out for something this year, no matter what it is. My son thinks I'm over the hill. He's 13."
Mike Coburn,38, president of the Connecticut MSBL and the MSBL's Northeast coordinator, came to the meeting to tell the men what was needed to jump-start a new league.
He had resumed a love affair with hardball four years ago.
"Softball really didn't do it for me. I longed to play baseball again," said Coburn.
In addition to a $15 league fee, teams need equipment, at least a semblance of a uniform, insurance and umpires. As a well-established organization, the MSBL can provide all of the above, except umpires, at cut rates, said Coburn.
Most local leagues, he said, manage to attract contributions from sponsors.
The MSBL has the trappings of the major leagues. Each year it hosts playoffs and a World Series in Arizona, but allows local teams to accommodate all ages with liberal rules such as two designated hitters, courtesy runners and free defensive substitutions. The average pitch is about 65 to 70 miles per hour.
Curzie said afterward that members of his local league would have to pay about $50 to join. It would be a sign of commitment, he said.
The league would save on field rentals because the towns of Riverside and Delran have both agreed to allow free use of a field, Curzie said.
While the turnout at last weekend's meeting was half of the 30 Curzie expected after advertising in local papers, Coburn was reassuring.
"Once they (the proposed teams) pick up a little momentum and people find out about them, they take off," he said. In four years, the Connecticut league has gone from five to nearly 40 teams, he said.
Those interested in joining can contact William Curzie, 461-1669.
Council To Help Buy Lights For Field
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1992-06-04/news/26030896_1_night-games-school-board-concerns-about-future-costsBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: June 04, 1992A yearlong campaign to install lights at the Delran High School football field got a final boost last week when the township council voted unanimously to help pay for the purchase.
The council vote came after Light Up Delran, a residents' group, raised about $40,000 of the estimated $65,000 cost of the project. The lights are expected to cost about $41,000 and installation is expected to cost about $24,000.
The council voted to contribute $25,000 toward the project, but because by law it could not make a direct cash donation to the private group, it decided to purchase the lights and then be reimbursed $16,000 by Light Up Delran, said council President Andrew Ritzie. Light Up Delran will pay the installation costs, Treasurer Don Deutsch said. Following installation, the school board will have jurisdiction over the lights and the use of the field for night games, board President Ronald Napoli said that evening.
Light Up Delran has suggested the board authorize 10 night games. However, teams from other townships must agree to play, said Napoli.
"We've spent a lot of money to bring the field to the level of quality it is today," Napoli said. About $30,000 was spent four years ago to resod and irrigate it, he said.
If the group is right and night games attract big crowds, the school board's general fund would benefit from a new infusion of funds applicable to the sports program or other programs, board members said. Fund-raising efforts began a year ago. The least of the motives was creating a moneymaker, said supporters of Light Up Delran.
"We didn't look at it as something that's going to be a money earning, money losing venture," said Robert Sheeren, a school board member. "We looked at it as something that's going to benefit the community as a whole."
In the age of two-income families, "it will give parents the opportunity to come home, eat dinner and (then) watch their children play," said Mike Pilenza, vice president of Light Up Delran.
Pilenza, Moorestown High School athletic director for the last 16 years, said the installation of lights there had been a success.
While the campaign attracted widespread community support, it did arouse some concerns about future costs and the educational priorities it signified.
In a year in which voters rejected a vastly trimmed down education budget, members of the fledgling group Parents Recognizing Education as a Priority sought assurances that maintenance from night games would not soak the school board budget.
While Light Up Delran is yet to furnish PREP with the figures it has sought, PREP's concerns seemed to abate last week after its members discussed the project with the school board.
Based on Moorestown's experience, electricity would cost the Delran school board about $20 per game, Pilenza estimated Sunday. Because Delran boasts excellent football teams, their games would likely attract bigger crowds than those at Moorestown games, which regularly gross $1,500 per game, he said.
Delran's lacrosse team and Pop Warner football teams use the field, too. Board members said a probable addition would be soccer, but they have not ruled out non-sports events.
"The costs never went up. The only thing that went up is the revenues," Pilenza said of Moorestown's night games. "I anticipate the same thing for Delran."
Moorestown Doctor's Calling Was In The East
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151221132516/http://articles.philly.com/1992-06-21/news/26032176_1_moorestown-resident-east-coast-promotional-tourBy Charlie Frush, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 21, 1992Richard Milsten was plenty worried when he came East.
"I was from Tulsa, just a simple boy trying make my way here in the East," said the Moorestown resident.
"I was so scared coming out of Oklahoma. All these other kids had gone to prep school, I had gone to public school. I thought I was going to fail out."
What he feared failing out of was Yale, that effete seat of East Coast learning where he had enrolled to study the law.
Fear can be good. Milsten hit the books so hard at Yale that he graduated magna cum laude.
But not in the law.
"I think I burned out on law before I began," he said. "My father (Travis) was Mr. Probate of Oklahoma - he was granted that title by the Oklahoma Bar Association. My brother is still an attorney and my uncle is retired, 88, and he was an attorney. I'd heard nothing but law and knew nothing else to do."
Milsten turned to medicine, and that has become his life, with a specialty in urology, a field in which he has attained some eminence, as we shall see, and in which his peers elected him president of the Philadelphia Urologic Association, a term he began June 1.
As chief of urology at Underwood-Memorial Hospital, Woodbury, and assistant chief of urology at West Jersey Hospital, Milsten, now 52, has written ''countless scientific papers," as the news releases put it, but it's The Book that he's most known for.
That would be Male Sexual Function: Myth, Fantasy and Reality, a seminal - no pun intended - work that ended up in the offices of every urologist in the nation after it was published in 1979.
"I thought there was a tremendous need for the public to have information about impotence," Milsten said. "I'd only been in practice five years and there was apparently an innumerable amount of (impotent) men - the number is now 10 million - and there was no good basic source for lay people on the topic. And I was young with lots of energy.
"I worked a full day, then I wrote it at night. I know I gave up all my tennis. I dictated everything and had a wonderful librarian to help with research and a wonderful typist."
The idea, he said, was to present the material as "easy reading, broken into sections, and showing how it affected the male and his partner, because I realized not a single person was affected but also his spouse."
The book was a triumph. "I went on a promotional tour. I did a number of radio, TV shows in the East and into Midwest. It was distributed nationally and in Canada and was translated into Dutch and sold in Europe. I know every urologist in the country received a copy. It was sent out by a pharmaceutical company as educational material." The American Urologic Association arranged for him to produce an educational film based on the book.
"I got letters and notes. I had a lot of nice letters from professionals. I had patients coming in from California to see me. I tried to discourage them. There are plenty of good urologists in California." When that died down, the letters started coming in from Europe.
"I'd do it again," he said. "I had a great time with it."
Milsten and his wife, Nancy, an environmental attorney, have three children. "My son just graduated from Duke magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and I have twin daughters in college, one at Bowdoin and one at Stanford," he said.
His rearing explains one of his hobbies - travel. "I was brought up in the outdoors, I used to hunt, shoot, wear cowboy boots." Nowadays, he goes a little farther afield for his extracurricular activities. "We just came from back from Kenya and Nairobi," he said. "Last year I went 1,200 miles up the Amazon river."
*The Hartshorn sisters have been inseparable from their piano since they were 6 years old, and this afternoon the Medford youngsters show off their skills when they deliver a piano recital in the Medford United Methodist Church.
Heather, 14, and Andrea, 12, recently received superior ratings in the National Piano Auditions conducted in Marlton in May by the National Guild of Piano Teachers - testimony to hard work and years of practice.
"They've been with me three years," said Olive Knight of Magnolia, their teacher. "They're very good." Knight wanted to enter them in the auditions earlier but got sick. "This is first year I had them ready."
Heather, who'll be a freshman this fall at Shawnee High School, and Andrea, a seventh grader at Medford Memorial Middle School, are the daughters of Katherine and John Hartshorn, an elementary school teacher and an agricultural products agent.
"I started them because it was something I had done and I still enjoy it," said their mother. As for applying themselves, "they've been pretty good," she said. "I pretty much let them go on their own. They have to answer to the teacher. They've been doing very well on what I consider minimal practice."
Although Heather admits practice can be a drag, her conscience refuses to let her dog it.
"I practiced anyway," she said. "I always try my best at whatever I do," which is reflected at school, where she is a member of the National Junior Honor Society.
Heather hits the ivories every other day, sometimes finds it easy, sometimes not, practices the classical music assigned to her and occasionally plinks out a popular song for her own pleasure.
When people ask her to play, her response is "sometimes, but not usually."
She has also been playing the clarinet for four years and performs with the school band. For two years, both she and Andrea have been playing the handbells in services at the Medford Methodist Church.
In addition to taking dance lessons, Andrea also plays a second instrument, the saxophone, in the school band, but says "I think I like the piano better." Sometimes she practices only twice a week, sometimes every day, but she says she finds the instrument is not difficult for her. If she messes up a practice assignment, that just means she has to keep working on it for another week.
Setting a career goal is difficult for Andrea.
"I want to be everything," she said.
Worth noting: Margaret Schweikert, 16, of Delran, will attend the National Young Leaders Conference July 7-12 in Washington, meeting leaders and newsmakers from the branches of government, plus the media and diplomatic corps. She will be a senior this fall at Holy Cross High School.
Burlington City High School drum major Debbie Hammer was awarded a plaque for superior performance at the Myrtle Beach (N.C.) Music Festival '92 in May. Hammer, 17, of Edgewater Park, will be a senior this fall. The school band marching unit won first in the Field Show competition and the Concert Choir won a first in its event at Myrtle Beach.
Chemistry Was Right For Professor When He Met His Love At St. Joseph's
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150914192235/http://articles.philly.com/1992-07-12/news/26028852_1_chemistry-research-grant-dicarloBy Charlie Frush, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: July 12, 1992E. Nicholas DiCarlo is virtually married to chemistry, yet until he got to college, they never had been introduced.
Many years ago, as an undergraduate at St. Joseph's College, now the university, he had his first chemistry class.
"I never really anticipated a career in science," said DiCarlo. "I won a scholastic scholarship, and I had a great interest in math. I had never taken chemistry or physics in high school. It was probably a blessing. But I had to take it as a freshman at St. Joseph's as a general science major."
Thereby he launched a career.
The Delanco resident, now 56, was honored for distinguished teaching as a professor of chemistry at St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, a few years ago. He has published some 30 technical papers. In the spring, he received a research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has been bestowing them on him for years.
"It was a professor who really turned me on to chemistry," DiCarlo said. That was George Eichel, now professor emeritus.
"It was his enthusiasm and love for the subject," DiCarlo said. "He noticed I had aptitude for mathematics and would bug me about pursuing a career in science, particularly in the mathematics end of chemistry, physical chemistry."
In 1963, DiCarlo joined the St. Joseph's faculty after getting master's and doctorate degrees from Princeton.
"I usually carry a very heavy teaching load," he said. He conducts classes in introductory physical and quantum chemistry and statistical mechanics.
"It's almost impossible" to divorce teaching and research, he said. "I could do pure research, no questions about that, if I elected to do that in an industrial lab, but if you want to effectively teach in the sciences, it's imperative that you involve yourself in scholarly, publishable research work. It keeps you alive."
His principal influence is in preparing students for doctoral studies. ''Students will complain because I tend to push. At times they think I'm overdemanding," he said.
"I'm fairly one-dimensional. I think that's one of my problems. I ask myself: 'What are you going to do when your career ends.' I don't play golf. I do an extensive amount of reading. I work out in the university gym, but that's a tonic. I don't like to do it, I just do it to relieve anxiety. I've always done a lot of traveling, but it's always been to some university. I'm always surrounded by the same type of people."
In the lab, an NSF grant of $51,000 will support his research on "The Study of Ultrafast Intramolecular Rearrangements via Microwave Dielectric Relaxation." Or what he calls schizophrenic molecules that rapidly change their configurations. Their proper name is stereochemically nonrigid molecules.
"I'm not making lipstick or some end product that will have some use to the public. It's basic research," he said. And basic research, he said, is what leads to such high-technology breakthroughs as lasers and magnetic resonance imaging.
In one aspect, DiCarlo has broken out of his one-note symphony.
"I'm an assistant coach of Little League teams this year," he said.
He and his wife, Jacqueline, a certified medical assistant, have three grown children and one at home, 10-year-old Nicholas.
Being a coach should take him back to his days at third base at the erstwhile Southeast Catholic High School, where he entertained thoughts of a career in baseball.
"I was small," he said, "but my son is a big guy."
"If he enjoys it, he can be a physicist and a professional baseball player at the same time."
*The church, said Elsie Elizabeth Ford, "is my life, my commitment."
And members of the church, who know dedication when they see it, installed the Willingboro resident as moderator of the West Jersey Presbytery last month.
Ford, a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of Willingboro, says she'll "keep the flow going" at the presbytery's eight meetings a year. But more important during her year in office, she wants to make personal contact with the presbytery's 66 churches, from Burlington south to Cape May.
"I will try to get to as many as possible," she said. "I have five scheduled (to visit) and I have been to three already."
She considers the moderator the agent who can cement the bond between the individual churches and the presbytery.
Ford, 63, who retired after a career in accounting, is an elder in her church, as is her husband, John, a truck driver to whom she has been married for 43 years. They have three grown children and four grandchildren.
She credits the sisterhood of the Presbyterian Women's Organization for learning leadership, spiritual nurturing and bonding.
"I would not be anything without them," she said.
She has traveled as far as China on behalf of the church.
In 1987, she and 36 others visited the Orient for three weeks at the behest of the Synod of the Northeast to see how Christianity was doing in a communist country.
Despite the Cultural Revolution, "the church in China is alive and well, no matter what they say," Ford reported, although she was saddened by the events in Tiananmen Square. "The land looks the same. The people are the same as here. Their wants are the same. You see the face of God in the people."
She has also traveled to Arizona on behalf of the church and will soon be going to Ghana with a family from her church whose are native Ghanaians.
"I'm going, No. 1," she said, "because I want to go. But in my moderatorial position I will be taking the good wishes of our presbytery to their church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church."
Ford considers herself an "average, everyday person" who is committed and dedicated to "being a peacemaker and bringing love to one another."
"I don't say it's an easy road," she said, "but we do serve."
TAKE NOTE: C.B. Shingleton, a former Moorestown "citizen of the year," has been named chairman of the board and chief volunteer officer for United Way of Burlington County.
Among those who won scholarships to the Puttin' on the Ritz Summer Theater Arts Day Camp in Oaklyn were three Burlington County youths: Melissa Quinn, an eighth grader at Maple Shade High School, and Moorestown Allen Middle School pupils Dawn Rosen, seventh grade, and Katie Thompson, eighth grade.
Craig Fagan, a senior-to-be at Delran High School, is one of 100 students in the state attending the Governor's School on Public Issues and the Future of New Jersey at Monmouth College. The school began June 28 and will end July 25.
Hockey Coach's Big Bluff Yields Big Reward
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151221193826/http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-26/news/25997500_1_practice-schedule-hockey-club-ice-timeBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: October 26, 1992Most hockey fans were disappointed by last season's NHL players' strike, but few knew how to turn it to their advantage. The Williamstown Braves did.
The hockey club, which is not connected to the high school of the same name, is involved in imaginative fund-raising effort that has its roots in the strike.
During the strike last spring, Williamstown's second-year coach, Stan Haines, rented ice time at the Coliseum in Voorhees for a summer-league team, for which he served as a player-coach. Haines said he is a goalie "who won't soon be confused with Bernie Parent."
When the strike was settled, the Coliseum called Haines and asked whether he would switch the time of his scheduled Sunday practice; the Flyers had requested the ice because they wanted to work out before traveling to Hartford, Conn., to resume their schedule.
Haines said that he'd already had his practice schedule changed once because of a conflict at the rink. He had just finished calling his players to tell them of the change when the Coliseum called back, asking him to move again.
So Haines told the rink manager - tongue planted firmly in cheek, he said - that he would move his practice only if he could get a hockey stick autographed by all the Flyers.
Haines said that he would have complied with the request even if he hadn't been given assurances about receiving the stick, and that he never expected it to materialize.
But when he arrived at the rescheduled practice, he received a goalie stick that had been used by Ron Hextall in a game and had been autographed by every member of the team.
The stick is now being used to raise funds for the Williamstown club. The team is selling $1 selling for a drawing for the stick, to be held in December.
"As usual, the Flyers showed their class," Haines said. "They went out of their way to be gracious to us."
Haines said the drawing is necessary because ice time costs $3 a minute, and because there are other costs, such as officials and equipment.
The drawing will take place at 8 p.m. Dec. 16.
Haines, whose son, Roger, is a Williamstown High junior and one of the team captains, is attempting to add a bonus to the prize.
"We're trying to get Eric Lindros to sign the stick," he said. "The stick is already a valuable commodity, and this would be an added attraction."
SACCA REMEMBERS
* When Delran fans take a bite from a hot dog at home football games, they'll often remember Tony Sacca.
The former Penn State and current Phoenix Cardinals quarterback contributed $5,000 to his alma mater for the unusual project of building a snack bar.
Delran responded by decorating a snack-bar wall with a plaque showing Sacca's name; his number, 19, and a football.
"We just got lights this year at the field, and the people here were looking for a way to spruce up the concession stand," athletic director Rich Janulis said.
"Now, thanks to Tony's contribution and all the volunteer workers who donated their labor free, we have a beautiful concession stand that can accommodate many more people," he said. "I feel honored that Tony would remember his roots. He's such a super talent, but he never has forgotten where he came from."
Nor has he forgotten what fans like to eat.
FEUD FORGOTTEN
* When Eric Taylor attended Woodrow Wilson, he and basketball coach Bill Smothers often got in heated discussions over college.
Not which college. Any college. Taylor didn't want to attend, and Smothers believed that Taylor needed an education.
One time, Smothers said, they had a fistfight, which must have been quite a sight because Taylor is 6-foot-7, and Smothers stands 6-8 and weighs 300 pounds. Smothers recalled that athletic director Joe McColgan had to break up the exchange before it got out of hand.
This story, however, has a happy ending. Taylor didn't just go to college - he's going to graduate school.
Taylor, a starter as a sophomore on Wilson's 1985 state Group 3 champion, is pursuing a master's degree after receiving a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
A foster child, Taylor is working for the Arizona Foster Child Association in Phoenix while attending graduate school at Grand Canyon. And his biggest supporter is Smothers.
"Seeing somebody like Eric really makes you feel good and appreciate being in this field," Smothers said. "Now he's a humanitarian, and before he was a typical streetwise city kid."
Smothers said that Taylor calls him at least once a month, and that the former sparring partners have become close friends.
"He always had goodness in him, but sometimes people hide that to survive in the neighborhood," Smothers said. "Now the good is pouring out. I'm bringing him back in May to speak at our banquet. He's a great example for our kids."
Contributions to Monday Scrapbook can be mailed to South Jersey Sports, The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia 19101.
College Field Hockey Teams Gain From The Play Of Local Standouts
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151221190933/http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-26/news/25997472_1_field-hockey-rutgers-camden-goalsBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: October 26, 1992La Salle University field hockey standout Kelli McGahey, a senior from Bishop Eustace, recently was named the Explorers' female athlete of the week.
McGahey assisted on each goal in 1-0 victories over Lehigh and Richmond. She scored both goals in a 2-1 overtime victory over Bucknell. Through her first 14 games, McGahey was leading La Salle in scoring with 10 goals and two assists.
Kerri McGahey, Kelli's twin sister, started in each of La Salle's first 14 games, scoring one goal. She has been one of the team's key defensive players.
Explorers back Kim Aglidian, a senior from St. Joseph High, also started the first 14 games, dishing off for one assist.
St. Joseph's University forward Hayley Davidson, a freshman from Eastern, had six goals through the first 15 games. It represents the most goals by a Hawks freshman since Paula Nicastro scored eight in 1984.
Lock Haven goalie Alison Brita, a junior from St. Joseph, started in each of the Bald Eagles' first 12 games. Brita allowed just 11 goals for an 0.90 goals-against average, and had seven shutouts, raising her career total to 15.
Juniata sweeper Erin Read, a sophomore from Cherokee, has been one of the Tribe's top defensive players. Read had 10 defensive saves in the first 13 games.
Babson College forward Nicole Manning, a freshman from Haddonfield, was the team's second-leading scorer in the first 10 games, knocking in eight goals.
*
Iowa, one of the top teams in the country, continues to receive excellent production from four South Jersey products. Forward Jamie Rofrano, a senior
from Shawnee, led the Hawkeyes with 16 assists through the first 13 games. Rofrano also had eight goals. Tiffany Bybel, a junior from Millville, was second on the team with 12 assists.
Amy Fowler, a senior from Eastern, had two goals and seven assists in the first 13 games, all victories. Aimee Klapach, a junior from Lenape, had two goals as a starting back.
Two Shawnee graduates were tied for the Connecticut scoring lead through 14 games. Sophomore Kristen Kelly and junior Heather Graver both had three goals and two assists.
Ursinus goalie Hope Arroliga, a junior from Collingswood, had 16 saves in a 3-2 win over Cornell.
SOCCER. Rutgers-Camden goalie Randall McGinnis, a senior from Overbrook, was named the school's athlete of the week last week after making nine saves in a 3-1 win over William Paterson.
The victory, McGinnis' fifth of the season, was earned the hard way. Rutgers-Camden played a man short for all but eight minutes after one of its players received a red card.
West Chester forward-midfielder Adam Smith, a senior from Washington Township, was the Rams' leading scorer through the first 11 games. Smith had eight goals and two assists.
Villanova midfielder Bill Reid, a freshman from Lenape, started five of the first 12 games for the Wildcats. Reid had one goal and an assist.
Sandy Dickson, a junior from Delran, started 10 of the first 12 games for Rutgers' women's soccer team. Dickson scored her first goal Wednesday night in a 3-2 win over Monmouth.
Midfielder Chrissy Sheeran, a sophomore from Cinnaminson, started three of the first 12 games for Rutgers. She had two goals and one assist.
FOOTBALL. UCLA strong safety Marvin Goodwin, a sophomore from Woodrow Wilson, was the Bruins' leading tackler through the first six games. Goodwin had 35 tackles, including three for losses, and two sacks.
Bloomsburg wide receiver Tom Pajic, a senior from Paul VI, had 34 receptions for 513 yards and five touchdowns through the first seven games.
Temple running back Sam Jenkins, a senior from Rancocas Valley, is the Owls' leading rusher. Jenkins has gained 429 yards on 106 carries and has scored a team-high five touchdowns. Two weeks ago, he had a career-high 108 yards on 22 carries in a 27-20 loss to Pitt.
Temple placekicker Rich Maston, a freshman from Camden Catholic, is second on the team behind Jenkins in scoring.
MISCELLANY. The University of Delaware's Amy Gupko, a junior from Millville, finished a successful tennis season. Gupko was 8-2 in dual-match doubles competition.
St. Joseph's Matt Minnium, a senior from Shawnee, recently finished third on his team in the two-day McLaughlin Collegiate golf tournament in Farmingdale, N.Y. Minnium shot a two-day total of 167. St. Joseph's finished 16th in a field of 26 teams.
Blaze At Mall Was A Fitting End To A Difficult '92 Unemployment, Contrary Politics, Crime - The "Annus Horribilis" Reached Burlco.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151226041929/http://articles.philly.com/1993-01-03/news/25958953_1_shopping-center-new-jobs-tycoBy Charlie Frush, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: January 03, 1993It was a year that began with phony bombs and ended with a real bang. For many in Burlington County, MCMXCII was not a twelvemonth to cherish.
Too many lost their jobs, even their homes, as The Recession intruded. Crooks fleeced us. The welfare rolls grew. Tragedy's cold hand fell on some. Business, already shaky, got worse when parts of the Moorestown Mall erupted in flames.
At least, we were not alone. Even Queen Liz called it "annus horribilis."
Of course, maybe that's just the impression from reading the newspapers. The bad news, as usual, was plastered on Page One, and the good news was interred among the classifieds. Good, bad and worse, a lot happened in Burlington County in 1992. Here are some snippets. You could look'em up.
*Police got a workout in January when they found a mock bomb outside Taunton Forge Elementary School in Medford, then several outside Cherokee High School and another in the basement of an Evesham home.
A year later would come a real conflagration - a quick-spreading fire two days before Christmas that rudely interrupted the holiday shopping season at the Moorestown Mall. The flames destroyed five stores, damaged two and filled the mall with smoke. Some 300 firefighters worked more than 5 1/2 hours to control the fire.
A day later, as the losses were being imagined by some and tallied by others, only the mall's three anchor stores - Boscov's, Sears and John Wanamaker, out on the periphery of the crippled shopping center - opened for business.
Others who counted losses during the year were those who received pink slips from Griffin Pipe and Delaval Condenser in Florence, Hercules in Burlington Township, and Tyco in Moorestown. At Tyco alone, about 300 people lost their jobs when the toy manufacturer decided to shut down its 18-year-old distribution center in Moorestown and move to Oregon.
In January, the state shook up Riverside and other riverfront towns by recommending that Zurbrugg Hospital eliminate 110 of its 154 beds by 1995. The public outrage continues.
In September, the Johnstone Training Center for the mentally retarded closed in Bordentown.
In October, more than 1,000 people showed up at a job fair at Burlington County College to apply for 600 new jobs at the minimum-security federal prison at Fort Dix.
Unemployment in the county, based on statistics through October, was up about 1.5 percent over last year. Joblessness among county residents hit a peak of 8.6 percent in July - three points higher than in July 1991.
But look past the front page, and the economic news was not all gloomy.
The Burlington Center in Burlington Township celebrated 10 hang-in-there years in August.
Willingboro and Moorestown each got a shot in the arm when the Boscov's department-store chain converted its discount Ports stores at Willingboro Plaza and Moorestown Mall to full-fledged, upscale Boscov's department stores, leading to new hires.
Wal-Mart, the nation's leading retailer, broke ground in October for a store in the Liberty Square Shopping Center in Burlington Township. And in November, Mount Laurel was told that construction would begin this summer on the first of a dozen buildings at Burlington County College's high-tech campus on Route 38, to be operated as a joint venture with the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
In February, international furniture distributor Ikea got approval for construction of a 721,000-square-foot warehouse, now being completed in Westampton.
Also in Westampton, the county reopened its library with one-third more space in April after a six-month, $2 million renovation. In December, the Evesham Library reopened at double its old size.
As for politics, it wasn't all politics as usual.
In January, Burlington City installed Robert W. Vandegrift, its first Republican mayor in nearly three decades.
And Sheriff Henry Metzger was disavowed by his Republican Party after he called an African American subordinate by a pejorative term. Metzger ran as a write-in candidate but lost to Edward Cummings, the GOP's subsequent candidate for sheriff.
Meanwhile, defying Bill Clinton's coattails, Republicans won all the county offices.
On the bench, John Sweeney of Florence and Jan Schlesinger of Moorestown were sworn in as Superior Court judges in February after the retirements of Paul R. Kramer and Anthony P. Tunney Jr.
And Paulsdale, the Hooten Road farmhouse home of suffragist Alice Paul in Mount Laurel, was dedicated as a national landmark.
Last month, Mount Holly joined a trend and elected its first fire commission, which will levy taxes to support firefighting.
The headlines also told of crime, horrifying and senseless, and of misdeeds that were just stupid.
In March, a gunman killed Raymond Muller 3d, 22, of Burlington City, execution-style and severely wounded another person during a holdup at the McDonald's Restaurant on Route 130 in Burlington City, where the victims worked. Indicted was parolee Charles A. Williams, 29, of Burlington City.
In April, a former Fort Dix drill sergeant - Earl Richmond of Fayetteville, N.C. - was charged with the killing of Spec. Lisa Ann Nadeau, mother of two little girls.
In Philadelphia, a jury convicted the killer of Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor Richard Barbour. Barbour was shot in April 1991 as he withdrew money from a MAC machine. Yerodeen Williams, 17, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder.
Reacting to lack of a first-degree murder conviction, Assistant Philadelphia District Attorney Roger King declared: "If someone can walk up to a person, point a gun, press it flush against their head and pull the trigger, and that evokes sympathy from the jury, then maybe it's time for Scotty to beam me up."
And in an event presaging a rash of carjackings to come, a McGuire Air Force Base airman, Douglas A. Cutcher, 21, was shot to death by two Camden youths. The two had called him out of a celebration in May at Butch's Place, a country-western bar on Route 38 in Pemberton, on a pretext so they could steal his 1991 Ford Mustang. The two died within hours when they crashed the car into a tree.
In a slaying that stunned Willingboro, Cherrell Bell, 17, was knifed to death outside her home in December in a melee that followed a fight earlier in the day involving her sister. An 18-year-old from Pemberton Township, Lanise ''Baby Sis" Sutton, was charged in the killing.
In March, Chris Hatcher of Riverside was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to setting 15 fires in four towns in 1990-91. One fire was set at the abandoned Roebling steel plant in Florence while Hatcher was a member of Washington Fire Company No. 1 in Delanco. Two brothers, Paul and Patrick Lynch of Delanco, had pleaded guilty in 1991 to helping set some of the fires.
Rip-off artists again proved they were no respecters of institutions, appearing even inside the Burlington County Jail. There, officials discovered in March that a prisoner had been bilking women in a romance-by-mail scheme, passing himself off as a CIA employee and sweet-talking the women into sending cash to "B.C.J., 54 Grant Street, Mount Holly" - which, of course, is the address of the jail.
In November, Evesham police, FBI agents and the State Police Bomb Squad surrounded William Baitinger's car at the Commerce Bank on Route 70 near Marlton Circle. A co-worker of Baitinger's, Alvin Blome of Sewell, had reached the bank's drive-in window, noticed Baitinger behind him and left a note in the transaction tube reading "I want all your money. I have a bomb." When the teller read it, she forked over $1,575 and triggered an alarm that caused all hell to break loose around the innocent Baitinger.
Blome, back at the office, heard of this unanticipated turn of events and phoned in to admit the mischief. Police were not amused. He was charged with disorderly conduct.
In April, several toll collectors were charged with skimming thousands of dollars from the Burlington County Bridge Commission collection booths and counting room. One collector later killed himself. Incidentally, the tolls on the Tacony-Palmyra and Burlington-Bristol bridges were raised to $1 from 50 cents - but to be paid only one way, traveling westbound into Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, the Riverside Township Committee suspended Police Chief Harry Collinsworth and Cpl. Edward M. Curtis after the discovery of $5,300 in bogus overtime.
In June, a Moorestown High School student was punished for concealing a racial slur in the text under his photo in the school yearbook.
Last month, while breaking up an Evesham escort service, authorities found four pipe bombs. Earlier, Medford police uncovered an LSD ring at Lenape and Shawnee High Schools.
On May 1, the county finally activated the 911 phone number for police, fire and emergency-squad calls.
And there were people in the news.
A Delran teenager and firefighter, Ron Vandermark, was fired from his supermarket checkout job for not showing up at work after spending 10 hours fighting a blaze at Riverside Metals. He got a job at another grocery.
John Curtis of Moorestown High School scored a perfect 1,600 in the SAT and said in November, "It's nice to know I'll never have to take it again."
In September, George Barbour died. Barbour, 75, of Maple Shade, was former president of the State Board of Public Utilities and a former assemblyman.
In October, two other familiar county figures passed away: Francis P. ''Luke" Brennan, 77, of Cinnaminson, who served 27 years as Burlington County sheriff until retiring in 1986; and Walter W. Kanigowski, 68, of Riverside, who taught an estimated 45,000 people to swim after launching his first class with seven students at Moorestown Community House in 1950.
Riverton Borough moved from its old Town Hall, an 84-year-old former bank on Hanover Street, into a new Town Hall on Egbert Street in July.
In August, the last combat training recruits graduated at Fort Dix.
Florence High School marked its 50th anniversary in September; Maple Shade dedicated a new municipal complex in October.
And as the year wound down, Moorestown proposed fining people $100 for feeding geese at Strawbridge Lake.
Delran's 3-sport Star Defeats Time No Wonder Melissa Roberts Looks To The Future. College May Be Calmer.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102042543/http://articles.philly.com/1993-04-15/news/25982118_1_first-softball-game-soccer-south-jersey-groupBy Bob Hoffmann, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 15, 1993Delran's Melissa Roberts goes to class, works out, competes in three sports, and works part-time.
Whew.
Roberts, a senior who will leave Delran with an impressive 12 varsity letters, says coping with being busy is not that tough.
"You just have to know how to manage your time," she said. "It's not as hard as it sounds. I work it all out somehow."
Roberts has been playing soccer, basketball and softball since she was 6 years old. Soccer is her love; basketball is her vehicle to college. Softball is, well, softball is not Roberts' favorite thing right now.
"My coach will kill me for saying this, but I really don't enjoy softball," said Roberts, a first baseman. "If I had it to do over, I'd play lacrosse or run the hurdles in track. Softball's a drag this year because it's been so cold, and because I got into it late because of how long our basketball season lasted."
Roberts wasn't complaining about the basketball season. Delran won its first 26 games, taking the South Jersey Group 2 title and reaching the state final. The Bears, who finished No. 3 in The Inquirer's Top 15, didn't lose until the state final, when they dropped a 34-27 decison to Mahwah.
Roberts, a 5-foot-11 center, averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds this past season, and was an Inquirer second-team all-South Jersey selection. She finished her career with 1,282 points. She has accepted a full scholarship from Iona.
"Basketball was a dream season for us," Roberts said. "We hadn't won a lot of titles before, and it was great to get as far as we did. It was kind of sad we couldn't win it all. Individually, I didn't have a great season. I'll have to improve my mental game, my rebounding and my defense for next year."
Delran girls' basketball coach Jim Weber said he thinks Roberts will do just fine at the next level.
"She's obviously a very good all-round athlete," he said. "Her strength is her speed and quickness. She can handle the ball left or right. She's very, very quick, and she can hit the outside shot, which she's going to need to do at Iona."
Roberts will slow it down some in college. Basketball will be her only sport.
"I'd like to play soccer, but I'm not going to because I have to concentrate on basketball," she said. "I had to learn to love basketball, but I always loved to play soccer. People don't realize it's a great sport."
Roberts, who dreams of piling up goals from the left wing, lined up as a defender in her soccer career. Last fall, Roberts scored once.
She's hoping to score more often in softball. Roberts, who missed the Bears' first three games because of a senior trip, played her first softball game this season on Tuesday. Delran lost, 6-0, to Rancocas Valley and fell to 1-3.
"We've missed that spunk she provides for us," Delran softball coach Nancy Fanelli said. "She's a decent player, even though it's not her first love. She hustles and she's a leader. Last year, she fielded 1.000; she can really dig out the balls at first base. She hit about .300, which is about what she's hit every year. Everybody respects her and her talent."
Competing Freedoms 2 Students At Poles Of Debate That Splits Penn They Came To Penn, Expecting Academic And Social Freedom. On Opposite Sides Of A "Hate Speech" Policy, Both Were Disappointed.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222173113/http://articles.philly.com/1993-05-13/news/25966615_1_black-students-student-newspaper-gregory-pavlikBy Howard Goodman, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: May 13, 1993Khalil Muhammad is a young black man from Chicago. His neighborhood back in Hyde Park was integrated, his high school was integrated, and so was his circle of friends.
They knew their coterie was somewhat charmed. "We discussed at certain times how insular our experiences were," Muhammad said, "and we hypothesized about what it would be like when we went off to different colleges."
Muhammad imagined many things about college life, but he never expected to come face to face with racism in the idyll of the Ivy League.
Yet that is what he says he found at the University of Pennsylvania.
Gregory Pavlik is a young white man from the South Jersey town of Delran. His neighborhood was integrated, he played basketball with black friends. A neighbor across the street, a black man from the Caribbean, "was probably the man closest to me of anyone other than my father."
He came to the University of Pennsylvania 1 1/2 years ago, a transfer student, thinking: " 'Gee, this is a great place, I'm going to find all this intellectual debate.'
"That didn't happen," he says.
Muhammad and Pavlik, two students among 22,000 at Penn, have never met.
But their lives have become tangled at the center of a highly public months-long campus drama of racial sensibilities versus free speech.
In some ways it seems they've attended different schools altogether.
To Muhammad, a 21-year-old senior about to join a Center City accounting firm, this year has been an unremitting reminder that no matter how educated he becomes, no matter how hard he works, there will always be a white person who will demean him for his race. His university is a place where blacks keenly feel their minority.
To Pavlik, a 21-year-old junior who writes occasional columns for the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, the year has shown that expressing opinions detested by minority groups can provoke a powerful backlash that chills free expression. His university is a place where white males are on the defensive.
In February, Pavlik wrote a column claiming Penn's admissions and disciplinary practices were biased in favor of blacks. Black students and staff, outraged by what they read, demanded that he be punished.
Thirty-one students filed complaints against Pavlik under Penn's racial harassment code, an administrative policing of "hate speech."
Muhammad led the drive against Pavlik.
A judicial officer dismissed the complaint, but that did not end the discontent. On April 15, a group of black students confiscated nearly every one of the day's 14,200-paper run of Daily Pennsylvanians.
Muhammad was among those arrested taking newspapers.
To outside critics - from conservative columnist George Will to the Village Voice's Nat Hentoff - Penn's troubles have crystallized the absurdities of political correctness.
To others, including the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the controversy lays bare the hostile climate that black students must endure on many of America's campuses. They say speech codes should be made even stronger.
Penn's president, Sheldon Hackney, has angered both camps by seeming to agree with both. Hackney sees himself as searching for common ground. His critics see him as spineless.
"Two important university values now stand in conflict," Hackney wrote in a statement last month.
"There can be no compromise regarding the First Amendment right of an independent publication to express whatever views it chooses. At the same time, there can be no ignoring the pain that expression may cause."
Hackney is soon leaving Penn to face Senate confirmation hearings as President Clinton's nominee to head the National Endowment for the Humanities. It's a bad time to be seen as soft on free speech. He is pleased to clarify his position.
"Even though the situation is very complex," Hackney said more recently in an interview, "and I am beset by conflicting forces, I have been very clear in my own mind that the freedom of the paper to publish and for people to say what's on their mind is the paramount value at the university."
Yet no one has been disciplined for taking the newspapers.
*Khalil Muhammad's great-grandfather was Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, the Chicago-based organization that threw a fright into White America with its message of black pride and self-sufficiency, with its uncompromising spokesman, Malcolm X.
The prophet died when Khalil was 3. The Black Muslims were a shadow in his childhood. He thought his great-grandfather's religious and political ideology - "knowledge of self, economic independence, that fiery religious emphasis," as he put it - were out of date, byproducts of a time of segregation that had passed before he was born.
Khalil had his eye on the American pie. He came to Penn to be an Ivy Leaguer and played lightweight football for Penn for two seasons. He did not mind much that he was one of only three blacks on the squad.
He picked economics as a major and earned good grades.
Yet it was hard to identify wholly with the mainstream. Though Penn regards itself as a leader in minority recruitment among elite schools, only 5.5 percent of its undergraduates - 524 students - are black. Only 53 of 1,900 faculty members are black.
Muhammad joined a black fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, and last year helped found an interracial Greek group, Fraternities and Sororities Together to End Racism. He took courses in black history and culture, "celebrating my heritage," he said, and made Onyx Senior Honor Society, a black achievement group. Black identity was becoming increasingly important to him.
The first Rodney King trial was a turning point. The not-guilty verdict was enraging enough. But when black students and faculty gathered in front of the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a Penn residence for African Americans, a few white students jeered them, Muhammad said.
Last fall, he said, white students threw eggs out a dorm window, hitting him and a few fraternity mates during homecoming weekend.
In December, an incident took place on the Onyx Society's initiation night that made it to the university police blotter. By Muhammad's account, he and a few other Onyx inductees were walking to the ceremony around 2 a.m. when white students in a dorm threw a pail of water on them.
The Onyx members reacted by hurling two eggs they were carrying, intended props for the induction rite. Security guards investigated.
The blacks complained of racial harassment. The Judicial Inquiry Office could not confirm that charge, but did punish two white students for general misconduct, making them do 15 hours' community service, write a letter of apology and move to another residence.
Then in January, Muhammad's girlfriend and her sorority sisters - black women all - were practicing dance steps in front of a high-rise residence hall on a Wednesday shortly before midnight. Some whites yelled for quiet. Epithets were hurled. "Nigger." "Bitch."
One freshman called the women "water buffalo." He alone was disciplined - charged with racial harassment.
The freshman, Eden Jacobowitz, said he meant no racial insult, explaining the term as a carry-over from his years in Jewish day school. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
The episode is by now famous, the charge against Jacobowitz widely mocked as ridiculous. But to Muhammad, the incident stood as one more indignity.
Whites were doing ugly things to blacks on campus. The administration wasn't doing enough to stop it.
Gregory Pavlik came to Penn from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y. He said he wanted wider intellectual dialogue than he found in engineering school.
He enrolled in Penn's materials science and engineering program and got A's. Tall and loose-limbed, he played intramural football and basketball. He reads constantly - to the point of consuming textbooks of courses he's not taking. He figured he might like the discipline of putting thoughts to paper. This year he became a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist.
The paper runs 14 columnists a semester, each appearing biweekly. All the others were "liberal to left," Pavlik said. The youth delegate for Pat Buchanan at last summer's Republican Convention was proudly conservative: "I see myself as an apologist for Western culture."
Pavlik heard about the Onyx Society incident, and it distressed him. By the account of the white students, the Onyx members had been noisy and argumentative and had thrown eggs at the residence hall before anyone retaliated with water. Yet only the whites were disciplined.
"It seemed like an unfair situation," Pavlik said.
So he wrote about it. Already he had attacked the Martin Luther King holiday, on the ground that King "was associated with communists and praised them." On Feb. 25, he asked "whether the Onyx Society should even be allowed to remain on campus. Any predominately white organization that behaved in a similar fashion would have been kicked off."
He went on to claim Penn's admissions standards were twisted to favor black applicants, calling the policy "our dirty little secret."
Then he broadened the attack, railing against "the wave of anti-white fervor" supposedly sweeping the United States in the form of federal hiring laws, street crime, rap lyrics. He belittled the history of lynchings.
"I didn't write it to be provocative," Pavlik said recently, "but to say there was a prevalent double-standard when it comes to race, and it's acute on college campuses."
Muhammad felt assaulted.
He read Pavlik's column as an attack on his legitimacy as a Penn student.
"I felt he was really harassing me," Muhammad said, "because he doesn't know what I've been going through at Penn. . . .
"I don't feel stuff like this should appear in our representative student newspaper. Maybe in a right-wing political paper, but not the paper I'm going to open every morning for news and the NBA score. Here I open it up and I read, 'Black folks don't belong at Penn.' "
In short order, Muhammad was leading an effort by 31 people to file racial harassment charges against the writer.
Catherine Schifter, then the acting judicial inquiry officer, telephoned Pavlik on March 2.
"She said charges were filed for racial harassment," Pavlik said. "I said what for? She said, 'You need to ask?' - a kind of sarcastic comment."
Pavlik was shocked. "I asked, 'How could this happen? Aren't I covered by the Open Expression Guidelines?' " - university rules ensuring the freedom to criticize school policies.
"She told me I was under investigation as to whether they applied to me."
Schifter then said things could be eased if he met with the 31 complainants, Pavlik said.
"She called it a discussion. I sort of called it a hate session," Pavlik said. "I can't fathom sitting there with 31 students blaming me for racism and oppression. I would probably devolve into a lump of jelly, or something."
Pavlik added: "She told me she was doing it for my own good because there might be a violent recourse taken if I were not punished."
Schifter would not comment on the conversation.
After the phone call, "I was literally terrified," Pavlik said.
"You don't know what to do, you don't know where to go. I contacted people to see what legal help I could get. I was distraught. I do have an engineering workload, so it was not the best of experiences.
"It seemed the university was mobilizing to suppress the press, and punish me for it."
There were no written charges, and the investigation was dropped the next day. But Pavlik didn't know that until Alan Kors, a history professor who is outspoken in defense of civil liberties, found out in a phone call to Hackney. ''For at least nine days, the columnist was under threat of harassment," Kors said.
Pavlik worried he would be expelled from school - a possibility under Penn's range of sanctions. He worried that any disciplinary decision would mar his academic transcripts.
For weeks, the controversy occupied the Daily Pennsylvanian. Some writers voiced fear that the university's threat to investigate a conservative columnist was an ominous chilling of speech.
Dozens of others tore into Pavlik, but not in person. "The picture that goes with the column doesn't look like me," he said. "I just got hate mail, day after day after day."
On March 19 the newspaper published a letter from 202 African American students and faculty. They branded Pavlik a racist. "We believe it burns his white skin black to see us every day at this institution."
They insisted the campus judicial process has never been tilted their way. ''We assume that bigots constructed the racial harassment policy," they said, "since it does absolutely nothing to protect anyone from discrimination."
Race is a dividing line at many of the nation's campuses. In a 1990 survey by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 48 percent of college presidents said racial tensions were "moderate" or "major" problems at their schools.
"You've got students coming together in close quarters," said David Merkowitz, spokesman for the American Council on Education, a lobby group for higher education, "including people with no previous exposure to various racial or ethnic groups. Tensions are inevitable. In a way, the university is a kind of testing ground for society at large."
At more than 100 campuses, administrators have looked to speech codes as one answer.
"Universities have undergone a metamorphosis in the last 20 years," said Harvey Silverglate, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney in Boston. ''They now exist primarily for the administrators, and what the administrators are more interested in than any other single thing is having quiet on their watch."
The American Association of University Professors has strongly criticized speech codes. "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden," the group said last year. "No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful or disturbing that it may not be expressed."
But that is not how Penn's administrators see it.
In their view, the university has an obligation to shield minority students, as much as possible, from insult.
"In a public forum, or marketplace of ideas, you don't have free speech unless it's free for everybody," said Stephen P. Steinberg, an assistant to Hackney.
"The problem is with hate speech - especially with historically under- represented minorities in an environment where they don't feel ownership - they need protection from the effects of hate speech, to make sure they are part of that dialogue."
Penn has had a hard time defining hate speech. One code, instituted in 1988, was deemed too restrictive and discarded. Two years of debate produced a 132-word sentence saying, in essence, that racial slurs "intended only to inflict direct injury" are banned.
Hackney defends the policy by saying he had thought of it as a "symbolic" act that would show the university's high regard for its minority members while actually doing little to hamper free speech.
"It's meant to ban only the kind of face-to-face insult and slur that we all recognize as hurtful," Hackney said.
Hackney acknowleged the importance of free speech. He also said: "There are people on campus and in society who think racism is so bad that solving racism is more important than free speech."
Khalil Muhammad's father, Ozier Muhammad, is a staff photographer for the New York Times. So Khalil did not take lightly the implications of shutting down a newspaper, even for a day.
Yet he decided it was necessary because "no one was listening to us." The Daily Pennsylvanian had done a poor job of covering minorities all year, he said. One issue last fall was particularly offensive; the paper ran a photo of a black street person lugging a wine bottle. The headline: "West Philadelphian."
And so Muhammad, along with some other black students, rose early on April 15 to raid several dozen drop boxes where the day's run of the Daily Pennsylvanian was piled for distribution, and tossed them into dumpsters.
The issue contained Pavlik's last column of the year, a complaint that ''reasoned discourse" at Penn "is largely nonexistent."
The paper's editors called for criminal charges against the "theft." John Kuprevich, university police commissioner, said no charges would be filed because the newspaper is free of charge.
Afterward, Muhammad focused on his treatment by Penn security officers who caught him with a bundle of newspapers. Muhammad says he resisted handcuffs, and Officer J. Washington rapped the back of his right leg with a baton. In an incident report, Washington said Muhammad took a swing at him first. Muhammad denied it.
He was arrested and held at security headquarters several hours before being released. No charges were filed.
The security officer was transferred from patrol duty pending an inquiry - "to help defuse tensions," Kuprevich said.
Two weeks later, Hackney spoke as if above the fray. "The papers being taken is a wrong thing, but there's more to it than that. If I had said it was wrong, and we're going to punish people, and I'd paid no attention to other aspects of the situation, I think we still would be embroiled in rather grave confrontations, and I really wanted to use this as an educational opportunity."
He said he had received more angry letters and phone calls than any time since 1988, when Penn permitted Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan to speak on campus.
"It's not fun," Hackney said. "I'd prefer not to go through this."
On Monday, Sheldon Hackney will preside over his 13th and final commencement ceremony as university president. Criticism of him has not abated. Just last week, 16 members of the Law School faculty, including Dean Colin S. Diver, signed an open letter urging Hackney to take tougher action against the newspaper confiscations - "conduct," they said, "which cannot be tolerated or excused."
Gregory Pavlik is thinking about writing a column again next year. For a while, he was certain he would not. "To be honest," he said, "I think this whole experience will be repeated, unless the university makes some real changes.
"The whole academy has been politicized and polarized," Pavlik added. ''It's almost like walking to another world, where you come from an environment where you have no problem with people because they happen to be of a different race. And then you walk into an environment where you are told that you do have a problem, because some people are oppressed and other people are oppressors. And it's got to be a culture shock for everyone."
Khalil Muhammad also wants the university to change. Talks among blacks and administrators are underway. "We'll see how much the university internalizes our experiences," he said.
Muhammad will work next year at the large accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche in Center City. He is happy over the way the protests with the newspaper turned out.
"For once," Muhammad said, "we felt that instead of getting kicked in the head, we kicked back."
A Delran Gymnast Springs Back Into A Demanding Sport Kaye Left The Sport Because "I Was So Afraid I Was Missing Things."
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-06-01/news/25971585_1_gymnastics-heidi-kaye-shannon-millerBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: June 01, 1993Picture an athlete who quits a sport for two years, and ends up earning a scholarship by sending a video of a workout to a college a few weeks after resuming practice.
Envision the same athlete winding up a national champion and earning a berth in an international competition.
You have just described Heidi Kaye, a 17-year-old Delran High School senior.
Kaye gave up gymnastics after her freshman year of high school. Then she returned to the sport. Now she will be competing in gymnastics in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, July 5-15.
The Maccabiah Games bring together Jewish athletes from around the world to compete in Olympic-style events.
As a high school freshman, Kaye was considered a rising talent. In 1989, the summer before her freshman year, she won a bronze medal in the floor exercise at the Olympic Sports Festival in Oklahoma. One of the gymnasts she beat was Shannon Miller, who went on to win five medals - two silver and three bronze - in the 1992 Olympics.
At the time, Kaye was living and training away from home. She trained with the Parkettes, the gymnastics club in Allentown, Pa., and lived with a family there and attended a local school while her family remained in Delran.
All that was too much for the ninth-grader. After her freshman year, she decided to return to Delran and give up gymnastics.
"I was so afraid I was missing things," Kaye said before a recent workout. "Gymnastics was my whole life."
Kaye didn't exactly sit around and watch television. She was a cheerleader her sophomore and junior years at Delran and became consumed with diving.
As a junior, she made first-team all-Burlington County in diving.
During the winter of her junior year, she broke her left hand while making a dive. The injury, combined with sinus trouble that had developed, convinced Kaye to bid farewell to the sport of diving.
The spring of her junior year, she started coaching gymnastics. That summer, she enjoyed her first extended vacation. Her mother, Judy, and father, Mark, took her to California for three weeks.
"It was great, because in the past I couldn't take a long trip like that because I was always practicing for gymnastics," said Kaye, who began gymnastics at age 4. "We had a great time."
By the time she returned from her August vacation, her appetite for gymnastics had returned.
Kaye began working out, and three weeks into her comeback, she asked her father to tape one of her practices. They sent the tape to a number of colleges.
Starting in October, Kaye visited several colleges. She later was offered full scholarships for gymnastics by several schools, including Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio State. Kaye accepted the scholarship to Ohio State.
That she had gained national prominence as a freshman didn't hurt when she contacted colleges. The video she sent out was also a major selling point.
"When I got the tape, I was impressed by the workout," said Ohio State coach Larry Cox. "I was so impressed that somebody who had taken two years off from the sport was doing what she was. I kept in mind that she had only been practicing three weeks after a two-year layoff."
Cox was so intrigued that he flew to New Jersey to watch Kaye work out. He then offered her the scholarship.
"When I saw my friends competing in the Olympics I thought, 'What would have happened if I stayed in the sport,' " said Kaye. "But I'm happy I took the time off. It's so much fun now. Back then, it was getting to be a chore. Now I can't wait to go work out."
Kaye usually practices five days a week for four hours a day.
"After going seven hours a day (in her first experience with the sport), my schedule seems so much easier now," said Kaye.
Tom Krupa, who coaches Kaye and other gymnasts at Cherry Hill's Gymnastics Academy, marvels at the dedication Kaye has shown since returning to the sport.
"It's not something just anybody can do," said Krupa. "The biggest challenge in taking off and coming back is getting back in gymnastics shape. The sport demands everything of every joint. Conditioning is the biggest challenge. You don't lose your skill, just your conditioning and timing. This sport demands a lot, and it takes somebody very dedicated like Heidi to succeed."
The 5-foot-2 1/2, 115-pound Kaye proved she was back by winning the balance beam at the U.S. National Championships in April in Colorado Springs, Colo. Kaye also finished third in the floor exercise.
She competed in level nine in both events. There are 11 levels, one through 10 and elite, in ascending order of skill level.
"Level nine is very high competition," said Ohio State's Cox. "In many cases, the difference between them and elite isn't a lot."
Based on her performance, Kaye was selected to compete in the Maccabiah Games.
"I'm really looking forward to the Maccabiah Games," she said. "I've never been out of the country. It's such a great honor."
Kaye, who has a 3.2 grade-point average, says she has no aspirations to compete in the next Olympics.
"I'll be too old," she said. "The teenagers dominate in world competition. My goal is to have a good college career. I want to prove to people you can take time off and still be successful."
She's already proven that point.
At Veterans Stadium, It's Not Just The Bases Being Stolen Game Attendance Has More Than Doubled. But The Crime Increase - 24 Autos In 5 Games - Is Cooling Some Fans' Ardor.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151018065436/http://articles.philly.com/1993-06-26/news/25974632_1_cars-parking-philliesBy Ralph Cipriano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 26, 1993At 10:20 p.m. Tuesday, Carole Grob was wandering around a dark parking lot on Broad Street, across from Veterans Stadium, holding her 11-year-old daughter, Nicole, by the hand.
Until then, it had been a good night. The folks from Delran, N.J., were among the 41,557 who saw the Phils beat the Braves, 5-3. Grob had her keys in hand, and she remembered exactly where she parked. But her 1987 metallic-red Trans Am was nowhere in sight.
"I knew right then it was stolen," Grob said.
She was right. And she wasn't the only victim.
Her Trans Am was one of eight cars reported stolen from parking lots in and around the Vet. That same day, another eight cars were reported broken into. The night before, seven cars had been stolen, and four cars broken into.
Last season, when the Phillies were in last place and averaging 24,984 fans a game, about two cars were stolen each game and about two broken into, according to police sources.
This year, the Phillies have the best record in baseball, and attendance at the Vet is up dramatically. So is crime.
Over the last five games at Veterans Stadium, with attendance averaging 51,235, 24 cars were reported stolen from parking lots in and around the Vet, and 24 were broken into.
"We are seeing an increase in thefts from vehicles and thefts of vehicles in the stadium complex area," said Lt. William Grutzmacher of the city's traffic district.
"We are aware of it, and we're doing our best by patrolling the lots all during the games," he said. He declined to discuss the number of crimes but said police were considering increasing patrols in response to the incidents.
In addition to the increase in stolen cars and break-ins, two food vendors were robbed inside the stadium last weekend. One was a cotton-candy vendor on the 500 level, who was held up, bound and robbed at gunpoint of $2,600. As far as anyone could remember, it was the first armed robbery inside Veterans Stadium.
"That's totally new," said Mike DiMuzio, the Phillies' director of stadium operations. DiMuzio said the club had stepped up security measures this year. Last year, the Phillies had city police inside the stadium only when the Mets were in town or when there was a sellout. This year, police are inside the Vet at every home game.
DiMuzio said he was disturbed by the thefts and break-ins.
"I'd hate to come here to a Phillies or Eagles game and come out and find my car's not there," he said. "My first reaction would be, 'I'm not coming back.' "
But on game day, "you have to envision this place as a small city of 50,000 people," he said. "And I think this is a pretty good area."
None of which helped Grob. She got home about 1 a.m., after she telephoned her brother, who drove Grob and her daughter back to Jersey.
She said that it had cost $5 to park in the lot, and that no attendants were left in the lot after the game.
"I paid the $5 so my car would be safe," she said. She said she would not return to the Vet unless new security measures were implemented. "I don't want to sit there and worry about whether my car's going be OK or not."
*At 4:37 p.m. Sunday, Keith Franklin, 24, was inside his lemonade-and- cotton-candy stand counting the day's take, when two men showed up. One wore a striped shirt, the kind issued to stadium food vendors.
One of the men brandished a .38-caliber pistol, stuck it in Franklin's mouth and yelled, "Where's the money? . . . Is this all the money?" before they stole $2,600, said Bruce Ground, general manager for Ogden Foods, the contractor for refreshments at the Vet. Franklin works for an Ogden subcontractor.
The thieves then used orange masking tape to bind Franklin's arms, legs and mouth. After they escaped, Franklin wiggled a hand free, and - with his legs still bound together - hopped over to a refreshment stand to report the theft.
Food-service employees carrying walkie-talkies chased two men into a parking lot outside the Spectrum, where several police officers collared the suspects. They still had the cash and a set of keys stolen from the vendor, Ground said. During the chase, one of the thieves tossed away the loaded pistol, which was recovered by police.
Police arrested Martin Lucas, 23, of the 2600 block of Phipps Avenue, and Mark Lee, 23, of the 2500 block of Hamilton, both of Willow Grove. They face numerous charges, including robbery, theft and assault.
"Thank God nobody got hurt," Ground said. "Apparently they had everything planned except the getaway. The whole situation was bizarre."
There have been three break-ins at refreshment stands in the eight years Ogden has had the contract to sell food at the Vet, Ground said. Two robberies occurred this year; the other was four years ago.
At 4:55 p.m. Saturday, an assailant jumped Ogden vendor Juan Rodriguez, 27, as he was walking to his stand before a night game. The assailant escaped with $30 taken from Rodriguez's shirt pocket.
Ground said his company would double the number of cash pickups at the Vet. In the past, Brinks employees picked up cash at the 80 refreshment stands inside the Vet only once a night. The firm's 500 employees also are being told to lock their refreshment stands before they count the cash. On Sunday, Franklin left the door unlocked while he counted the money, Ground said.
Up In Smoke: Mall's Ban Sparks A Fire Some Workers Object To Smoking Outside. But Customers Love The Idea.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151016210110/http://articles.philly.com/1993-08-02/news/25969891_1_smoking-ban-ban-cigarettes-dangers-of-secondhand-smokeBy Monica Rhor, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: August 02, 1993CHERRY HILL — The future began yesterday at the Cherry Hill Mall, and it looked like this:
Employees were clustered along the mall's outside periphery, sitting on benches or curbs with cigarettes in hand. Tables and hallways were stripped of ashtrays.
Patrons whipped out cigarette packs the moment they stepped into the parking lot. Uniformed security guards watched for illicit smokers.
Polite signs were posted on doors, in the food court, on countertops: For your shopping pleasure, this is a smoke-free center.
The era of smoke-free malls has hit New Jersey.
Cherry Hill is just the first to ban cigarettes. Echelon Mall, Burlington Center, Woodbridge Center and the Bridgewater Commons will soon follow suit.
At Cherry Hill, smoking is now taboo in most stores and in all of the common areas, including concourses and the food court.
And even though the signs throughout the mall insisted that the move was for everyone's good, a lot of people were grousing as the ban went into effect yesterday.
"I've got a serious problem with it. It's not right," said Pam Blackshear, 31, of Delran, a Gap employee who spent her lunch hour sitting on a curb with a Newport in her hand. "It's crazy."
She was joined by two fellow Gap workers - both smokers, both angered by the ban.
Usually, the trio would grab a quick cigarette break in the smoking section of the food court. But from now on, they'll be doing their lighting up outside.
"In the wintertime, I'll be outside, freezing and smoking," said Blackshear, who smokes four to five cigarettes in an eight-hour shift.
Added Eric Marmon, 21, of Northeast Philadelphia: "You've got to look at it from both sides. It's a big mall. It's not like you're condemned into one small area. There's plenty of room for smokers."
And a few havens will remain. Several restaurants, including Houlihan's, Roy Rogers, Skolnick's and Harvest House, still allow smoking. So does Littman's jewelers and, of course, the Cherry Hill Smoke Shop.
Yesterday, a sign was on prominent display next to the shop's lottery machine and the fragrant pouches of tobacco: Smokers Welcome Here. Directly below was a roomy ashtray, with smoke wafting up from newly discarded butts.
Many of the shop's customers were outraged by the ban, said store clerk Eleanor Lacca, 61, of Turnersville. "They don't like what's going on out there."
Not Lacca. She has smoked for 44 years and doesn't plan on quitting ("It's my only vice. I'm not giving it up."). Yet, she is thrilled about the ban.
"Why should people who don't smoke inhale our smoke?" said Lacca, as she took a quick cigarette break. "I haven't smoked in front of my grandchildren for eight years."
The smoking ban stemmed from growing evidence of the dangers of secondhand smoke and from anti-smoking letters from patrons, said Leesa McPherson, the mall's marketing manager.
So far, she said, customer feedback has been positive.
"The compliments far outweigh the complaints," she said yesterday.
All mall employees were asked to watch for errant smokers and to remind them politely about the ban. But few were spotted yesterday.
For most nonsmokers, the ban was welcome news. For some smokers, it may be an incentive to kick the habit.
"I think it's the coolest thing that ever happened," said Victoria Ziring, 21, of Newtown, Pa., giving a thumbs-up with both hands. "I don't want to die from secondhand smoke."
Ziring, who does not smoke, was sitting on a bench outside the mall with a fellow Macy's employee, Tracey Gratz, 23, who does smoke.
On Saturday, "Everyone was smoking three packs. They were all saying, 'Oh my God, today's the last day to smoke,' " said Ziring.
Gratz, a smoker since she was 19, was puffing on a Marlboro Light. It would be her last cigarette ever, she vowed.
"I've thought about quitting a lot. It's bad for your health," said Gratz. She was determined, although she worried about gaining weight when she quit.
"Then we can start shopping at Lane Bryant," joked Ziring.
Despite Injury, Delran Gymnast Makes Most Of Maccabiah Games Heidi Kaye Sprained An Ankle In Practice. Still, She Managed To Finish Fourth In Two Events.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-08-11/news/25968906_1_maccabiah-games-gymnastics-scholarship-athletesBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: August 11, 1993For an athlete performing at less than 100 percent of her capability, Heidi Kaye turned in an impressive performance at the Maccabiah Games last month in Israel.
Kaye, a 1993 Delran High graduate, was a member of the United States team in gymnastics at the Maccabiah Games, which bring together Jewish athletes from around the world for Olympic-style competition.
On her second day of practice in Israel, Kaye suffered a sprained ankle.
"I was doing a full, twisting double back when I got hurt," said Kaye, who will attend Ohio State on a gymnastics scholarship. "I had to stay off it a few days."
Despite the injury, Kaye finished fourth on the balance beam and fourth in the floor exercise in the senior division, which is for competitors 15 and older.
"I was excited about performing there, and I feel if I hadn't hurt my ankle I probably would have done better," Kaye said, adding that her ankle is back to 100 percent.
Kaye said that competing against some of the world's top athletes was a thrill. She also enjoyed the friendships she made in Israel.
"It was the best experience I've had," she said. "I traded clothes with people from Australia and Great Britain. I met so many nice people. A few of them I met, I will be competing against in college."
Before leaving for Ohio State next month, Kaye has one last bit of business. She will undergo sinus surgery on Tuesday and is expected to be sidelined from gymnastics for a month.
"After that, I'm really looking forward to competing in college," Kaye said.
Ex-delran Swimmer Eyes Games
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-08-30/news/25967007_1_freestyle-pan-pacific-games-peter-wrightBy Jeff Offord, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: August 30, 1993At the tender age of 20, Peter Wright thinks he may be on the verge of becoming one of our nation's next Olympic swimming stars.
"Right now, I guess I'm considered the favorite in the 400-meter freestyle," Wright said, "and to be honest, that's a pretty funny feeling."
Wright, a junior at the University of Virginia and a former star at Delran High School, has indeed become one of the better freestyle swimmers in the United States.
He competed in the Pan Pacific Games in Japan earlier this month and did well, finishing fourth in the 800-meter freestyle.
Wright's strong showing in Japan came on the heals of a record-setting 1992-93 season at Virginia and an equally impressive performance at the national swimming championships in late July.
"Making it to (the Olympic Games in) Atlanta in 1996 is definitely something I'm shooting for, but I don't like to think about it a lot or worry about it," Wright said. "I've always learned to keep my goals pretty simple because if I make them too hard or try to look too far into the future, I usually don't perform well. At this point in my career, my goal is to just keep improving."
Wright, who is a systems engineering major, qualified for the Pan Pacific Games by winning the 800-meter freestyle - an event not offered in Olympic competition - and placing second in the 400 freestyle at the national championship in Austin, Texas. His time in the 800, 7 minutes, 58.9 seconds, was the second-fastest posted in the event in the world at the time.
After qualifing for the U.S. team in Austin, Wright flew to Hong Kong for a week of practice with his teammates, arriving on Aug. 3. He then flew to Kobe, Japan, and arrived on Aug. 9 for the Pan Pacific Games.
"I loved it over there," Wright said. "The people were great, and I got to to go to a lot of neat places to shop, especially when I was in Hong Kong.
"In Japan, I was too busy to sightsee most of the time, but there were times I got to go out and look around. Kobe is a pretty big town, and the place had some great places to shop and some great buys. It was neat.
"I was a little disappointed with my performance, but there was a lot of great competition over there. Swimming for your country was a great experience. All my life I had been swimming for my school or for myself. Swimming for your country put a little more pressure on me.
"I was pretty tired, physically, after the meet in Austin. I'm not trying to make excuses, but in a sport such as swimming you really need to rest between meets, and I didn't get to do that very much. I'm sure I could have done better."
Wright's rise to the top of his sport should come as no surprise.
Teaming with Jason Rosenbaum and Dean Hutchinson - two young men who have also made their marks in freestyle swimming at the college level (Rosenbaum at Yale and Hutchinson at Auburn) - Wright helped Delran capture a Division B state title in 1990, crushing Scotch Plains, 99-57. He also won two individial state titles, in the 200- and 500-yard events in 1990.
Wright transferred to the Peddie School in Hightstown for his senior season and graduated from the school in 1991.
Wright has been attending Virginia ever since, and last season was his finest with the Cavaliers. He set two Atlantic Coast Conference records, taking the 500-yard freestyle in 4:17.8 and the 1,650-yard freestyle in 15:01, in the conference championship meet at the University of North Carolina in late February.
"I'm on the five-year plan at Virginia, so that would keep me in school when it's time for the Olympics," he said. "After school is over and after the Olympics, I'll probably retire from the sport, although I know I could make some money if I stayed in it.
"But that's looking a little too far ahead. I wouldn't be distraught if I didn't make it to the Olympics in '96, but it's something that I really would like to accomplish."
Sacca, Benched Early, Suggests He Might Quit
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922045923/http://articles.philly.com/1993-09-19/sports/25984949_1_state-quarterback-john-sacca-sacca-and-collins-nittany-lions-footballBy Ray Parrillo, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 19, 1993IOWA CITY, Iowa — His eyes welling with hurt and anger, Penn State quarterback John Sacca strongly suggested that he might quit the Nittany Lions football team.
"It's time for me to sit down and think about my future," Sacca said last night after State's 31-0 victory over Iowa at Kinnick Stadium. "I might just pack it in . . . that's what it comes down to."
Penn State coach Joe Paterno pulled Sacca after three offensive series when the quarterback from Delran (N. J.) High misfired on six of his first seven passes. Sacca was replaced by Kerry Collins with State ahead, 3-0. Collins completed 6 of 16 for 57 yards.
Sacca and Collins both have a year of eligibility remaining beyond this season.
Asked what his options might be, Sacca said: "I really have no other option. My back is against the wall. But I'll go home, talk to my parents, and flip around some ideas."
Sacca got off to an excellent start when he threw four touchdown passes in State's 38-20 opening-day win over Minnesota two weeks ago. Last week, he labored against Southern Cal, hitting on 6 of 17 passes and throwing two interceptions.
Paterno said he just felt that it was time for a change and added that he might play both quarterbacks throughout the season.
"If that's his choice, I think it would affect the team," Sacca said. "I think it could hurt the chemistry of the team."
Sacca Says He'll Likely Leave State The Nittany Lions Qb, Yanked In Saturday's Game, Seems Prepared To Take His Arm Elsewhere.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922075651/http://articles.philly.com/1993-09-20/sports/25988130_1_state-quarterback-john-sacca-beaver-stadium-penn-stateBy Ray Parrillo, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 20, 1993Sounding dispirited and grimly determined, Penn State quarterback John Sacca said yesterday there is a "very strong possibility" he will no longer be with the undefeated Nittany Lions when they take the field against Rutgers on Saturday night at Beaver Stadium.
Sacca, a fourth-year junior from Delran High in South Jersey, said that if he quits the team, he also will leave the university and try to resume his football career elsewhere, even though he would be unable to transfer to another Division I-A school.
"I doubt that I'll be at practice (today)," Sacca said. "I just don't think I've gotten the proper respect I deserve here. Right now, that's the way I see things happening."
Sacca, whose brother Tony established several school passing records in his four-year career at Penn State, was replaced by Kerry Collins early in the second quarter of the Lions' 31-0 win over Iowa on Saturday in Iowa City.
After the game, he suggested that he might leave the team, and after a night to mull it over, his determination to go elsewhere seemed strengthened.
Sacca said he had met with coach Joe Paterno yesterday morning, but that he had received little satisfaction.
"He told me why he took me out, that he felt obligated to give Kerry a chance and that the competition for quarterback would continue," Sacca said. ''But I can't play under these circumstances. I won the starting job during the preseason, and now, all of a sudden, this happens. I don't know what else I can do. I've worked hard. I've done everything they've asked of me. It just doesn't seem fair I'd get pulled so quickly."
In a shocking move, Paterno pulled Sacca after three series and with State ahead by 3-0. Even though Sacca had misfired on six of his seven passes, Paterno's move was surprising. The coach had said before the season that he would pick a starting quarterback and stay with him. On Tuesday, during his weekly teleconference, he had said: "I don't want to get to the stage where I start sticking another quarterback in if one isn't doing well. That would only hurt the team."
Sacca conceded yesterday that voicing his displeasure when the team was off to a 3-0 start in its first season in the Big Ten Conference was awkward.
"I care about my teammates, and I'll pull for them to win every game," he said. "I'm in a tough situation because I have a lot of good friends on the team, and I feel most of them will support me 100 percent. That's the worst thing about all this. But it's a matter of respect. Joe Paterno's decision to take me out at this time tells me which direction he wants to go. And after talking to him, I can't see things getting any better."
Sacca's fortunes have undergone an amazing turnabout in this young season.
In the opener against Minnesota, Sacca completed his first six passes and went on to throw for four touchdowns. He finished 18 for 32 for 274 yards and wasn't intercepted.
The following week, he struggled through most of State's 21-20 victory over Southern Cal, completing only 6 of 17 passes for 65 yards. He threw a TD pass but was intercepted twice.
Even after that game, Paterno praised Sacca for his poise and leadership.
If Sacca leaves Penn State, Collins, also a fourth-year junior, will have the starting job to himself, with sophomore Wally Richardson as his backup. Paterno had hoped to redshirt the talented Richardson this season.
Against Iowa, Collins was 6 for 16 for 57 yards. All four Lions TDs came on the ground. State's quarterbacks have completed only 13 passes in the last two games, but the Lions have won both with fierce defense and a powerful running game.
BIG LEAST? The notion that the three-year-old Big East is a top-heavy conference - with Miami the only real heavy - was supported over the weekend by the following results: Texas 21, Syracuse 21; Northwestern 22, Boston College 21; Ohio State 63, Pitt 28.
Syracuse's tie with a Texas team that had lost its first two games had to be particularly galling for conference officials because it will take much of the luster out of the Orangemen's Oct. 23 matchup with Miami. In the preseason, Miami-Syracuse looked like a matchup of two top-five teams, but the deadlock dropped Syracuse from No. 6 to No. 12 in the Associated Press poll.
Boston College (0-2) dropped out of the top 25 with its loss to Northwestern, a loss that coach Tom Coughlin, who has spurned offers to go to the NFL, labeled "devastating."
Meanwhile, Pitt has given up an incredible 126 points in its last two games. No wonder coach Johnny Majors took out an ad in the Pitt News inviting anyone who wants to walk on to the team to a meeting.
Pitt has only 60 scholarship players, 28 fewer than allowed under NCAA rules.
GEEZ, THANKS. After Texas A&M scored on five of its first six possessions en route to a 73-0 victory over Missouri on Saturday, Aggies linebacker Steve Solari called it a game. "I went up to one of their guys in the second quarter and said, 'The game is over,' " Solari said. "And he said, 'Yeah, nice game.' "
HERE AND THERE. Frank Costa, the Miami quarterback from South Philadelphia and St. Joseph's Prep, is having a little problem he didn't anticipate: The Hurricanes' receivers are dropping a lot of his passes. "It's frustrating," he said. "I'm expecting those guys to catch the ball. I know their abilities. They do it in practice. They should be able to do it in games. It's something we have to get better at." . . . The likeliehood of a Florida-Alabama showdown for the Southeastern Conference championship and the automatic bid to the Sugar Bowl increased with Florida's 41-34 victory over Tennessee on Saturday. . . . Arizona has held its first three opponents to minus-67 yards. . . . Wisconsin had its first home sellout in eight years for its 28-7 win over Iowa State on Saturday. . . . Brigham Young's NCAA-record streak of 50 games with at least one TD pass ended on Saturday in the Cougars' 27-22 victory over Colorado State.
Lions' Sacca Mulls Quitting After Benching
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922113038/http://articles.philly.com/1993-09-20/sports/25983994_1_penn-state-alternate-quarterbacks-collins-and-saccaby Dick Jerardi, Daily News Sports Writer
Posted: September 20, 1993Only Penn State could go to Iowa for its first-ever Big Ten road game, crush the Hawkeyes, 31-0, and return home with a full-blown quarterback controversy.
Penn State (3-0) is known as a home for great linebackers and tailbacks, but it's also known as a place quarterbacks go to feel like a bad vaudeville comic who is getting no laughs.
Starter John Sacca was given the hook after going 1-for-7 in the first three series. Kerry Collins took his place and was not much better (6-for-16).
"I don't know what to think about what happened," Sacca said. "I don't know what to think about my future here. If I have to quit, I will."
Before he makes any decision, Sacca, who has a year of eligibility left, said he wanted to talk it over with his family and himself to "see what kind of a future I have here."
"Frankly I'm a little burned up by it all," said Sacca, who obviously felt three series wasn't enough of a chance. "I want some time to think about it. I can't be happy with this kind of situation. It's not in the best interest of John Sacca to stay here if this is what is going to happen. When you platoon the quarterbacks, it hurts the chemisty of the team."
"I just felt like it was time to make a change," said coach Joe Paterno, who indicated he might continue to alternate quarterbacks. When he said that, Paterno was unaware of Sacca's comments.
When Sacca's postgame remarks were relayed to Collins, he said: "He said that?"
Collins admitted he also was becoming frustrated, but his reason was different.
"I had my best practice Tuesday, but, after it was over, it was really frustrating," Collins said. "It began to hit me that I might never get a chance to show what I could do."
Not at Penn State, where the second-string quarterback almost always gets a chance.
"I had planned to use Collins even if Sacca was hot as a firecracker,' Paterno said.
Well, Paterno used Collins and Sacca was hot.
Lost in the annual QBC was the total devastation by the Penn State defense and a powerhouse rushing attack.
It was the first time Iowa (2-1) had been shut out at home since 1978, the year before coach Hayden Fry arrived in Iowa City.
The Nittany Lions sacked Iowa quarterback Paul Burmeister nine times, intercepted three passes and held the Hawkeyes to 32 yards on 41 rushes.
"It was like a race to the quarterback," said Penn State defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson. "We kind of had a minicompetition among oursevles."
Tailback Ki-Jana Carter became the first Penn State runner since Curt Warner to gain 100 yards in the first three games of the year.
"That's no big deal to me," said Carter, who had 144 yards on 19 carries and a 23-yard touchdown run. "I expect that of myself if I get the ball often enough."
It was left for television analyst Dick Vermeil to get the final word on Penn State. He loved the defense and the running game, but . . .
"The passing offense sucks," he said.
That comment managed to stun even Brent Musburger, who said nothing for nearly 30 seconds. And that might be a bigger story than a quarterback controversy in Unhappy Valley.
Viewing The Universe With A Perspective That's Just Slightly Askew
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151230040812/http://articles.philly.com/1993-12-26/news/25942782_1_cartoons-tongue-twisters-national-publishersBy Andrea D'Asaro, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: December 26, 1993John O'Brien's recent cartoon for the New Yorker magazine shows a dog barking to go outside to light up a cigarette, and then barking to come back in.
"I'm against too many new laws and regulations," said O'Brien, a Mount Laurel resident, who although not a smoker claims that the best seats in a restaurant are in the smoking section. During his 20 years as an artist, O'Brien's pictures have delighted children in the 30 books he has illustrated. He has also published hundreds of cartoons for adults, which have gained a following among New Yorker readers.
"I toy with images until I come up with a funny situation," said O'Brien, 40. "I like telling a joke on paper."
His most recent children's book, a wacky approach to the classic "The Twelve Days of Christmas," came out this fall. O'Brien used pen and watercolor pictures to transform the traditional rhyme, in which the narrator receives a new gift from his true love each day.
"Each gift becomes a problem," said O'Brien, who suggested the idea to one of his publishers of a guy who receives outlandish gifts from his girlfriend. "He has to dig a hole in the snow for the pear tree, the calling birds won't get off the phone, and the geese are laying eggs all over the room."
A big fan of children, O'Brien often visits area elementary schools to demonstrate the illustration process. "He gets the children to find hidden pictures in his work," said Kuna Yankell, librarian at Millbridge School in Delran, which he visited last month. This month he met with children at Hillside School in Mount Laurel.
"I try to relate the fact we both like to draw," said O'Brien, who uses tongue twisters from one of his books to loosen up the children. "I love to change things and make them silly."
He creates covers for the children's magazine Highlights in which readers have to find hidden items and "silly things," he said.
Summers, O'Brien moonlights as a banjo player at the Jersey Shore. He plays and sings on a riverboat ride every evening, and spends his days patrolling the beaches as a lifeguard in North Wildwood. He manages to work on his illustrations and cartoons in between. Next week, he's off to Miami, his wintering place.
"It doesn't matter where I'm at - Federal Express gets there just as quick from Miami as from here."
Raised in Mount Laurel, O'Brien earned his bachelor's degree at the University of the Arts in 1975. Rather than waiting around for opportunity to knock, he took the train to New York, where he peddled his work door to door.
"I hit every possible place from magazines to book publishers, and little by little I started getting work," O'Brien said. Today he is illustrating for national publishers and loves "working at home and keeping my own hours."
He started his art career as a student at Holy Cross High School in Delran, where he was encouraged by his art teacher, Joe McAleer, who is now at Riverside High School. The two have kept in touch, said McAleer, a painter, who called his former student one of the "top illustrators in the country."
O'Brien's 4-year-old daughter, Tess, is also an inspiration, he said, and he dedicates his books to her. He is working on the pictures for a book called Tyrannosaurus Tex, due to come out in the spring.
"It's about cowboys who meet up with a dinosaur who helps them get rid of cattle rustlers - sort of like Pecos Bill," he said. As usual, his explanation made sense in a weird and wonderful sort of way.
*
It was her grandparents and great-grandparents, Claire Jurkowski said, who inspired her to make a career of helping older people.
"My grandparents lived right upstairs and were like second parents," said Jurkowski, who was raised in a Polish blue-collar neighborhood of Milwaukee. Now, as a doctor and geriatrician, she continues to admire seniors.
"They are a storehouse of wisdom," Jurkowski said. "You have to be tough to live long in this society."
She has translated her passion for elders into helping create the most comprehensive geriatric service in the region as medical director of geriatrics at Memorial Health Alliance, the parent company for Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly. She oversees medical and educational programs at the Geriatric Care Unit she founded at the hospital, and serves as medical director of the Mount Holly Center, a long-term-care home that also is part of the complex.
In recognition of her work to improve services for the elderly, the Burlington County Office on Aging presented her with its 10th annual Distinguished Service Award last month.
Cecile Neidich, acting director of the office, said her advisory committee's choice was applauded countywide by experts on aging.
"This is the first time that people have called to tell me how thrilled they were. That says something about her."
Representatives of hospitals from surrounding states often come to visit the services Jurowski helped develop in her five years at Memorial.
"It's one of the strongest programs in the country," Neidich said. ''She's made it what it is." Senior Health Link, a wellness program for area elders that Jurkowski directs, won the Applause Award from the New Jersey Hospital Association this year.
After graduating from Michigan State University with a medical degree, Jurkowski earned a fellowship in geriatrics from the Philadelphia Geriatric Center in 1988. She feels that more doctors should learn about the special needs of older patients.
"Many medical students never set foot in a nursing home for their entire training," she said. Traditional medicine tends to ignore problems specific to elders, such as multiple medications or confusion, she said. She's working to change that by updating doctors at Memorial through one of the many education programs she has initiated.
"Geriatrics is very much a team sport," said Jurkowski, who includes social workers, nurses, doctors and therapists in training and treatment decisions for older clients. "I look at myself as the catalyst and resource person."
All this is paving the way for the next generation of oldsters, she said. Jurkowski, who said she's in her mid-40s, looks forward to her senior years - especially if her programs continue to blossom. "We are devising the system to care for us when we are elderly."
To sensitize the 2,500 staff members of the hospital complex to ailments of the elderly, she puts on workshops in which they stuff cotton in their ears, wear smudged glasses and heavy gloves - and then try to balance a cup of water on a tray.
"Even those staff members who don't interact with older people on the job might just be more patient with them in the supermarket," Jurkowski said.
She misses very little as far as the needs of older people are concerned.
When she realized nurses at the geriatric hospital unit didn't have time to get their older patients out of bed, she began a walking maintenance program to help elders maintain their strength, which keeps them out of nursing homes. When she found that older people tend to eat better in groups, she initiated group meals in the hospital unit.
Regina Driesbach, vice president of geriatric services for Memoral Health Alliance, commended Jurkowski especially for her work with Alzheimer's patients. She is recognized as an expert in assessing the illness, Driesbach said, and doctors in the county "refer to her because of the complexity of the illness."
Jurkowski oversaw trials last year for Cognex, the first drug approved by the FDA for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Next year, drug companies will test two more Alzheimer's medicines at the hospital - trials Jurkowski will also supervise.
Neighbors would like to publish news about interesting people in your community. Plase send information to Burlington County Editor, The Inquirer, 58 Haddonfield Road, Ste. 300, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002. Information must be received at least two weeks in advance and must contain the name and telephone number of a person we can contact.
Vermes Is No Sure Thing For World Cup The Forward From Delran, A Veteran Of 1990, Is Battling To Stay On The U.s. Roster.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151225141640/http://articles.philly.com/1994-02-09/sports/25860203_1_world-cup-peter-vermes-bora-milutinovicBy Mike Jensen, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: February 09, 1994MISSION VIEJO, Calif. — Peter Vermes sees the World Cup in his sleep. Not the next World Cup. The last one. The one where Vermes, a starting forward for the United States who grew up in Delran, N.J., was playing in the soccer match of his life. In Rome's Stadio Olympico, against Italy, the beloved home team.
In Vermes' recurring dream, a shot rebounds right to him. The Italian goalkeeper, one of the best in the world, is sprawled out on the ground, so there is a lot of net showing, inviting the ball right in.
Vermes drills the shot, nice and low, and . . .
"Most of the time, I wake up before he saves it," Vermes said.
*Walter Zenga, the Italian keeper, really did save it, and, worst of all, he saved it with his rear end. Four years ago, the Americans lost, 1-0, and went home from their first World Cup appearance in 40 years without even a measly tie in three first-round games.
"I really believe Zenga just got lucky," Vermes said.
Vermes, 27, knows his own career might have skyrocketed if that ball hadn't smacked against that goalkeeper's butt .
"A lot of things could have happened," he said.
Instead of being a hero, or at least a well-compensated curiosity all over Europe (an American who scores!), Vermes has been here in Southern California, this time in an uphill battle to make the U.S. team playing in this summer's World Cup.
He has become a solid journeyman instead of a world star. He is a leader among the players who train with the U.S. team full time, the third-leading goal scorer in national team history, yet he really has no idea if he will make the final World Cup roster.
He is just back playing after missing two months because of back surgery for an ailment that started when a U.S. team bus hit a bump in Ecuador last summer. And Vermes really can't know his status because he plays for a coach, Bora Milutinovic, who concedes that he likes to keep his thoughts to himself.
"It's a tough thing to deal with," Vermes said. "All the players . . . you always try to figure out where you fit on the measuring stick. And you don't know what the measuring stick is. It's not easy."
The processes of testing the American players will continue tomorrow, when the United States plays Denmark in the first round of a tournament in Hong Kong.
Vermes hopes that when the final 22-man roster is selected, from a player pool that is almost double that number, World Cup experience will be a factor. He doesn't have to fall asleep to remember how happy everyone was just to be there and also how nervous everyone was before the first World Cup match in Florence in 1990, against Czechoslovakia. He sees no reason why there should be a team full of players like that this time.
Whoever is selected, there will be a mix of players with European professional experience and those under contract with the U.S. Soccer Federation, training here all the time.
Vermes is one of the few who fits in both categories. Soccer has made his life an interesting one, even if he hasn't made the really big money that a goal against Italy might have brought.
There was the night Vermes drove his car onto a side street in Budapest and narrowly missed being hit by a runaway Russian tank, back when he was playing in a pro league in Hungary, then still under communist control.
And there was the season just before the last World Cup, which he spent playing in Holland and living right by a dike in the town he played for. Vermes said he would be serenaded by fans in the early-morning hours, singing fight songs and chanting his name. Everyone in town knew who he was.
And there also was a third trip to Europe, in 1991, the year he spent groping with the language in Spain.
Life is interesting enough in California, though, even if Vermes feels as if he is in some sort of preseason that lasts an entire season. Vermes could see himself playing in New Jersey if the proposed professional league ever takes off. Back in the place where he grew up. Grew up playing soccer.
"I used to bribe my friends, take them to the movies if they'd play two against one," Vermes said. "They'd have to play for like four hours."
And Vermes would spend a month of the summer in Hungary. That is where his soccer roots are. He would play with the youth team attached to the most successful club in the country, the army club.
His father, Michael, used to play for the army club. It was an epic team. Eight members played on Hungary's wondrous 1954 World Cup team, which was considered maybe the best of all time until it was upset by West Germany in the finals.
Michael Vermes wasn't a World Cup player. His true heroics came a couple of years later, when Russian tanks rolled in. The soccer player became a freedom fighter. Michael Vermes, along with his brothers, was in a shootout with Russian soldiers at a police station. The bullet holes were still there at the station when Peter Vermes returned to play more than 30 years later.
After the Russians became entrenched, Michael Vermes left the country. He left five times. Or tried to. Running for the border, one time he was stopped 10 yards from freedom. Another time, he was shot in the leg. Finally, he and his pregnant wife walked 35 miles. Part of the way through minefields. They ended up in Austria, then in an Army camp in New Jersey.
It is hard to imagine the son of such people giving in easily in his own quest for a World Cup spot. Especially when Vermes has some unfinished business, a dream left to fulfill.
"I don't have bad dreams about it," Vermes said about his World Cup moment. "I have exciting dreams."
Sacca Says He Wants Nfl Shot He Left Arizona. Now He Will Wait For An Invitation To A Training Camp.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151231234204/http://articles.philly.com/1994-04-23/sports/25862280_1_cardinals-coach-buddy-ryan-tony-sacca-tom-tupaBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 23, 1994Delran High graduate Tony Sacca, a former Penn State star and Arizona Cardinals backup, is facing an uncertain future.
Sacca, who spent two years with the Cardinals after being selected in the second round in the 1992 draft (the 46th choice overall), was released on Thursday by new Cardinals coach Buddy Ryan.
Sacca saw little action in his two seasons. As a rookie, he completed 4 of 11 passes, and last season he never took a snap. Sacca had signed a reported three-year, $1.4 million contract, but the contract wasn't guaranteed for 1994. Now he is a free agent.
Delran baseball coach Rich Bender, who remains close to Sacca, talked to the quarterback Thursday evening. Sacca told Bender that he was en route to watch his brother, John, play in the spring football game at Eastern Kentucky today.
After that, Sacca will wait and hope to get invited to an NFL camp.
Steve Beuerlein is Arizona's No. 1 quarterback. Will Furrer, a former Chicago Bear, apparently edged Sacca for the No. 3 spot.
Sacca told Bender the Cardinals are thinking of bringing in either former Eagle Jim McMahon or ex-Redskin Mark Rypien to be the backup.
But Sacca appears to have some options. After the recent trade of Warren Moon, Houston has Cody Carlson as its starter and Bucky Richardson, formerly of Texas A&M;, as its backup.
John Friesz recently left San Diego and signed with Washington. That leaves the Chargers with Trent Green backing up Stan Humphries.
New England recently released reserve Scott Secules and has Scott Zolak backing up Drew Bledsoe. New England coach Bill Parcells had Sacca work out for him when he was coaching the New York Giants.
Cleveland may need a backup, with inconsistent starter Vinny Testaverde and journeymen backups such as Todd Philcox, former Eagle Brad Goebel and Tom Tupa.
With Bernie Kosar gone to Miami as a free agent, Dallas' backup to Troy Aikman is Jason Garrett.
Son Of Gorilla Monsoon Killed In N.j. Accident
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150913044200/http://articles.philly.com/1994-07-08/news/25844018_1_referee-mansfield-township-accidentBy John F. Morrison, Daily News Staff Writer The Associated Press contributed to this report
Posted: July 08, 1994Joey Marella, a prominent pro wrestling referee and son of retired wrestler Gorilla Monsoon, was killed Monday on the New Jersey Turnpike when his car crashed after he fell asleep at the wheel.
Marella, 31, who grew up in Willingboro, where his father still lives, died when his rented 1994 Dodge Shadow veered from the highway at about 3 a.m. in Mansfield Township.
It spun around and crashed through the guardrail, said Sgt. Denny Cosgrove, a state police spokesman. The car continued down a slope for 90 feet, striking a tree on the driver's side of the car, he said. The car came to rest against another tree 20 feet away, Cosgrove said.
A passenger, Bruno Lauder, 27, a pro wrestling manager, received minor injuries and was treated at Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly.
The two were on their way from a wrestling match in Ocean City, Md., to another match in Newark, N.J., when the accident occurred.
Marella refereed many World Wrestling Federation matches at the Spectrum and other arenas in the Philadelphia area.
"He was very popular with the fans," said Kal Rudman, publisher of a music trade magazine who did color commentary for pro wrestling bouts on PRISM in the 1980s. "He was an excellent referee."
Rudman said Marella was small compared with his father, who weighed nearly 400 pounds.
"He was a little guy, very cheerful. He was always smiling," Rudman said.
His father is now a road agent and television analyst for the World Wrestling Federation.
Camping Near The Shore - So Near, Yet So What? Folks Say The Amenities Beat The Beach. Cape May County Is A Hotbed Of These Camp Towns.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150917072134/http://articles.philly.com/1994-07-19/news/25847405_1_campsites-campers-sandy-beachBy Gwen Florio, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: July 19, 1994ERMA — Carl and Margie McDaniel of Pennsauken picked the right time for a Jersey Shore vacation. With the heat wave in full tropical force last week, they packed up their three sweaty children and a niece, and headed for Cape May County.
Five miles short of the beach, they stopped.
And, happily, stayed right where they were.
"This is so much nicer" than the Shore, said Carl McDaniel, digging his toes into the sandy beach bordering the lake at the Beachcomber Camping Resort here.
The Beachcomber is one of about 50 campgrounds in Cape May County, nearly half the state's total. Many line Route 9 in Lower Township, roughly paralleling the strip of hotels and motels along the beach just a few miles away.
But those few miles might as well be light years, given campers' disinclination to travel them.
That's because campground owners, with more than 15,000 sites in the county, are giving them plenty of reasons to stay put, redefining traditional notions of roughing it.
"Camping," said Diane Wieland, division director of the Cape May County Office of Tourism, "has gotten away from just pitching a tent."
There are big pools for grown-ups and little ones for toddlers. Lakes provide more swimming, and fishing, too. There are playgrounds and game rooms and volleyball courts and tennis courts and miniature golf courses. There are laundries and convenience stores. There are bus trips to casinos in the daytime and bingo games at night, and even an annual Miss Campgrounds beauty contest, with the winner eligible for Miss Cape May County.
At the campsites themselves, there are sewer hookups for trailers, and even the tent campers can get electrical hookups so they can plug in their radios and TVs - or microwaves for the folks who didn't bring their fancy gas grills.
"It's like a summer home," said Kathy Randle, owner of the Lake Laurie Campground, also in Lower Township's Erma section, "except that it's a little cheaper and a lot less upkeep."
"Cheaper" was the main reason campers gave for eschewing the hotel route. Campsites go for between $20 and $30 a day, compared with more than $100 for beach-front hotels.
Seasonal rates, for people with trailers, are about $2,300 for the most expensive sites - those with telephone and cable television hookups - at Beachcomber. But the campground season can be as long as six months, from March to October, instead of the Memorial Day-to-Labor Day schedule for beach houses.
"Where else can you get a summer place for $300 a month?" said Joe Okomski of Delran, a 13-year camper at Lake Laurie. He and his wife, Maryanne, have lakefront campsites next door to their friends Mitch and Patty Mason of Pennsville. They're 15-year veterans.
Ken Gomez, manager of the Beachcomber, said his campground was about evenly divided between seasonal campers, and people who just come in for a weekend or a few days.
With 600 sites, his campground is one of the larger ones. "It's like a city," he said. "It's got its own water and sewer service. There's trash collection and a security force."
Still, he said, compared with the real city where his campers live - the New Jersey Campground Association estimates that half the campers come from Philadelphia and its suburbs - Beachcomber's leafy drives are downright bucolic. "People coming from the city feel like this is really the country," he said.
Gomez said repeat campers tend to follow a pattern. They start off in tents - like the McDaniels, who were joining 16 other relatives at Beachcomber - then move up to pop-up trailers, then regular trailers.
"The trailers get bigger and bigger," he said, "and more and more plush."
At Lake Laurie, the Masons and Okomskis fit the profile. Their trailers hardly resembled temporary quarters. Both had screened porches. An Uncle Sam windsock rippled from the Masons' trailer while wind chimes tinkled at the Okomskis'.
Like many campers, the couples said they rarely venture any farther east. ''It's beautiful right here at the lake," said Patty Mason.
"We wouldn't go in (to the Shore towns) before Labor Day," added her husband. "Too crowded, too honky-tonk."
Over at Beachcomber, it was lunchtime. Margie McDaniel called her children in from the lake. The water there was bathtub-warm, they said, unlike the ocean, which has been running a bone-chilling 60 degrees.
For the McDaniels, nearby Wildwood wasn't even a temptation.
"We can do everything here that we can do at the beach," Margie McDaniel said, "and we don't have to pay."
They're Out With The Stars Of Sky And Screen At The Bucks Drive-in Theater, Business Is Booming. It's The Region's Only One.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922023053/http://articles.philly.com/1994-08-07/news/25842984_1_lawn-chairs-screen-picture-showBy Lacy McCrary, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: August 07, 1994If you keep it open, they will come.
In cars big and small, foreign and domestic; vans, station wagons and pickup trucks.
Bringing with them lawn chairs, loungers, pillows, blankets, cushions, baby buggies, ice chests, and sandwiches, potato chips, popcorn, pretzels and candy.
They come, from New Jersey, Delaware, Philadelphia and all its suburbs, to see the last picture show, drive-in style, in the Philadelphia region.
It's the Bucks County Drive-In Theater on Route 611 in Warrington Township, about four miles north of Willow Grove.
On a recent Saturday night, the twin-screen theater was 14 acres of tailgating families with children in pajamas on blankets spread out on the blacktop, or on the hoods of cars or the tailgates of vans, with their parents sitting in lawn chairs, eating and talking while waiting for the movies to start.
This is not the stereotypical passion pit of the past, with tinny speakers and low-budget horror and action films, where often there was more action in the cars than on the screen.
The Bucks County Drive-In is clean, recently repainted and renovated. On this night, one screen was showing The Lion King and The Flintstones, and the other had The Mask and The Shadow - all first-run movies.
The sound comes through vehicle radios. It is better than the old speakers, which used to disappear, by accident or design. Today's 75-by-33-foot steel screens, painted in a special reflectorized paint, yield a far superior picture from two projection booths that house new 4,000-watt xenon lamps.
And, for the most part, the customers are families.
*Kelly Garlitz, 28, of Pennsauken, pushed through the crowd a double baby stroller containing daughter Kaitlin, 2, and son Bryan, 7 months.
"I didn't even know this place existed," said her husband, Bill, 30. "I work in Doylestown and saw the sign one day. We love the atmosphere and the freedom. Your children can scream and yell and it doesn't bother anyone."
Many of the customers had stopped at a nearby Wawa store to stock up on hoagies and other goodies.
Just after 6 p.m., the sun was still high, but the line was beginning to form at the box office.
Linda and Frank Marinella, with son Frank Jr., 18, and daughter Melissa, 11, in the back seat, were first in line. The movie wouldn't start for more than 2 1/2 hours.
"We wanted to make sure we got here early. We were here a month ago and had a very long wait to get in," said Linda, 44, of Delran, N.J.
She said they had left home at 5 p.m. for the hour's drive to the theater and stopped along the way for sandwiches, chips and sodas, and bug spray, just in case the mosquitoes came out.
Killing time until dark, Ken Esbenshade, 33, of Horsham, was playing catch in front of the big screen with his sons, Ken, 8, and Gregory, 4, while Daniel, 18 months, watched.
"We wanted our children to see what it was like," he said. "It brings back a lot of memories. As a kid, my parents brought me here in my pajamas."
By 8:30 the theater was stuffed with 800 cars, 100 more than the usual capacity because managers John Mellor and Ed Gower had allowed the overflow to park on grass areas near the box office.
More than 200 cars were waiting up on the highway. The line stretched a mile south to County Line Road and almost a mile north to Street Road.
Mellor said 250 cars were turned away because there was no room.
"We tell people that on Saturday night they had better get here before 8 p.m.," Mellor said.
Going to a drive-in movie with your children or a date has been an American tradition since "The World's First Automobile Theater" was opened in 1933 on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden by a Villanova man named Richard M. Hollingshead Jr.
Bruce Austin, a professor of communications at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said the period just after World War II was perfect for drive-ins.
"Gasoline rationing stopped, cars were once again produced, and the returning soldiers were spreading out to the suburbs in housing developments like Levittown, and there were no indoor theaters out there," said Austin, the author of a study on drive-ins.
"The drive-in was a great place to pack the kids into the station wagon, and not dress up, and talk and smoke largely without fear of disturbing people next to you," said Austin.
The number of drive-ins peaked in 1958 with 4,063, then declined as expanding suburbs made rural land too valuable to waste on movies. The decline quickened in the mid-1970s with the advent of multiscreen indoor theaters and videocassette recorders, according to the National Organization of Theatre Owners.
The number nationwide is down to 837, mostly in Sun Belt states and the Midwest. New Jersey, Delaware, Alaska and Rhode Island are the only states without a single drive-in, said Jim Kozak, director of communications for the theater owners association in North Hollywood, Calif.
In 1982 there were still 156 open-air screens in Pennsylvania. There are only 39 now, Kozak said.
"They just disappeared because the land was being bought for tremendous prices and being developed," said Kozak.
One by one, the drive-ins in the Philadelphia region darkened.
All except the Bucks County Drive-In.
It has survived largely because of the dedication of Mellor and Gower, who have worked long hours to refurbish it, starting in 1989 when they came there to work.
Now that it's the last one, it draws huge crowds of people who enjoy the ambience and freedom and the casual atmosphere.
"We wanted the children to come and see it before they are all gone," said Warminster resident Kevin Blakeslee, 40, who was with his wife, Jeanne, 43, and daughters Kendra, 8, Krista, 7, and Kimberlee, 6. The children were in their pajamas.
Barbara McCamey, 31, of Warrington, was sitting in her car with a passel of children, three of whom were sitting on top of the vehicle.
"You can be with the whole family and sit together, and you've got fresh air, and you can bring babies and the kids can go to sleep while you watch the second movie," she said.
Jerry Barber, director of operations for the Northeast U.S. Division of American Multi Cinema (AMC) in Voorhees, which owns the Bucks Drive-In, said it was the only one he knew of in the area still open.
AMC acquired the drive-in when it bought out Budco in 1987.
"We are not normally a drive-in operation," he said. "It's the only one we have. The fact it's an artifact of a different era helps. There is a nostalgic feeling amongst the baby-boomer group bringing their children to have the drive-in experience, and this is the one; this is the only one."
The drive-in first opened in 1953, said Mellor, one of three managers who take turns running the place.
"About five years ago, the theater was destined to close," he said. "It was run-down and not in good shape. Ed and I worked hard to try to make it go. We impressed AMC that the numbers are there, and they kept it open."
The drive-in is open from late April through October, usually. It depends upon the weather and the crowds. After Labor Day, it is open only on weekends.
Jane and David Hemphill spent one hour driving to the theater from Chester Springs, Chester County.
"I remember going with my parents and as a teen with a bunch of people, and I did some dating at a drive-in," said Hemphill, 37, owner of a computer business.
"Not with me," said Jane Hemphill, 36, quickly, as she and sons David, 6, and Brett, 3, sat on the car's hood.
"When my friend and I come together, we bring 10 kids," said McCamey, of Warrington. "Where else can you bring a cooler and food and watch a movie?
"I hope it never closes."
Art? Everyone's A Critic At A Marriott Debut. Opinions Shroud Unveiling Of Artwork
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222090434/http://articles.philly.com/1995-06-30/news/25692437_1_public-art-tonk-honkyBy Suzanne Sataline, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 30, 1995Public art used to be heroic, magnificent, inspiring.
Think Benjamin Franklin. The China Gate. The Swann fountain at Logan Square. Or all those stern-looking people who just stepped off the battlefield.
Somewhere along the line, the creative minds decorating this landscape got a little goofy.
Think Clothespin. Rocky. Or anything involving shapes you learned in kindergarten.
The latest addition strays none too far from those aesthetic lines.
The latest public offering, outside the new Philadelphia Marriott at 12th and Filbert Streets, was dedicated yesterday. At the same time, it was devoured, derided, debated and decried by the legions who consider themselves art critics.
What does the piece, entitled World Park, say about our cultural psyche?
"I think it's crazy, to be honest with you," said Abdul Malik Aziz Shabazz, a Marriott banquet worker from North Philadelphia. "It seems like something that came from outer space. 'Alien!' That's what comes to mind."
At its most pedestrian, he said, it's a baseball and bat "inside a batting cage."
At this rate, World Park could eventually be as revered as "Government by the People," the hands-and-feet hulk that looks like people playing ''Twister" but that former Mayor Frank Rizzo likened to a pile of excrement.
World Park is set off by large sandstone columns that taper in the middle and are embedded with stones buffed by the sea. Block benches of the same material line the area. Foundling pear trees, their trunks no thicker than a goal post, are supposed to give shade to the benches, the borders, and the two objects facing off within.
One is the world: a marble mosaic-tiled sphere with gentle blues and grays depicting the Earth's seas and lands.
The other is a towering, blaring gold cone, electric with bits of colored glass.
It brings to mind disco, a giant snowcone, or a Las Vegas honky tonk.
In a city of diplomacy, that may be the kindest thing anyone will say about it.
"The columns could be nice, if it was just straight cement," said John Grant, an assistant rail conductor, whose final commentary rhymed with ''bucks." A conga player in his off hours, he said he had good aesthetics. ''I like the globe. That's about it."
The artist, Ned Smythe, first named the piece "Orders and Perspectives." But as he explained yesterday at the dedication, Smythe realized no one was going to refer to it that way. His 9-year-old son, Roman, suggested World Park.
"What I tend to do instead of an object is to try and make a space - with an object," Smythe said, as women in linen blazers and straw hats glided over to shake his hand. His aim, he said, was to create an outdoor room as an extension of the Marriott and the adjacent Reading Terminal Market.
At the same time, Smythe wanted to express the awe he felt a few years ago after his farmhouse was sucked away in a tornado. "It's the idea of history and American culture." In other words, order. "The cone is a symbol of the power of nature and that it's uncontrollable."
The six guys from a sheet metal company chewed on that one while on their lunch break from working on the new Criminal Justice Center.
"It's a nice place to eat lunch and watch the girls go by," foreman Terry Noonan of Philadelphia said.
They were told the title.
"You're kidding," Noonan laughed.
"I think they got the 'world' part right," offered a colleague who wished to critique only as Ken from Delaware. "But order?"
"It's standing too straight," suggested Joe Cane of Delran, N.J. "Knock it down."
Smythe constructed something similar to World Park a few years back in Battery Park City in Manhattan. People skate on Rollerblades around it.
"We're fortunate to have an artist of this stature create a statue in the heart of our metropolis," said Gilda Ellis, chairwoman of the Fine Arts Committee of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and a resident of Bala Cynwyd. ("I wouldn't mention that," she said. "It's not politic.")
She repeated Smythe's concern that people will jump to judge before they see the finished work - which is years away, when the pear trees are at full height and full bloom.
"Yeah," said sheetmetal worker Cane as he gnawed a peach. "That will cover it up."
Beneath the golden snowcone, guests at the dedication were eating, too. Passersby watched the lithe and beautiful society people sup daintily on the melon on skewers.
Fruit wasn't the only thing being skewered.
"They should've made a sundial," offered Cane's coworker, Chuck Beyer, of Norristown.
Some onlookers mistakenly thought World Park was incomplete. One thought the contractor had accidentally left materials behind.
Others were more enthusiastic ("Very clever!" retired pharmacist Harry Friedberg said.) Others, wishing to be kind, suggested alternative uses. Or redesigns. Or names.
"Stonehenge. Like a Roman ruin," said Ted Oponski, a guitarist from Fairmount.
"A great place to skateboard," offered Craig W. Hillwig, an attorney who rather liked the piece.
"It will be a good place to eat your pizza and soda," said retiree John Welsh of Roslyn, trying to be diplomatic.
A fountain would have been better, said his wife, Anne Welsh. "But then you would've had people wading in it."
World Park was commissioned as part of the One Percent Fine Arts Program, which requires developers building on Redevelopment Authority land to set aside 1 percent of their budget for art.
In the case of the Marriott, $1.3 million was set aside for art, with $870,000 spent on World Park.
In striving to interpret, everyone may be missing the point.
"There is no real meaning to the piece," artist Smythe confided. "The thing about public art, it's nice to stimulate the thinking."
Letter Carrier's Heroics Earn Community's Stamp Of Approval The Delran Postman's Warning Bell Rang Twice - And, Each Time, He Saved A Life. No Big Deal, He Says: "We Look Out For Each Other Here."
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150926233948/http://articles.philly.com/1995-11-06/news/25681705_1_postman-elderly-man-carriersBy Natalie Pompilio, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: November 06, 1995DELRAN — Mail carrier Chaley Mitchell stacked the letters and newspapers into the crook of his arm and prepared to walk his route. At about the same time, Tom Edge was pulling out of the Delran Coffee Shop. Edge stopped his car, partway onto Bridgeboro Road, and ran up to shake Mitchell's hand.
"Good job, Chaley. You deserve a lot of credit. Some people wouldn't bother, but you always do," said Edge, a 74-year-old Riverside resident who lives along Mitchell's route.
Mitchell took the compliment - one of many he received from passersby that day - modestly, head-down and smiling. He said he's not used to being a hero, but in this small community, he ranks up there with Superman.
For the second time in his letter-carrying career, Mitchell's attention to detail and caring for his customers has saved someone's life.
"I grew up here and I know the people. We all think of each other as family," Mitchell said.
Last week, Mitchell noticed that one of his patrons, 85-year-old Karl Schilpp, hadn't emptied his mailbox in a few days. Strange, because he knew Schilpp looked forward to getting his mail every afternoon.
"He religiously picked up the mail. And if he goes away, he'll let me know," Mitchell said.
Concerned, the postman walked over to the coffee shop and called police. Schilpp, who suffers from poor circulation, was found inside his home, in the same spot on the floor where he'd fallen three days earlier. His legs were swollen and discolored and he was severely dehydrated.
"If (Mitchell) hadn't found him, he would've just laid there. I thank him, and I appreciate him getting something done," said Schilpp's nearest relative, nephew Dennis Eichel of Pennsauken.
Schilpp is still resting at Rancocas Hospital in Willingboro, undergoing tests, his nephew said. Originally, doctors thought both of Schilpp's legs would have to be amputated, but that decision has been postponed, Eichel said.
"I hope he pulls through," Mitchell said.
In 1992, on the same route, Mitchell smelled gas coming from the home of 99-year-old Ellis Stott. Looking through a window, he saw the resident lying unconscious on the floor. The postman - also a firefighter - then broke down the door and pulled the elderly man from the house.
"I kinda like to think this is part of my job description," Mitchell said. "We look out for each other here."
That's true for the whole Bridgeboro community. Mitchell describes it as the type of place where "people grow up here and they don't move away. They stay here. It's the kind of community I like." He himself is a lifelong resident, and lives on the same street as two of his brothers. He even delivers their mail.
John Leach, owner of Delran Auto Body, which sits across the street from Schilpp's house, said all the neighbors looked out for the elderly gentleman and everybody knows the mailman.
Lorrie McKee, co-owner of Delran Coffee Shop two doors down, added, ''Chaley is the type of guy who takes a lot of pride in his work. Everybody is his family."
"He deserves a medal," said McKee's husband, Bob.
Even if he does receive a medal, it is unlikely that hero status will ever go to Mitchell's head. The father of two has a 13-year-old daughter who keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground.
"She's teasing me," Mitchell said. "She said I pushed (Schilpp) down to get my picture in the paper." Then he adds: "I know she's proud."
Swimming Steadily Toward Atlanta His Last Shot At The Olympic Dream Allows Peter Wright Little Rest.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150926234336/http://articles.philly.com/1995-11-29/news/25683497_1_freestyle-jersey-wahoos-pipe-dreamBy Rusty Pray, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: November 29, 1995CHERRY HILL — Peter Wright is tired.
"Almost all the time," he says with a laugh.
The former Delran High School and University of Virginia swimmer is sitting on a stool in Bob Clarke's Gym, dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, his morning workout finished. He's munching on some fast food.
"I try to eat all day," he says. "I try to get as many calories into my body as I can."
Wright swims five hours a day, five days a week. He swims only 2 1/2 hours the sixth day. When he's not in the pool at the Jersey Wahoos in Mount Laurel or the Pennypack Fitness and Aquatic Club in Philadelphia, he's in the weight room at Bob Clarke's (yes, that Bob Clarke) in Cherry Hill.
Calories are important when you're feeding an ambition to make the U.S. Olympic team.
Winning one of the 26 berths on the men's team - there also will be 26 on the women's team - is not just a pipe dream. Wright has been ranked as high as third in the world in the 800-meter freestyle. He won a national championship in the 400 in 1992 and national championships in the 800 in 1993 and 1995. He was a six-time all-American at Virginia.
*Wright, who will turn 23 on Sunday, started swimming with the Wahoos when he was 10, "and I can't believe I'm still there," he said.
Swimming has taken Wright from Delran High to the Peddie School to Virginia on a full scholarship. It has taken him from local club meets to national college events to international competitions.
Even though he's tired now of the training grind, weary of the daily routine, he keeps at it because there is one more place he'd like to go.
"To go to the Olympics is a dream for everyone," said Wright, who is concentrating on the 1,500-meter freestyle. "I know I'd regret it 10 years from now if I would have quit without going for it. I don't want to be one of those people who look back and say, 'I might have done it.'
"This," he continued, "is something I have to do."
So Wright swims from 7 to 9:30 a.m. at Pennypack, 10,000 meters a day, six days a week. He swims at Wahoos from 3 to 5:30 p.m., about 8,200 meters a day, five days a week. "After the water," he said, "I come to Clarke's and lift for 45 minutes to an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."
Order that man more large fries and a soft mattress.
Wright swam for Delran for three years. He won state championships in the 200 and 500 freestyle as a junior before leaving to attend the Peddie School, a private school in Hightstown with a national reputation in the sport. He graduated from the Peddie School in 1991 and went to Virginia, where he set Atlantic Coast Conference records in the 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-yard events.
When his college eligibility ran out last spring, he decided to put off getting his degree - he was enrolled in a five-year engineering program - to train for the Olympics.
Before he left Virginia, the school named him its outstanding athlete. "I was surprised," he said. "Swimming is a sport that not that many people really know about, and it's not really a spectator sport, and there were so many good athletes in other sports there, so I was really honored to be recognized."
Wright always has had an appetite to compete in the Olympics. In the summer of 1992, he got the victory that told him he just might be able to satisfy that hunger. He won the 400-meter freestyle championship at the senior nationals.
"That's when I said to myself that if I kept training, I might be able to do it," he said. "That's when going to the Olympics started looking more like a reality than a dream, something I could attain."
In 1993, he won the 800 freestyle and finished second in the 400 at the senior nationals. "My times were still dropping steadily," he said. He also was ranked third in the world in the 800, so he pressed on.
He pressed hard enough to come down with mononucleosis in the summer of 1994.
"That was scary," he said. "Swimming is a sport where you can't take off a season and expect to come back and be where you were. I trained just as hard, but the mono really had an effect on me. In a way, I'm lucky it happened when it did, because now I'm over it; I'm back to where I was."
He knows that because over the summer he won the 800 freestyle at the senior nationals in Pasadena, Calif. He also competed in the Pan-Pacific Games in Atlanta, in the pool that will be used for the Olympic competition in the summer of '96. He swam the 1,500 freestyle in 15 minutes, 29 seconds, the third-fastest time of the season for an American.
"Throughout my career, I guess, I've been geared toward the 400," Wright said, "but this past summer I seem to have excelled in the 1,500."
"He's definitely a contender," said John Carroll, Wright's coach with the Wahoos. "It's just a matter of putting together a good meet, and he's capable of doing that. There might be a couple people who on paper have better times. But if he's at his best, nobody can stop him."
Wright will have to be at his best for the Olympic trials, which will be held March 6-12 in Indianapolis.
"Swimming is like that," said Mike Parker, who retired as Camden Catholic's swimming coach after last season and now manages Clarke's Gym. "A guy can be the best there is, but if he happens to come down with a cold or something the day of the trials, he could be shut out."
And what if Wright is shut out? When he's swimming the 1,500 at the Olympic trials, what if it just isn't his day? What if he just isn't good enough?
"I'll stop swimming," he said. "If I make it, I go to the Olympics and then stop. If not, then I go to the Olympic trials and stop.
"This sport takes a lot out of you physically and mentally. If I make the team, then it would be a great way to end it. If I don't, then I still had a good career.
"It'll be weird when I stop swimming. I've been around it for 13 years. I don't know any other way to live."
He might start by eating a big dinner, then taking a nice, long nap.
Ex-painter Brushes Through Life As Model The Delran Resident Hardly Stays Put These Days, Moving From Job To Job.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20141009144629/http://articles.philly.com/1996-01-07/news/25651073_1_modeling-satellite-campus-hotel-lobbyBy Natalie Pompilio, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: January 07, 1996DELRAN — When Dave Curzie got off the plane in Madrid, there wasn't a limousine waiting to take him to his modeling job downtown. Not even a rental car. So the Delran resident hopped into a taxi.
He was immediately dragged out and thrown to the ground by a band of striking cab and bus drivers.
``I thought, where's the glamour scene'' associated with modeling? the 28-year-old recalled recently. ``I ended up hitchhiking to my hotel.''
Just another day at the ``office'' for the South Jersey house painter turned international model.
Curzie - ``six foot two, eyes of blue'' just like the song says - was ``so-called discovered'' while vacationing in Miami a few years ago. He and a friend were standing in their hotel lobby when a woman asked Curzie whom he was with. He told her he was with his friend. She, of course, meant which modeling agency. She wanted him with hers.
``I actually thought it was a big scam,'' Curzie said. But he called his mother, crossed his fingers, and stepped into the modeling world.
Posing for pictures was a far cry from Curzie's former profession: co-owner of Fresh Look Painting, a Delran-based contractor company. Curzie started the business after graduating from Holy Cross High School in 1986. His family now runs Fresh Look.
``I always was pretty handy so I bought a paintbrush and started painting,'' Curzie said.
While working, he attended classes at Burlington County College and Rutgers University-Camden before finishing his bachelor's degree at the McGuire Air Force Base satellite campus of Southern Illinois University.
Then he took the fateful trip to Florida. Now Curzie is walking runways in Barcelona, sipping wine in a Riunite commercial in Italy, and looking out at the readers of Germany's Otto magazine.
``I like the business a lot,'' Curzie said. ``I'm meeting people I never would've met if I was painting a wall in Delran.''
He even likes it when assignments get slightly odd: On a recent winter day, he had just returned from Penn's Landing, where a photo shoot had required him to hang from an icy ladder for up to a half-hour at a time.Another memorable workday in the area had him holding a naked woman upside down for about two hours.
``That was pretty strange,'' he recalled.
Stateside, Curzie's work has appeared mainly in catalogs, although his handsome mug has been spotted in Cosmopolitan and other magazines. He hopes his European work will mean more attention on this side of the ocean, as well as an opportunity to explore acting and photography production.
But becoming famous isn't what is important to Curzie: ``I think that's kind of shallow,'' he said. Enjoying your work and living life to the fullest are what matters, he said.
Modeling has certainly brought Curzie adventures he never would have had in Burlington County.
His recent seven-month stint in Europe, for example, took him from Greece to England and stops in-between.
He took the trip, he said, to get himself exposure, as the Delran area isn't a hot bed of modeling jobs.
Exposure does mean more money and fame, but it also means never staying in one place for very long, he said.
With portfolio in hand, the model freelanced through Europe, going door-to-door and referral to referral.
``I had to make money, and usually I made enough money in each place to get to the next,'' Curzie said. ``I was on a train from Munich to Hamburg and I started worrying, `What if they don't like me? I don't have enough money to get back.' ''
When modeling was slow, Curzie picked up a paintbrush:
``If it weren't for the painting and my parents, I wouldn't be this far,'' he said.
Spending time in countries where English isn't the norm also challenged Curzie.
He spent a lot of time living and working in Germany but - besides bitte and bier (please and beer) - he doesn't know any German.
``It was lonely,'' he said. ``The best part of this business is you get to travel. It's also the loneliest part.''
Curzie comes home to Delran, his home base, every now and then, visiting family and friends - and sometimes picking up work as a model in the area.
Curzie met his first group of adoring female fans in Barcelona. They cornered him after a fashion show and wanted autographs.
``I thought it was a joke,'' he said, laughing. But the girls, overwhelmed, then began to cry. Unable to speak Spanish, Curzie consoled them the international way: He took them out for ice cream.
He has gotten to meet the famous himself. He crossed paths with supermodel Elle MacPherson, for example, as she came slinking off the runway in Madrid.
``She said hello but I could only stammer,'' he recalled. ``My friends and I just kept hitting each other.''
Curzie plans to fly off to Florida this week for another job.
``I don't know where that's going to lead,'' he said. ``It could be Europe or New York, but it's definitely not Delran.''
Supervisor Dies While Saving 2 In Factory Fire
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150913080401/http://articles.philly.com/1996-01-08/news/25654718_1_factory-fire-smoke-inhalation-three-alarmBy Analisa Nazareno, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: January 08, 1996RIVERTON — An iron factory supervisor died a hero yesterday while saving two co-workers in a double explosion and three-alarm blaze at an industrial complex, Cinnaminson fire and police officials said.
Shortly before 9 a.m., an explosion set off a fire at the Hoeganaes Corp. facility. The supervisor, tentatively identified as Robert Donnelly Sr. of Delran, helped two workers escape the burning 900-square-foot tin facility, said Cinnaminson Fire Chief Walter Miller.
He then returned to the building to see if there were additional people, Miller said. A second explosion prevented his escape and set off additional flames. Officials said they believed the man died instantly.
``He died a hero as far as we're concerned,'' Miller said.
Three men escaped the blaze with minor injuries, were treated for smoke inhalation and released from Rancocas Hospital in Willingboro.
None of the survivors would comment about the fire.
The body of the supervisor was burned so badly that his facial features were unrecognizable, officials said.
A dozen fire trucks and 75 firefighters got the flames under control within 45 minutes, but it took 2 1/2 hours to extinguish the blaze, Miller said. Because of the blizzard and gusty winds, the firefighters were rotated to combat the blaze, Miller said.
Police officials said that a gas leak might have been the cause of the fire, but that investigators from the Burlington County fire marshals and Cinnaminson Fire and Police Departments were continuing their investigation. The plant manufactures powdered metals.
He Worked His Way To The Olympics Delran Swimmer Peter Wright Almost Gave Up His Quest. He Came Back With A Vengeance.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150921191240/http://articles.philly.com/1996-05-21/sports/25626987_1_indiana-university-natatorium-carlton-bruner-freestylerBy Bob Ford, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: May 21, 1996PHOENIX — An hour before the biggest race of his life, in the middle of the toughest swim meet in the world, Peter Wright saw more than just the blue lane ahead of him.
For the previous year, the Delran, N.J., freestyler had put his life on hold to try for the U.S. Olympic team in the grueling 1,500-meter event.
But when Dean Hutchinson, his best friend from the Jersey Wahoos Swim Club, failed to advance to the 50-meter freestyle final at the Olympic trials, Wright couldn't stay within the cocoon of positive thoughts that swimmers like to spin before a race.
``We had always talked about making the team together and about how we were going to room together in Atlanta,'' said Wright, 23. ``The trials are a nerve-racking meet. You see so much disappointment that you have to stay away from the pool as much as possible because there's so much tension in the air. But Dean had always been there for me.''
When Wright was thinking about quitting the sport last year after a disappointing senior season at the University of Virginia, Hutchinson was one of the people who talked him off the ledge. During the endless side-by-side laps at the 25-yard Wahoos pool, Wright and Hutchinson swam toward Atlanta.
So when Wright saw Hutchinson finish ninth in his preliminary during the March trials, Wright didn't turn his back.
``He came over to cheer me up and was saying really nice things,'' Hutchinson said. ``But there was no cheering me up at that point. I put my goggles on because I started crying and I didn't want anybody to see that. My goggles were filling up with tears.
``I wanted to be upbeat for him. I knew he had a real good shot. And it helped me to get myself fired up for him. For the 15 minutes he was swimming, I forgot how poorly I had done. Seeing how he did was a little bit of redemption for me.''
Wright finished an easy third in the preliminaries to draw a favorable lane for the final heat. Then, with family, friends and Hutchinson cheering him on at the Indiana University Natatorium, he chopped nine seconds off his personal best time. Wright finished behind only Pan-Am Games gold medalist Carlton Bruner, earning one of the two slots on the U.S. team for the event.
``I've always believed that swimming is a sport where it's all a reflection of how hard you work,'' said Wright, who swam at the Speedo Invitational in Phoenix last weekend, a training meet for all U.S. team members.
``And I don't believe there's been a time in my career where I've worked harder than leading up to the trials. Knowing that gave me a different attitude to winning at that meet. For me, confidence is a rare thing. But because of all the work I did, I was very confident.''
Both Bruner and Wright were out to hunt down Lawrence Frostad, a 1992 Olympian, in the final heat. Bruner did it by going out extremely fast. Wright did it by coming on strong at the end, with a trademark finishing kick that leaves his competition gasping.
``Something I always tell myself when I'm swimming is that if I'm hurting, the other guy is hurting more,'' Wright said.
Frostad was almost five full seconds behind when Wright touched the wall in a time of 15 minutes, 17.96 seconds.
``I came up and looked at the scoreboard,'' Wright said, ``then looked up at my family and it just went through my mind over and over, `Oh, my God, I made the team. Oh, my God, I made the team.' ''
When the U.S. delegation marches into the new Olympic stadium for the July 19 opening of the Atlanta Games, there will be plenty of athletes who worked hard to get there. But perhaps none harder than Wright, who routinely churns out 100,000 to 120,000 yards of workouts each week during the peak of his training.
``He's never cut any corners,'' said John Carroll, who has coached with the Wahoos since 1979 and headed the senior program the last nine years. ``Everything he did was hard and right. The only practice he missed all year was the day of the 30-inch snowstorm, and he made it up during the week.''
Success in the pool didn't come quickly for Wright, who took up swimming in elementary school to help rehabilitate a badly broken arm. His work began to pay off when he was 15 or 16, leading him to transfer from Delran High to the Peddie School program for his senior year.
Earning a scholarship to the University of Virginia, Wright went on to become a six-time all-American for the Cavaliers. In his freshman year, he qualified for the 1992 Olympic trials in the 400-meter (finishing sixth) and 1,500-meter freestyle (fifth).
Just as his swimming career began because of a broken bone, however, it almost ended for the same reason. Going into his senior season at Virginia, Wright was coming off a bout of mononucleosis when he broke an elbow in a bicycle accident. His training schedule was ruined, and, after a poor collegiate year and a disappointing showing at the summer nationals, Wright was ready to quit.
``I was really questioning my ability and thought it might be best for me to move on and start my career,'' said Wright, who will graduate with a systems engineering degree. ``But then I thought about what I'd be like 20 years from now. I don't want to be one of those people who says, `I could have.' So, I wanted to find out.''
He threw himself back into the pool and has been grinding ever since.
``I knew there was no way he wouldn't make the Olympic team,'' said Hutchinson. ``He never backed down from a practice. Even early on, when we were in high school, he was always another level ahead. He showed all of us that there was more out there than high school swimming. You saw how he trained, and now the kids are seeing that you can work that hard and become an Olympian.''
That's a Jersey Wahoos tradition handed down for years, most recently by Sean Killion, who swam the 400-meter and 1,500-meter events in Barcelona and still holds the U.S. record in the 800-meter freestyle. He also still holds the Wahoos' club records in all of Wright's events.
``The only swimmer I ever idolized was Killion. He was 6 years older, and I'd watch him train incredibly hard,'' Wright said. ``I'm still trying to get his records. One of my goals is to break a Jersey Wahoos record at the Olympic Games.''
Getting there is the hardest part, and Wright has done that, surviving the U.S. trials, which traditionally feature stronger top-to-bottom fields than the Olympic events themselves. The third-place finisher at the Olympics gets a bronze medal. The third-place finisher at the U.S. trials gets a plane ticket home.
But the 1,500-meter event in the Olympics will be extremely tough this year, with Australians Kieren Perkins and Daniel Kowalski dominating the rankings. Wright will also have to find a way to get past teammate Bruner.
``I just want to perform well, but I don't feel a lot of pressure,'' Wright said. ``I want to do it for me and my family, and represent my country well, and go out on a great note. Sure, I'm happy just to get there, but I also want to do more.''
They're Over 30, Graying, But Still Playing Hardball To The South Jersey Senior Baseball League, Softball Is Something You Do At Picnics.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1996-05-25/sports/25627217_1_wooden-bats-picnic-softballBy Rusty Pray, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: May 25, 1996It is 8:15 on a Sunday morning, 45 minutes before game time. Most of the players are already at the field, taking batting practice, playing catch, shagging fly balls.
``I love playing,'' says Rich Bendel, who is a state trooper when he's not catching for the over-40 Cardinals. ``I love it. I'll play as long as there is a league.''
This is a league unlike any other. The men at Notre Dame Avenue field in Delran on this Sunday are not here to play softball. They are here to play old-fashioned hardball. Nine innings. Wooden bats. Ninety feet between the bases. Regulation mound, 60 feet, 6 inches from the plate.
The South Jersey Men's Senior Baseball League does have a couple of wrinkles in its rules, not to mention on its players. Everyone plays, even if that means batting more than nine men in a lineup, and there is free substitution. Games are stopped after seven innings if one team is ahead by at least 15 runs or after three hours, whichever comes first. Usually, the mercy rule beats the clock.
Bill Curzie of Delran formed the league in 1992. He is its commissioner. Curzie, Allen Scott, the president of the over-40 division, and Wayne Baker, the president of the over-30 division, have nurtured the league, overseeing its growth from six teams in '92 to 32 teams and nearly 500 players today.
Sponsors are scarce, so most of those 500 guys pay their own way. Dues to the national association are $65 a season, but the price to play can be from $180 to $250 a man to cover the cost of uniforms, equipment and umpires' fees.
The teams play a 16-game schedule from late April to mid-August with postseason playoffs.
The teams are spread all over South Jersey, from Tabernacle to Millville, from Cherry Hill to Williamstown. There's even a team from Philadelphia. It's not the Whiz Kids.
Curzie is 61, a training coordinator for Burlington County College and the third baseman for the Gashouse Cardinals, the only over-50 team in the league. Gashouse distinguishes the really old guys from the old guys on the over-40 Cardinals and the not-quite-so-old guys on the over-30 Cardinals.
``There's nothing like the thrill of getting out there on a Sunday morning and realizing you can still play ball,'' Curzie says.
That's why he started the league. Just to play. Slow-pitch softball, the hybrid that has turned a complex game of skill and grace into a simple matter of fence-bashing, ``is something I'd play at a picnic,'' Curzie says. ``But to me, that's what softball is - a picnic game.''
This game today is no picnic for the over-50 Cardinals. They fall behind, 8-0, and just keep tumbling. The mercy rule is invoked in the seventh with the over-40 team holding a 17-0 lead. Neither manager wants the game stopped, but the umpires have pressing business elsewhere. No matter. Someone is recruited from the stands to call balls and strikes from behind the mound, and the teams play one more inning.
``We have all been through it with Little League and all,'' says Jerry Lomurno, 49, who lives in Moorestown, runs a small electronics company and manages the over-40 Cardinals. ``We're finished with the kids growing up and now it's our turn to have fun.''
The skill level of the league, Lomurno says, ``is spotty. You might have a former triple-A pitcher one week and a guy who hasn't pitched in 20 years the next.''
``We make errors,'' says Bendel, 41, who lives in Cinnaminson. ``But we're not pros.''
None of the players in this game would be mistaken for Darren Daulton. They look about the way you'd expect middle-age men to look. Some of them are in pretty good shape, but more than a few are a little round in the middle, a little gray on the top.
By weekday they are cardiologists and chiropractors, carpenters and plumbers. There are even a few lawyers, which gives the league properly credentialed spokesmen for arguments with umpires.
Loud voices are conspicuously absent from this Sunday morning game. There is no bench-jockeying, no dugout debates over who should have taken charge on the pop-up in shallow left. No one says boo to the umpires.
There is some gallows humor.
Ron ``Rip'' Kline's first pitch of the game is ripped down the third-base line foul by the over-40 team's leadoff hitter.
``OK,'' says Howard Bartman, the over-50 Cardinals' first baseman, ``that's one strike.''
``No need to get sarcastic in the first inning,'' says Kline, 52, a salesman for a Princeton computer firm who lives in Westmont.
The batter doubles to left-center on Kline's next pitch. The next hitter singles to left, the next drills a two-run double to right-center.
``This has been so much fun, this league,'' Kline says. ``It's a new lease on life. You think your hardball days are over, and then you get to do it again.''
The second inning is no fun for Kline. But he escapes the third without allowing a run. ``Just another scoreless inning,'' he deadpans. ``We had one last year.''
Kline is done pitching for the day. He moves to first base. Mike Knoll takes the mound for the over-50 Cardinals. He is 53, lives in Edgewater Park and works for a garage door company in Bristol, Pa. He joined the team two weeks ago.
``I haven't played since 1970,'' he says. ``I coached baseball for a long time, and now I've decided to give playing a try. It takes time to get it back. The first couple times I pitched, I couldn't reach the plate.''
A straggler arrives. He's a painting contractor from New Egypt who got lost on his way to the field. The over-50 Cardinals have recruited Jim Martino from a league in Central Jersey. They want him to pitch. He is a lefthander by necessity; he was born with nerve damage in his right shoulder and cannot use his right arm for much.
When he takes the mound, he holds his glove with his right hand, makes his pitch, then puts the glove on his left hand, in the manner of the Angels' Jim Abbott, who has one hand. Two balls are hit back to the mound while Martino is pitching. He gloves the first, knocks down the second, and throws out both runners.
``I never played baseball before in my life,'' says Martino, 42, who is in his fourth year in the Central Jersey league. ``I grew up watching my brothers and cousins play and thought I could never do it.
``One day - I was 38 years old - I saw Jim Abbott pitch and I realized how foolish I'd been.''
So here is Martino, pitching, fielding, playing hardball with all the others who woke up one day and realized the game was waiting for them to open their eyes.
All they had to do was take the field.
Coach With Greater Expectations An Inspiration To Team Swimmers The Jersey Wahoos Have Excelled To Astronomic Heights Under The Leadership Of Their Coach, John Carroll.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150914200755/http://articles.philly.com/1996-07-16/news/25622940_1_john-carroll-team-swimmers-senior-nationalsBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: July 16, 1996In an early morning swimming workout last month, John Carroll's presence was undeniable. It was only 8 o'clock, a time when most people are gearing up for their morning commute to work. Carroll's energy rivaled that of his swimmers, some of whom would swim as much as 9,000 meters before calling it quits for the morning.
Carroll, the coach of the Jersey Wahoos swim team in Mount Laurel, was pumping his fist, exhorting his swimmers on and monitoring the times of nearly a dozen athletes almost simultaneously.
Then again, when you have a club with more than 450 swimmers, a coach has to be adept at absorbing a lot at one time. Carroll and his assistants were treating each of the swimmers the same.
There was no preferential treatment, even for Olympians.
Through the years, the Jersey Wahoos team has been among the top swim clubs on the East Coast. The team consists of many of the top swimmers from South Jersey. Carroll began as an assistant coach in 1979, earning the head coaching job in 1987, and is also the Jersey Wahoos pool manager.
During his time as an assistant and head coach, the Wahoos have enjoyed staggering success. Since 1980, at least one swimmer with Wahoos ties has earned an invitation to the Olympic trials. This summer, 22 Wahoos swimmers have qualified for the Junior National championships, while four others earned spots in the Senior Nationals.
To add to the luster, there is even a Wahoos Olympian, Peter Wright, who will swim the 1,500 meters for the United States in this summer's Olympics.
Of all the people in the program, Wright's dedication to the Wahoos is a testament to Carroll's coaching prowess.
Until leaving last week to join the Olympic team in Knoxville, Tenn. for supervised training, Wright worked out twice a day under the guidance of Carroll. Wright, a Delran resident and a six-time all-American at the University of Virginia, could have trained with higher-profile clubs after earning his Olympic berth. But he never considered leaving Carroll or the Wahoos.
``I love the Wahoos and have been part of the organization since I was nine,'' said Wright, prior to leaving for Tennessee. ``I have always performed at my best under John. He is very knowledgeable and has helped me tremendously. There was no reason to go anywhere else.''
Carroll has forged such a close relationship with Wright that Wright asked him to attend the supervised Olympic workouts in Knoxville and offer him advice. Carroll will also be in Atlanta for the Olympics, encouraging Wright, who is ranked eighth in the world in the 1,500 meters.
While Carroll is admired by the Wahoos swimmers, he's admittedly not popular among the high school coaching fraternity. He insists that his team attend certain workouts and regional meets in the winter, even if it means missing school events. This past season, he held a mandatory 5 a.m. workout on the same day as the school sectional championships.
``The reason why there are high school coaches who don't like me is that I know what it takes to make it on the national level, and I look at the big picture,'' Carroll said. ``A high school coach is only concerned with his or her season, which they should be. But everybody knows, if a swimmer does well at nationals, they can write their ticket to college. Colleges don't pay much attention to high school swimming.''
Delran senior-to-be Joe Chiaccio has been swimming under Carroll for the last three years. Chiaccio has qualified for the Junior Nationals Aug. 1-5 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and gives much of the credit to his Wahoos coach.
``I love swimming for John,'' Chiaccio said. ``He gets negative publicity because swimmers miss high school meets, but he prepares us for the nationals, which is important to me because of all the colleges who will see you there.'' Carroll, 40, was a swimmer of modest accomplishment. He is a graduate of Lenape and Glassboro State (now Rowan College) and was a swimmer in high school and college.
``I just always loved the sport,'' he said. ``I realized a long time ago that it takes hard work to be successful, either as a swimmer or coach. Talent can get a person to the junior nationals, but you must have a great work ethic to do well there and to qualify for the senior nationals.
``We like to think we put in the time and prepare the swimmers. You never want to cheat the swimmers. As a coach, I always want to feel that my swimmers have been prepared the best possible way before entering a competition.''
Delran's Wright Finishes A Little Short In Final Swim After Years Of Preparation, He Failed To Qualify For The Final In The 1,500-meter Freestyle Event.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1996-07-26/sports/25619780_1_freestyle-preliminaries-jersey-wahoos-jorg-hoffmannBy Bob Ford, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: July 26, 1996ATLANTA — Peter Wright climbed from the Olympic pool yesterday, shook off the water and realized his swimming career was over.
``It's weird to think about it,'' Wright said. ``I'm done now. I may not even touch the water again.''
Even for competitors who reach the Olympic Games, the ultimate showcase for the ultimate athletes, there is sometimes the bitter disappointment of a performance that could have been better, a day that unexplainably didn't work out as expected.
That was the feeling yesterday for Wright, the 23-year-old from Delran, after finishing 12th in the 1,500-meter freestyle preliminaries, failing to make the eight-man final tonight.
``The warm-ups felt great. I felt strong and powerful,'' said Wright. ``I thought I was going to have a great swim.''
He certainly prepared for one. In the last year, Wright churned out the hundreds of miles necessary to become an elite distance swimmer, turning lap after lap in the Jersey Wahoos pool under the direction of coach John Carroll.
The work paid off at the Olympic trials in March, and Wright then dedicated himself to being finely tuned for the Games themselves. He went back to a heavy training schedule that peaked with a weekly total of more than 65 miles.
``It's a grind, and many times I thought I was burned out,'' Wright said. ``But it's easy to keep going when you have something like the Olympic Games in front of you.
``The whole year, whenever I had a bad workout or I was suffering, I'd tell myself, `This is it.' And I'd always tell myself, `Remember this workout.' Because when you're done, that's the kind of feeling you'll never have to deal with again. It was something I was looking forward to. But now that it's all over, it kind of hits you.''
Wright has been doing this seriously since joining the Junior Wahoos program when he was 9, and he first thought about the Olympic Games watching the U.S. men win the 800-meter relay in 1984.
Through his high school years at Delran High and the Peddie School, and through his college career at the University of Virginia, Wright kept that goal in sight. He alternated between the distance and middle-distance events before deciding on the 1,500-meter freestyle, the marathon of swimming, as his best shot to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
``I honestly didn't think anybody could have trained harder than I did,'' said Wright. ``I also believe that I'm not as talented as most of the guys here. For me, the more I train the better I am.''
Wright started out well enough in his heat, which included the top two qualifiers, Daniel Kowalski of Australia and Jorg Hoffmann of Germany. He couldn't keep pace with those two, but was on pace to swim about 15 minutes, 15 seconds after the first 500 meters.
``My race strategy is the same as always. I've been swimming this race a long time, and when I go out too fast, the results aren't that good,'' said Wright. ``I wanted to stay in [Kowalski's] draft, but he just took it out too fast.''
The middle 500 meters is where Wright lost his chance at the final. He was caught between an extremely fast pack of swimmers and a much slower one, and found himself without a pace car to latch onto.
``He couldn't hook up with anyone and was kind of out of it,'' said U.S. assistant coach Jon Urbanchek. ``It's easier if you can make eye contact, lock horns with someone. He settled back with the pack and had too much left in the end.''
Wright's last 100 meters were done in under one minute, and he touched the wall in a time of 15:25.43, far from from his morning goal of 15:10, and more than four seconds off the time he needed to make final.
``The first 500 were fine. The last 500 were fine. The middle 500 were terrible,'' said Wright. ``It's hard to take, because my goal here was to make finals. Everyone who doesn't really know says, `Get a medal,' or, `Go for the gold,' but I knew that was a little out of my range. I knew it would take my best time to make finals, but I thought it was in my capabilities.''
Wright was faster at the March trials than he was yesterday, and the mystery of how that could happen will bother him for a while. But not forever.
``I want to go on to other things now,'' said Wright. ``I want to see if I can be successful at business or engineering.''
Survivor Of War Remembers Kosovars' Plight Stirs Memories For Refugee From Bosnia.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160104115034/http://articles.philly.com/1999-05-05/news/25515641_1_serbs-fort-dix-bosnianBy David Lee Preston, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: May 05, 1999BURLINGTON CITY — She was serving up navy bean soup, hamburgers, gravy-slathered turkey, hot cups of coffee. But her thoughts were elsewhere, in a place and time she has been reliving each night in front of the television.
While nearby McGuire Air Force base and Fort Dix prepared yesterday to accommodate today's expected arrival of about 400 Kosovar Albanian refugees, Adisa Smajic worked her shift at the Burlington Diner and remembered when her plight was like theirs.
Trying to survive was the most terrifying moment in my life. It was April of 1992. Living in a basement for days with lack of food and drinks was not fun, but in order to survive I had no choice. I had to hide from my neighbors, from the people I lived with all my life, just because of my religion.
So wrote Smajic in February, in an essay for her freshman English class at Burlington County College, where she is studying to become a nurse. She titled the essay ``Escaping From the War.''
It was only five years ago that Smajic, then 15, arrived here from Croatia, a Muslim forced to flee her Bosnian home of Glamoc during a murderous Serbian assault. A nephew of her mother's and an uncle were killed. Smajic escaped with her parents and an older brother, all of whom now live in Delran.
``When it happened in Bosnia, it was as bad as it is for these Albanians,'' she recalled in an interview yesterday at the diner. ``I had to walk through the forest for 12 hours to get to another city. There were 19 of us. The Serbs closed the roads into our town, and everybody was blocked. They burned my house.
``I don't know if I'll ever go back there. I want to go back to visit, but after everything that has happened, I just don't want to live there anymore. Most of my friends were Serbs. I can't say that I hate them. You really can't judge everybody by their president. They were really good, until I left. But then I heard bad things. Like they killed my dog.''
At 5:10 p.m. we left our home and everything else we had. The only things I took with me were the clothes I was wearing and a few photographs that were lying on my desk. Half an hour later we got to the forest. Running away from death and knowing that I could die with every step I took was a feeling I'll never be able to fully describe. It felt like I was in a horror movie that had no ending to it.
Smajic said she had been thinking more about her past since the images of Muslims like herself persecuted by the Serbs have been brought home to her on TV newscasts.
``I know what they are going through, and it's worse for them than it was for me,'' said Smajic, who has worked at the diner for 3 1/2 years.
She has been thinking about going over to Fort Dix to try to visit with them after they arrive. The Bosnian and Albanian languages are similar, she said.
``I know that when I came, if there was anybody that came to see me I would probably feel a lot better,'' said Smajic, who flew with her family from Croatia to New York and was welcomed by a cousin in Burlington County.
The area has no mosque, but her family has not seen the need to visit one since arriving, she said.
``I was glad when I came here,'' she said. ``It's better to be here. They'll be happy. Almost everybody is nice here. They'll get treated nice.''
There were land mines around me, and trying not to step on one was the most horrifying and unspeakable emotion that a 13-year-old kid could live through. After two hours of walking through the snow, I stopped, looked at my parents and said, ``You go on without me because I won't make it. I am tired, my feet are frozen, and I can't walk any longer.''
She said the hardest challenge for the refugees will be the language barrier, as it was for her at Burlington City High School.
``When I first came here, I didn't know a word of English,'' she said. ``I started going to school, and it was a lot easier. They put me in basic-skills classes.''
Her father watches TV news constantly these days, she said. ``He says this is going to go on forever,'' she said of the ethnic turmoil in the Balkans. ``Because even when the war stops, there are always going to be people that will want to kill somebody because somebody killed their relatives. Like revenge. I think I agree with him.''
Smajic supports the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. ``I don't know if it would teach them a lesson,'' she said. ``But maybe.''
Going through all the fear and horror, walking through the forest covered with land mines for 13 hours and starting over from the beginning made me realize that life is worthwhile.
``Writing essays takes me a long time, and I go back and change everything like 20 million times,'' she said, while doodling on her order pad. ``So far, I've gotten all A's, so hopefully it'll stay that way.''
Carli Lloyd: A Bear Necessity Delran's Junior Midfielder Is At The Controls.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092226/http://articles.philly.com/1999-09-17/sports/25488701_1_carli-lloyd-mexico-s-world-cup-schubertBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
Posted: September 17, 1999DELRAN — Carli Lloyd is almost a contradiction on the soccer field.
After all, how can someone with such a soft, deft touch on the ball unleash such a powerful shot? And how can someone who is a proven scorer say she prefers to pass the ball?
There is, however, one thing about Lloyd that is hard to contradict: She is among the most complete players in South Jersey, and perhaps the most complete.
Lloyd, a 5-foot-5 junior midfielder for Delran, is a master distributor. She also can score, and this year, that should happen more frequently on a young but talented Bears team. Her ball control is impeccable, and when needed, she can rifle a shot that would blister the hands of the best goalie.
At Delran, which has produced such prolific players as Peter Vermes, a former member of the U.S. World Cup team, and three-time high school all-American Boo Schubert, the mantle has been passed to Lloyd.
Don't think she will be overwhelmed by being Schubert's successor. After all, Lloyd scored a goal against a World Cup team this summer. So replacing a three-time all-American who is now a freshman at the University of the Florida isn't a burden.
``I loved playing with Boo, and she taught me a lot,'' Lloyd said. ``But she was more of a scoring type, and I'm there to distribute the ball. I know people will compare us because we went to the same school, but our games are different.''
Lloyd, though, is receiving the same type of national attention from coaches that Schubert did when she was at Delran.
This summer, Lloyd played for the New Jersey Splash, who featured mostly women who were college age and older. Lloyd was the only high school junior on the team. The Splash played Mexico's World Cup team in an exhibition. It was considered a World Cup tune-up for the Mexicans and turned out to be a showcase for Lloyd.
She scored her team's lone goal in a 3-1 defeat at Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick.
``It was such a thrill to sit in the stands and see her score a goal against the World Cup team,'' said Pam Lloyd, her mother. ``Just to see her be able to stand up against that type of talent and not be intimidated was something, but to get a goal was unbelievable.''
Pam Lloyd is accustomed to marveling at her daughter's soccer accomplishments. Carli began playing at age 5, and Pam was one of the coaches in a Delran instructional program. She watched her daughter make an immediate impact.
``At that age, it was coed, and Carli was hanging with the boys,'' Pam Lloyd recalled, laughing. ``She always loved it and showed a lot of ability from an early age, but she also has always worked hard.''
In addition to the goal against the World Cup team, Lloyd had other memorable moments this summer. She and Lenape's Katie Ludwig were the only players from the seven-county South Jersey area selected to the Region 1 under-17 team, which consisted of the top players from Maine to Virginia.
Lloyd went to Portland, Ore., to train for a week with the Region 1 team and then was selected to try out for the under-18 national team in November in Arizona.
``When I first made the regional team, it didn't hit me until after I came home from Oregon,'' Lloyd said. ``Over the previous two years, I was nervous trying to make it. This year, I finally set my heart to making the team. Now I'll just give it my best to try to make the national team, because I realize everybody is in the same position.''
Closer to home, Lloyd is intent on helping Delran contend in the difficult Burlington County League Liberty Division. The Bears are off to a 2-0 start. They opened with a 1-0 victory over Cinnaminson as Lloyd assisted on the goal. She scored two goals in a 4-0 win against Northern Burlington.
Lloyd is one of the team captains, along with the Bears' only two seniors, sweeper Ann Ryan and goalie Betsy Kennedy.
``She can do anything on the field,'' coach Rudi Klobach said. ``If you need her to score, she will. She sees the field so well and is a great passer, and she comes back and plays defense.''
The only thing Lloyd can't do is escape the comparisons with Schubert.
``I have faced both of their shots, and she shoots as hard as Boo did,'' Kennedy said. ``She doesn't shoot as much, but I'll tell you, I don't enjoy facing her shots in practice. And her passing ability is unbelievable. She is one of the most unselfish players you'll ever see.''
Klobach has asked Lloyd to be a little more selfish and go for the goal more.
``Her ball skills are phenomenal,'' he said. ``There's no doubt that she has the moves as a junior that Boo showed as a senior.''
Everything seems to be happening so quickly for Lloyd, but just as she does on the soccer field, she is taking her time in surveying the situation. She would like to play Division I soccer, which appears to be a realistic goal.
The letters are arriving regularly from Division I schools, and if Lloyd continues to make plays on the field - in all her levels of competition - more are sure to follow.
Level-headed Lloyd Set Standard At Delran
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151017013519/http://articles.philly.com/2000-12-07/sports/25580033_1_carli-lloyd-soccer-steve-lloydBy Marc Narducci, INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
Posted: December 07, 2000Throughout her four years at Delran, Carli Lloyd has dazzled soccer observers with her fast footwork, her rocket shot, and her innate ability to break down defender after defender.
In her final game, Lloyd showed her all-around development in another area: the postgame interview.
Delran had just suffered a 1-0 defeat to Ramsey in the state Group 2 final. It was an especially bitter loss because the Bears had dominated play and outshot Ramsey, 24-5. Lloyd controlled the game, hit the post once, and was consistently setting up scoring chances that Delran could just not finish.
Then, after the game, while noticeably downcast, Lloyd faced reporters from around the state. She patiently answered the same questions over and over about the disappointing defeat. Everybody, it seemed, wanted to talk to her. It was a time she could have chosen to hide, but she did not.
"Carli doesn't change," said her mother, Pam Lloyd. "She was sad and upset to lose that last game. She obviously wanted to win, but she wasn't going to have a pity party. She is very even-keel and takes after her dad."
Her father, Steve Lloyd, has always tried to teach Carli not to get too high over the highs or too low over the lows.
Make no mistake about it, there were plenty of highs this season, for which Lloyd has been selected as The Inquirer's South Jersey girls' soccer player of the year for the second straight season. Yet even when Lloyd scored both goals in Delran's 2-1 win over Haddonfield in the South Jersey Group 2 championship game, she remained level-headed, looking forward to the next game, the next challenge, instead of focusing on her heroic exploits.
"Carli was always the same, win or lose," Delran coach Rudi Klobach said. "It was a good lesson for our younger players."
Just because she did not throw a tantrum does not mean Lloyd was not hurt by that final loss. It was her second straight year in a state final, and once again, Delran came away with a one-goal defeat.
"It was an important game and was really disappointing, but what are you going to do?" Lloyd said. "I wanted everybody else to move on and not get bummed out by it."
Lloyd needed that type of attitude because of the constant attention she received on the field. Teams routinely assigned one player to mark her. One team had two players following her every move. During one game in which she had two players on her, Lloyd went to the sideline to get a drink of water and one of the players marking her went with her.
"Sometimes you wonder how you play soccer when there are two and three people on you," Lloyd said. "It is a difficult way to play."
Yet nothing was impossible for Lloyd. Despite the strong defensive attention, Lloyd scored 26 goals and added eight assists this season. She finished her four years with 78 goals, all as a midfielder.
Her level-headed personality was tested by the physical way in which opponents defended her. Lloyd was frequently tripped after dribbling through a maze of defenders. Most of the time, she would show little emotion after getting hacked.
"The one thing I'm looking forward to in college is that there won't be so much defensive attention on me," she said. "At that level, everybody has to be marked, and teams can't afford to put more than one player on somebody."
Shortly after the high school season, Lloyd made a verbal commitment to attend Rutgers on a soccer scholarship. She vows to continue to improve, realizing that her college teammates will not care that she has been a member of the under-18 national team or that she has been a Parade magazine all-American.
"With all the attention she has gotten, she could have turned out egotistical, but she has handled everything really well," Pam Lloyd said. "Again, I credit her father, who always told her not to focus on what others do but to be the best that you can be."
That sage advice has been adopted by Lloyd. Her long-range goal is to play professional soccer. At times, when Lloyd allows herself to dream, she envisions herself as a member of the U.S. World Cup team.
No matter what she accomplishes in the future, Lloyd has set the highest of standards at Delran. Her ability to cope with both stardom and defeat has been just as impressive as the way she has shredded defenses during four scintillating seasons at Delran.
Marc Narducci's e-mail address is mnarducci@phillynews.com
Her soccer future looks good, but Lloyd lives in the present
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919162819/http://articles.philly.com/2001-07-26/news/25316172_1_carli-lloyd-soccer-teamBy Marc Narducci INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: July 26, 2001Carli Lloyd will leave it up to others to predict her future in soccer. All she worries about is playing in the next game.
It's tempting to look into the future, where the possibility of professional soccer appears more real each day, or to revel in the past. But Lloyd's mind is clearly on the present.
It seems that not a month goes by when the recent Delran High School graduate doesn't make a major impact on the soccer world. South Jersey fans have known about Lloyd's exploits for a long time, and now, she is earning a national reputation.
Lloyd is a midfielder with a booming shot and the flashy one-on-one moves that evoke outward fear in any defending opponent. One person can rarely stop her, which is why, in high school, there were usually two defenders by her side. It still didn't matter. She was The Inquirer's South Jersey girls' soccer player of the year as both a junior and senior, helping guide Delran to consecutive South Jersey Group 2 championships.
Lloyd has earned a soccer scholarship to Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Sometimes, players who have a scholarship in hand might opt to take it easy in their last summer before college. Not so with Lloyd. Actually, since the spring, she has been on a whirlwind tour of soccer, displaying her talents throughout the United States and abroad.
During that period, she has played on championship teams and been named the best player in a high-profile tournament on more than one occasion. Still, she refuses to look ahead to what soccer could offer her in a few years. Instead, she is only hoping to settle into college like any other freshman.
"I just pretty much go out and play, and I try not to think too much about the future," she said. "I love playing, and whatever happens, happens."
What might happen is that Lloyd could make a career out of playing this game, especially if she continues her development.
In April, Lloyd traveled to Europe for the Menton Tournament, which was in Nice, France. Lloyd played with the Region I all-star team, a group of the top high school-aged players from Maine to West Virginia.
The Region I team won the championship, and Lloyd had some hardware to carry on the plane ride home after being named the tournament's most valuable player.
This summer, she was a major part of a national championship team. Lloyd played for a North Jersey team called the PDA Galaxy, which won the U.S. under-23 national title in Orlando, Fla. The tournament was July 13 to 15. Lloyd scored the lone goal as the Galaxy beat Texas, 1-0, in the championship. At 19, she was the youngest player on the team but still wound up being named the tournament's most valuable player.
Lloyd wasn't sure she was going to compete in Orlando because she had just returned from a week of working out with the Region I all-star team in Rhode Island.
"I only had 2 1/2 days between returning from Rhode Island and going to Florida, but then I realized it was the national championship and I might never get this chance again."
Lloyd has one other bit of unfinished soccer business before heading off to Rutgers and preseason practice, which begins Aug. 14. In June, while competing in a tournament with the Region I team in Lancaster, she was selected to attend the National Amateur Select Festival from July 29 to Aug. 5 in Chicago. Lloyd will be the only New Jersey player at the festival, which again will consist of some of the top amateur players in the country.
Most teens would have trouble keeping a level head with all the attention, but Lloyd almost seems embarrassed to recount all of her accomplishments.
Usually when she receives another award, she'll say, "It is pretty cool."
She knows what is at stake when she goes to Chicago, but the unflappable Lloyd refuses to be overwhelmed by all the attention.
"I look at it as very good competition, and it will prepare me for college," she said. "I know the national team coaches are there and they may select future players for the national team from that camp, but all I want to do is play to the best of my ability."
Marc Narducci's e-mail address is mnarducci@phillynews.com.
Earl E. Rowe, 81, actor; starred in 'The Blob'
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160220013806/http://articles.philly.com/2002-02-06/news/25333949_1_steve-mcqueen-small-town-police-soapBy Kristin E. Holmes INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: February 06, 2002Earl E. Rowe, 81, an actor who starred as the police chief in the The Blob, a 1958 science-fiction classic filmed in Chester County, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Friday at the Lutheran Home in Moorestown.
Mr. Rowe, who formerly lived in Delran in Burlington County, worked on Broadway, in soap operas and in commercials. But his most famous role was Lieutenant Dave, the small-town police chief fighting to keep a slithering ball of goo from eating Downingtown.
Mr. Rowe was part of a cast and crew that in 1957 filmed the campy flick for $125,000 in Phoenixville, Downingtown and Chester Springs. The movie - featuring a mass of man-eating cranberry sauce billed as "Indescribable! Indestructible! Nothing can stop it!" - contained 27-year-old Steve McQueen's first starring role, and its title song, "Beware of the Blob," was written by an uncredited Burt Bacharach.
The Blob became a cult favorite, the subject of sci-fi conventions and countless Web sites. Mr. Rowe went on to appear on stage and in television, commercials and industrial shows.
He was born in Delanco, grew up in Delran, and attended Palmyra High School and the Bessie V. Hicks School of Dramatic Arts in Philadelphia. He was inspired to become an actor after playing a French count in a junior high school production.
His professional career began in 1941 when he played summer stock in Yardley. Emboldened, he moved to New York, but his career was interrupted by World War II. He worked in an aircraft factory for two years before joining the Army in 1944. After he was wounded in Germany, he transferred to Army Special Services and for 10 months toured Europe in a GI version of the cross-dressing comedy Charley's Aunt.
After his discharge, Mr. Rowe returned to revive his acting career, working at the Playhouse in the Park, at WCAU-AM, and in Broadway productions of Playhouse Lullaby and Anniversary Waltz.
He had a three-year role in the now-defunct NBC soap opera The Doctors and appeared in the 1980 television-movie Attica.
Mr. Rowe is survived by his longtime companion, Amelia McCardle.
Friends may call from 9 to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Lankenau Funeral Home, 305 Bridgeboro St., Riverside. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Trinity Episcopal Church, Route 130 South, Delran. Burial will be at Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, 840 Third St., Santa Rosa, Calif. 95404.
Kristin Holmes' e-mail address is kholmes@phillynews.com.
Summer's faithful head to a swim club
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922111445/http://articles.philly.com/2002-08-04/news/25337353_1_backyard-pool-tiger-sharks-blue-dolphinsBy Jake Wagman INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
Posted: August 04, 2002It just isn't the same, says Sue Fisher: Having a backyard pool is nowhere near as much fun as sharing one with others.
She should know. Growing up in Pennsauken, Fisher had asked her parents to join a swim club.
"They said, 'Why should we pay for you to lounge by the pool when we have one right here?' " said Fisher, who is now 39. "There was this whole summer subculture that I missed. From then on, I vowed my kids would belong to a swim club."
Fisher is a pool groupie. Now, swim clubs are seeing a second generation signing up with their own families and enjoying the water-side schmoozing and aquatic competition.
As the season winds down, members of South Jersey's approximately three dozen swim clubs say they could not imagine spending the summer any other way.
"I just love the fact that I can sit there and read a book and know exactly where my kids are - by the pool enjoying themselves," said Fisher, a member for eight years of the Ramblewood Swim Club in Mount Laurel. "That's my life in June and July."
Anywhere from 100 to 400 families belong to an individual swim club. Typically, the children join the club's swim team, with such names as the Tiger Sharks and Blue Dolphins, and compete against other clubs.
For parents, there are dances and other nighttime activities.
"It's a way for the kids to make friends and for us to meet other parents," said Barbara Borak, a member of the Raccoon Valley Swim Club in Mullica Hill.
Swim-club dues can run from about $200 to $500, which gives member families pool access from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Also, members often pay a onetime fee, called a "bond," of as much as $1,000 when they join.
"It's really family oriented," said Jack Hueter, 46, president of the Haddon Glen Swim Club in Haddon Heights. "The pool is where people hang out."
Many of the swim clubs in South Jersey started in the 1950s, with the construction of new residential developments.
Haddonfield's Wedgewood Swim Club, for instance, was formed after a 1952 dinner at the Tavistock Country Club attended by six or seven couples who had purchased land in the borough.
"Originally, the men wanted a pool in their neighborhood, and it grew to what it is today," with 450 families and a three-year waiting list, said JoAnne Weingand, the club's current president.
Chris Sarlo moved to the Deer Brook development in Medford specifically for its swim club.
"I did move there because of the pool," said Sarlo, 35. "I thought it was a good environment to raise kids - plain and simple."
And it beats having to sit in Shore-bound traffic for a chance to take a dip.
"It's definitely an alternative," said Sarlo, the father of three young children. "The kids are happy wherever they are swimming, whether it's in the ocean or in the pool."
As suburban population has surged, so has membership in swim clubs.
"When we first joined, there were probably 150 families. It has doubled in those 10 years," said Tom Farrell, a member of the Whitman Square Swim Club in Washington Township. "There are a lot of younger people here, people who grew up in the area and are coming back."
In August, when families take trips and begin preparing for school, many clubs hold their end-of-the-season luaus and barbecues. Also, many swim clubs allow those on the waiting list to use the pool for this month.
Today, the competitive swimming season culminates at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology with the Tri-County Swimming Pool Association holding its championship for clubs in Camden, Gloucester and Burlington Counties.
Last weekend, the Suburban Swim League, which is for the smaller clubs, held its championship at the Ramblewood pool.
Ryan Wirth, 13, was there last Sunday, representing the Chartwell Swim Club in Medford. While the swimming "keeps him out of trouble" and helps him stay in shape, it's the friends that make summer memorable.
His favorite activity is the "Poster and Pasta Party," at which swim club members make signs for the upcoming meet while loading up on carbohydrates.
"I don't look at it as a competition," Ryan said Sunday, goggles hanging from his neck. "It's a whole big family sort of thing."
Contact Jake Wagman at 856-779-3829 or jwagman@phillynews.com.
Pheasant Run's depth, youngsters help it keep Tri-County swim title The Cinnaminson club took its third straight crown. All four of its race winners were in the 9-10 age group or below.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150922033808/http://articles.philly.com/2002-08-05/news/25336976_1_meter-butterfly-backstrokeBy Joe Santoliquito INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
Posted: August 05, 2002DEPTFORD — Pheasant Run Swim Club coach Tom Wilkinson had a plan yesterday at the 46th annual Tri-County Swim League championships at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology: Be patient and wait for the breaststroke and butterfly races to get a better idea if his team would win a third straight Tri-County title.
Wilkinson got his answer. His Cinnaminson club used its superior depth and victories in four events (8-and-under girls' backstroke, 9-10 girls' backstroke and breaststroke, and 8-and-under boys' breaststroke) to accumulate 1,157 points and prevail in the 36-team field. Medford's Deer Brook finished second for the second straight year (1,082 points), and Greenwood Park took third (1,002).
Pheasant Run's third straight Tri-County crown was also its eighth in 10 years.
"I wasn't really confident until the preliminaries on Saturday, but from there, I got a better idea of how we would do," said Wilkinson, whose team was fourth after the freestyle events. "Once we got through the breast and butterfly, I started to feel a little better about our chances."
Wilkinson's younger swimmers - notably Courtney Sepich - played a vital role. Sepich took the 9-10 25-meter backstroke and breaststroke events. She was supported by Lauren Begley, who won the 8-and-under 25-meter backstroke, and Daniel Schurer, who won the boys' 8-and-under 25-meter breaststroke.
Pheasant Run's depth also played a part. Cristina Cusumano finished second and Rebecca Pluckhorn third behind Sepich in the 25-meter breaststroke, and Laura Kroculick took second behind Sepich in the backstroke.
"You never see three kids from the same team finish one, two, three like that," Wilkinson said. "Our little kids did very well this weekend, as well as our whole team."
Greenwood Park's Eric Brumberg also did exceptionally well, establishing meet records in the 15-18 100-meter individual medley (2 minutes, 3.45 seconds) and 50-meter butterfly (25.16). Brumberg, who is headed to Brown University in the fall, won the individual medley by five seconds and beat the nearest competitor in the butterfly by more than one second.
"I wanted to get a little closer to two minutes in the I.M.," Brumberg said. "I didn't want to back off in any of the races."
RESULTS
1, Pheasant Run (PR), 1,157. 2, Deer Brook (DB), 1,082. 3, Greenwood Park (GP), 1,002. 4, Westwood (WW), 922. 5, Wedgewood (WG), 804. 6, Covered Bridge (CB), 748.50. 7, Sunnybrook (SB), 630. 8, Kingston Estates (KE), 571. 9, Greenfields (GF), 553. 10, Barclay Farm (BF), 538.50. 11, Pomona (PO), 472.50. 12, Brookside (BR), 448.50. 13, Old Orchard (OO), 443. 14, Whitman Square (WS), 297.50. 15, Wenonah (WE), 292.50. 16, Stratford (ST), 292. 17, Woodbine (WB), 289. 18, Woodstream (WO), 263. 19, Haddon Glen (HG), 255. 20, Chestnut Run (CR), 211. 21, Meadowbrook (MB), 198.50. 22, Wexford Leas (WL), 190. 23, Erlton (ER), 176. 24, Tenby Chase (TC), 172. 25, Gibbstown (GB), 170.50. 26, Willowdale (WD), 165. 27, Georgetown (GT), 158.50. 28, Downs Farm (DF), 134. 29, Charleston (CH), 133.50. 30, Cherry Valley (CV), 114.50. 31, Fox Hollow (FH), 104. 32, Riverdel (RD), 102. 33, Woodcrest (WC), 84. 34, Haddontowne (HA), 71. 35, Riverton (RT), 49. 36, Tavistock Hills (TH), 17.50.
GIRLS
8 and under
100-meter medley relay: 1, CB, 1:25.32. 2, DB, 1:28.86. 3, WW, 1:29.19.
25 freestyle: 1, Courtney Patterson, ER, 17.33. 2, Anne Marie McCotter, WL, 17.45. 3, Claire Wixted, SB, 17.57.
25 backstroke: 1, Lauren Begley, PR, 20.44. 2, Danielle King, MB, 20.46. 3, Claire Wixted, SB, 21.12.
25 breaststroke: 1, Shaylin O'Connell, HA, 21.94. 2, Laurel Falana, WG, 22.63. 3, Haylie Kobiela, WW, 23.10.
25 butterfly: 1, Danielle King, MB, 18.28. 2, Renee DiCicco, BF, 18.53. 3, Anne Marie McCotter, WL, 18.62.
100 free relay: 1, CB, 1:14.79. 2, WG, 1:17.08. 3, WL, 1:17.17.
9-10
100 medley relay: 1, SB, 1:10.45. 2, PR, 1:10.89. 3, WG, 1:13.08.
50 freestyle: 1, Catherine Wood, BR, 31.45. 2, Ellen Hassinger, SB, 31.49. 3, Jessica Simunek, WD, 32.45.
25 backstroke: 1, Courtney Sepich, PR, 17.71. 2, Laura Kroculick, PR, 18.07. 3, Maureen McCotter, WL, 18.42.
25 breaststroke: 1, Courtney Sepich, PR, 19.37. 2, Cristina Cusumano, PR, 19.68. 3, Rebecca Pluckhorn, PR, 19.89.
25 butterfly: 1, Ellen Hassinger, SB, 15.70. 2, Catherine Wood, BR, 16.14. 3, Laura Kroculick, PR, 17.03.
200 free relay: 1, SB, 2:14.55 (Tri-County record). 2, PR, 2:19.91. 3, WD, 2:22.17.
11-12
200 medley relay: 1, SB, 2:19.10. 2, WE, 2:19.17. 3, DB, 2:19.63.
50 freestyle: 1, Laura Pierce, CV, 29.19. 2, Brett Kuchin, BF, 30.17. 3, Andrea Castiglione, WS, 30.40.
50 backstroke: 1, Kelsey Fitzpatrick, TC, 33.76. 2, Emily Creran, WG, 33.79. 3, Chelsea Gamble, SB, 34.04.
50 breaststroke: 1, Erika Wendel, DB, 35.25 (Tri-County record). 2, Brett Kuchin, BF, 36.64. 3, Alyssa McCourt, WE, 37.54.
50 butterfly: 1, Laura Pierce, CV, 31.63. 2, Nicole DeAngelis, CB, 33.97. 3, Jenna Petrella, WO, 34.01.
200 free relay: 1, SB, 2:05.42. 2, WE, 2:05.45. 3, DB, 2:05.65.
12 and under
100 individual medley: 1, Erika Wendel, DB, 1:10.56. 2, Emily Creran, WG, 1:13.78. 3, Jacquelyn Ward, ST, 1:14.60.
13-14
100 individual medley: 1, Cara Smaniotto, GT, 1:07.23. 2, Kaitlyn Hafner, PO, 1:07.66. 3, Morgan Ley, DF, 1:09.24.
200 medley relay: 1, PO, 2:08.07. 2, GF, 2:14.18. 3, CB, 2:14.57.
100 freestyle: 1, Sammi Edwards, CR, 1:00.57. 2, Mary Catherine Mahon, DB, 1:01.55. 3, Cassie Cregar, GP, 1:01.71.
50 backstroke: 1, Mary Catherine Mahon, DB, 32.08. 2, Stephanie McAllister, GB, 32.77. 3, Allision Vetter, PO, 32.88.
50 breaststroke: 1, Cara Smaniotto, GT, 34.34. 2, Morgan Ley, DF, 34.63. 3, Meghan McCourt, WE, 35.23.
50 butterfly: 1, Kaitlyn Hafner, PO, 30.42. 2, Stephanie McAllister, GB, 30.86. 3, Allision Vetter, PO, 30.89.
200 free relay: 1, PO, 1:55.90. 2, GF, 1:59.04. 3, DB, 1:59.71.
15-18
100 individual medley: 1, Kara Swift, WG, 1:05.87. 2, Alison Bretherick, WE, 1:07.41. 3, Bridgette Cahill, WS, 1:08.37.
200 medley relay: 1, WG, 2:04.68. 2, ST, 2:07.39. 3, DB, 2:08.32.
100 freestyle: 1, Kaleena Laputka, OO, 58.51. 2, Kelly O'Hara, GP, 59.56. 3, Sara Jaggi, BF, 1:00.77.
50 backstroke: 1, Meredith David, ST, 30.78. 2, Julie Mitchell, CB, 31.09. 3, Kaleena Laputka, OO, 31.69.
50 breaststroke: 1, Heather Meng, WS, 34.08. 1, Sara Jaggi, BF, 34.08. 3, Melanie Rolish, CV, 34.61.
50 butterfly: 1, Kara Swift, WG, 29.80. 2, Susan Skros, DB, 30.23. 3, Shannon Carrigan, PR, 30.30.
200 free relay: 1. WG, 1:53.28. 2, CB, 1:55.42. 3, OO, 1:55.53.
BOYS
100 medley relay: 1, CB, 1:22.24. 2, PR, 1:22.47. 3, DB, 1:25.03.
25 freestyle: 1, Sal Liberto, WS, 16.27. 2, Stephen Vasturia, DB, 16.57. 3, Angelo Chambers, CB, 17.70.
25 backstroke: 1, Owen Burns, RT, 19.57. 2, Will Manion, PR, 19.71. 3, Jake Rosenthal, CB, 20.11.
25 breaststroke: 1, Daniel Schurer, PR, 21.40. 2, Will Manion, PR, 22.27. 3, Daniel Knapp, CB, 22.63.
25 butterfly: 1, Stephen Vasturia, DB, 18.24. 2, Sal Liberto, WS, 18.59. 3, Brendan Davis, GF, 18.97.
100 free relay: 1, CB, 1:13.96. 2, DB, 1:14.17. 3, WG, 1:16.91.
9-10
100 medley relay: 1, WW, 1:11.28. 2, PR, 1:13.85. 3, BR, 1:14.99.
50 freestyle: 1, Matt Altieri, HA, 30.94. 2, Matt Power, WW, 31.14. 3, Levi Forvour, WW, 31.43.
25 backstroke: 1, John DiCarlo, WB, 17.17. 2, Bobby Waldner, CB, 17.36. 3, Tyler Patrick, PO, 18.54.
25 breaststroke: 1, Cameron Edwards, BR, 18.81. 2, Levi Forvour, WW, 18.87. 3, Taylor Gulbins, ER, 19.17.
25 butterfly: 1, Matt Power, WW, 16.34. 2, John DiCarlo, WB, 16.48. 3, Jackson Keeler, GF, 16.51.
200 free relay: 1, WW, 2:13.03 (Tri-County record). 2, PR, 2:18.07. 3, DB, 2:21.85.
200 medley relay: 1, WW, 2:12.44 (Tri-County record). 2, GP, 2:14.77. 3, DB, 2:23.57.
50 freestyle: 1, Timothy Rowe, BF, 28.68. 2, Malachi Hindle, GT, 29.08. 3, Austin Thomas, BF, 29.10.
50 backstroke: 1, Andrew Gsell, WW, 32.43. 2, Matt Cramer, WE, 33.93. 3, Wayne Stainrook, DF, 34.26.
50 breaststroke: 1, Scott Higginson, WW, 35.40. 2, John Williams, BR, 38.25. 3, Eric Hager, WG, 39.71.
50 butterfly: 1, Timothy Rowe, BF, 30.74. 2, Wayne Stainrook, DF, 30.79. 3, Bradley Pottieger, PO, 31.22.
200 free relay: 1, WW, 1:59.72. 2, GP, 2:01.76. 3, BF, 2:06.46.
100 individual medley: 1, Andrew Gsell, WO, 1:09.77. 2, Michael Joyce, GP, 1:10.59. 3, Bradley Pottieger, PO, 1:11.05.
100 individual medley: 1, Zachary Schiavo, MB, 1:03.99. 2, Ryan David, ST, 1:05.10. 3, Owen Black, GP, 1:05.53.
200 medley relay: 1, KE, 2:02.22. 2, GP, 2:02.86. 3, PR, 2:04.20.
100 freestyle: 1, Zachary Schiavo, MB, 56.30. 2, Mark Neiman, KE, 57.08. 3, Owen Black, GP, 57.28.
50 backstroke: 1, Mark Neiman, KE, 29.27. 2, Andrew Meduri, GP, 31.11. 3, James Villa, WG, 31.44.
50 breaststroke: 1, Grant Ziegler, TC, 32.98. 2, Andrew Fagundus, BR, 34.12. 3, Ryan David, ST, 43.31.
50 butterfly: 1, Kyle Brown, WE, 28.46. 2, Matt Mattingly, 28.92. 3, Andrew Kroculick, PR, 29.74.
200 free relay: 1, GP, 1:47.30. 2, KE, 1:48, 64. 3, PR, 1:48.92.
100 individual medley: 1, Eric Brumberg, GP, 2:03.45 (Tri-County record). 2, Andrew Patrizzi, BF, 2:08.47. 3, Graham Parker, OO, 2:09.57.
200 medley relay: 1, OO, 1:49.13 (Tri-County record). 2, BF, 1:49.94. 3, PR, 1:52.12.
100 freestyle: 1, Andrew Patrizzi, BF, 52.02. 2, Dillon Grey, PR, 53.23. 2, Kyle Klimas, BF, 54.10.
100 backstroke: 1, Ryan Shore, OO, 57.52 (Tri-County record). 2, Nick Saunders, OO, 59.72. 3, Devin Canfield, BF, 1:00.55.
100 breaststroke: 1, Graham Parker, OO, 1:06.85. 2, David Traini, WW, 1:08.77. 3, RT Greeby, BF, 1:10.06.
50 butterfly: 1, Eric Brumberg, GP, 25.16 (Tri-County record). 2, Dillon Grey, PR, 26.39. 3, Gordon Leonard, PR, 26.53.
200 free relay: 1, BF, 1:36.56. 2, OO, 1:37.19. 3, GP, 1:39.86.
Contact Joe Santoliquito at 610-313-8028 or jsantoliquito@phillynews.com.
They arrived early, shopped heartily A big Black Friday turnout seemed to confirm retail analysts' optimism.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150920174440/http://articles.philly.com/2003-11-29/news/25463462_1_shopping-centers-retail-analysts-long-checkout-linesBy Joel Bewley, Amie Parnes and Michael Currie Shaffer INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Posted: November 29, 2003Bargain-hunters jammed stores locally and nationwide early yesterday, seeking sales and gift ideas on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
At the Gallery in Center City, shoppers crowded the food court and waited - patiently, for the most part - through long lines for everything from compact discs to model cars.
Toy shoppers began lining up at 4 a.m. to get into the KB Toys store in the Moorestown Mall. Store manager Allen Goland said the line had stretched a couple of hundred feet by the time the doors opened at 4:45 a.m.
Dominique Cox, of Woodlynne, Camden County, said she didn't mind fighting the crowds to save a few dollars, "but there is no way you would see me in a store line before the sun has come up."
Across the nation yesterday, crowded stores, long checkout lines, and packed parking lots were the norm. Many bargain-hunters lined up before dawn and braved chilly weather as retailers inaugurated the holiday shopping season with early-bird specials on toys and big-ticket items such as TVs and computers.
Store owners dubbed the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday because it once marked the day when retailers got out of the red. Because of aggressive discounting in recent years, many retailers now don't post profits until December.
Brian Ford, a partner and retail specialist with the accounting firm of Ernst & Young in Philadelphia, does an annual "shopping bag survey" to measure how many consumers are actually spending money. On his annual Black Friday trek to shopping centers across the region, he encountered parking lots that were full and people loaded with packages.
"It was very robust. Everybody seemed to be buying something. I think it would have been the best start [to the season] since 1999 if it weren't for the rain," he said, noting a lull in activity only at strip shopping centers when it was raining.
Wally Brewster, a spokesman at General Growth Properties Inc., which owns and manages 166 malls in 39 states, said business yesterday was up from a year ago by a percentage in the high single digits.
The Washington-based National Retail Federation projects total holiday sales to be up 5.7 percent, at $217.4 billion, from last year. That would compare with a 2.2 percent increase last year.
Still, though many retailers believe that the 2003 holiday season will be better than last year's, the question is by how much. The economy is on the rebound, but the job market, though improving, remains sluggish.
At the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne, most stores had posted signs touting sales. At the Bath & Body Works, sales associate Casey Graff said customers came looking for one thing: "The first thing they say to you when they walk in is, 'What's on sale?' and the next question is, 'Can you show me where that is?' "
Myla Rogers became worried as she arrived at the Toys R Us in Burlington Township yesterday morning at 11. The store had been open for five hours and she wondered whether she were too late to find the toys on the Christmas lists of her 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.
After waiting for a parking space, waiting to get inside, and waiting even longer for a cart, the Delran resident headed in search of a Rescue Heroes Mission Headquarters, which at $29.99 was half-price.
Her anxiety heightened when she saw just one remaining box on the shelf and several shoppers between her and the item.
She got there in time to grab the toy. But in the frenzy for bargains, that was no guarantee she would get to keep it.
"Some guy tried to steal it out of my cart when I was looking at something else," she said. "He told me he was just looking at it, but he had it in his hands. I said, 'That's the last one, and no, you cannot have it.' "
The Zales jewelry store in the Oxford Valley Mall was empty at noon, but the scene had been very different just hours before that, employees said.
"From 8 to 10 a.m. we had a sale," Andrew Datesman, a sales associate, said. "We did phenomenal. We had 30, 40 people in here at one time. It was sick. Really sick."
Still, the crowds were bigger last year, Datesman said. "I think the war really had an impact. I think people are a little more cautious. And when you cut back, I guess you could live without diamonds," he said.
Evelyn Starace, a nurse, and her daughter, Jessica, stopped for a breather about midday to eat some cherry water ice outside Strawbridge's.
"We've been at it since 6:30 a.m.," Evelyn Starace said. "We started at Circuit City, but the lines were too long, so we went to Wal-Mart and bought TVs and DVDs. There were some good deals there. And then we came here. We've been here for four hours and we found some good sales.
"But we're leaving after we finish our water ice," she said. ". . . Shopping is tiring, and shopping for Christmas, that's even worse."
After five hours of shopping, a tired Kyle Harper, 23, of Southwest Philadelphia, had only a few gifts for his fiancee - he wouldn't specify what for fear of spoiling the surprise. "Everyone's bumping into each other," Harper, an assistant fast-food manager, said as he took a break in the food court. "But at least they're being polite. It might not be that way in a couple of weeks."
Childhood friends Betty Lou Eisenman, 67, of Ridley Park, and Dottie Johnson, 66, of Wilmington, have a tradition of post-Thanksgiving shopping. Eisenman said news of a rebounding economy would not change her spending plans. "I spend the same all the time," she said. "Too much! I'm retired, she's retired, and we spend the whole pension on Christmas."
For some, the day was more about work.
George Quinn, Melanie Truett and Kristin Arterbridge, cast members in a Christmas show at a Wilmington dinner theater, rose early for the drive to SEPTA's 69th Street Terminal, where they were to play Santa's helpers on one of the transit network's five "Santa Express" trains carrying shoppers to the Gallery.
"We were on the trains with the kids, painting faces and singing songs," said Truett, clad in a red velvet outfit lined with white fur, and knee-high leather boots. "The kids loved it."
At the end of a shift helping out at the mall's "Santa's Court," the trio were to head back to 69th Street, retrieve their car, and return to Wilmington in time for last night's 8 o'clock show.
Contact staff writer Joel Bewley at 609-261-0900 or jbewley@phillynews.com.
Inquirer staff writer Tom Belden contributed to this article, which includes information from the Associated Press.
Joseph E. Hunter, 83, a talk show host and journalist
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151227200546/http://articles.philly.com/2006-12-22/news/25398406_1_public-affairs-show-affirmative-action-director-youthBy Kristin E. Holmes INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: December 22, 2006Joseph E. Hunter, 83, of Delran, a talk show host, journalist, and jazz aficionado who hosted the public-affairs show Perspective: Youth on Channel 6 (WPVI-TV) for more than 15 years, died of heart failure Dec. 10 at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro.
Mr. Hunter began his career in the Philadelphia media at a time when doors weren't always open to African Americans.
He was a top graduate in the journalism department at Pennsylvania State University in 1950, but while other bright prospects were securing reporting internships, Mr. Hunter was offered a post as a copy boy.
A writing career had long been his goal, so Mr. Hunter took the job. He became one of the first African Americans to work as a copy boy at The Inquirer and later the first to work in the library at the newspaper, said Acel Moore, associate editor emeritus of The Inquirer.
"He's one of the pioneers whose name isn't often mentioned," Moore said, "but he clearly set a path of excellence for people to follow behind him."
Mr. Hunter grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from South Philadelphia High School. He earned the rank of sergeant in the Army while serving with an amphibious truck company in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
After he was discharged, Mr. Hunter studied at Penn State. He left The Inquirer in 1964 and worked as a public information officer for the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America Inc., a news director at WHAT-AM (1340), and a reporter and columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune.
In 1969, he was hired as a writer with the Temple University News Bureau, and he went on to become the school's director of student affairs. He also hosted a jazz program on the school's WRTI-FM radio station called The Night of the Hunter.
Mr. Hunter began working for Channel 6 as an independent producer in 1973 and was named the station's affirmative action director and corporate recruiter in 1976. He hosted public-affairs programs including Perspective: Youth, a panel discussion featuring area high school students, and Changes, which examined issues in the minority community.
His marriage to writer Kristin Eggleston Hunter Lattany ended in the early 1960s. He married Mary Ann Parson in 1971.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Hunter is survived by several nieces and a nephew.
Friends may call 12:30 to 1 p.m. Jan. 6 at Snover/Givnish of Cinnaminson, 1200 Route 130 North, Cinnaminson. Services begin at 1 p.m.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association, 1 Union St., Suite 301, Robbinsville, N.J. 08691.
Contact staff writer Kristin E. Holmes at 215-854-2791 or kholmes@phillynews.com.
Working to hit the right notes Jeffrey R. Smith enjoys molding about 150 boys into a cohesive group that continues a tradition.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160102065538/http://articles.philly.com/2008-05-04/news/25262759_1_philadelphia-boys-choir-jeffrey-r-smith-boys-agesBy Rusty Pray INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: May 04, 2008Jeffrey R. Smith probably was destined to become artistic director of the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale.
Although he initially resisted becoming the hand-picked successor to founder Robert Hamilton a few years ago, he eventually felt "called" to lead the Philadelphia institution.
Smith, a Delran High graduate, sang for Hamilton as a boy growing up in Delran, one in a long line of South Jersey boys whose voices helped form the choir's reputation as a world-class vocal group.
After studying music composition at Ithaca College in New York and a stint in New York City in which he found steady work - if not soul satisfaction - off Broadway and on, Smith returned to the choir as a fill-in accompanist in 2001.
By then, Hamilton, who had started the choir in 1968, was making noises about retiring.
"For him, this was his entire life," Smith said. "I couldn't spend 24 hours a day with it. I had a family. I just didn't see how it would work."
So Smith left the group. But he and his wife, Carla, "continued to talk about it, pray about it," Smith said. "We felt we were being led."
In 2002, he rejoined the choir as assistant director, and when Hamilton retired two years later, Smith took over.
Now, at 30, he's in charge of molding about 150 boys ages 7 to 12 - 90 in the performing choir, the rest in cadet programs - into a cohesive group that hits just the right note and makes just the right harmony - at just the right moment.
The choir is preparing for a busy couple of months. On May 17, the boys will perform at a private gala honoring Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis. On June 1, the choir will celebrate its 40th anniversary with music performed throughout its history. Then in late June, the group will travel to Spain and Germany.
The music isn't the only place Smith must strive for harmony. It's not easy to grab the attention of boys on weekday afternoon - many of whom have rushed from school, climbed immediately into a car, and been driven long distances to get to the rehearsal hall in West Philadelphia.
But listen to the parents, and they'll tell you Smith manages quite well.
"He's very good at what he does," said Jeannie Weber of Logan Township in Gloucester County. Her 12-year-old Sean is in his third year in the performing choir.
That choir has six boys from Logan and a total of 12 from Gloucester County. A dozen come from Camden County towns, and three are from Burlington County.
"The boys can get antsy," Weber said. Smith "knows the boys well enough that he handles them individually, which to me is amazing. He requires a lot, but he gives them some slack. He knows that boys need to be boys. He lets them have fun when they need to, but when it's time, it's like, snap, now it's down to business."
Smith says he enjoys interacting with the boys.
"It's so rewarding being a mentor to them," he said. "It's a great feeling knowing I can be a good role model for them and help them."
Setting an example is important to Smith, a man of strong faith, who attends Calvary Chapel in Bellmawr. His sons bear Old Testament names: Elijah, 3 1/2, and Isaac, 9 months. Smith left New York City, in part, because he found that his beliefs clashed with the behavior he saw in show business.
"I found the actors - they were very liberal, not so much politically but in other ways," he said. "It's frustrating because I'm not."
But he is romantic. Above the fireplace in his Haddon Township home hangs framed sheet music for a song called "Marriage Proposal," which he wrote and performed when he proposed to his wife.
Through all, music, which has been part of Smith's life since he began "banging on the piano" at age 2, is what drives him.
"We get to make some great music," he said. The boys' "concerts are just unbelievable. They all know the music. They all feel it. And it's like, 'Wow!' "
Contact staff writer Rusty Pray at 215-854-2502 or rpray@phillynews.com.
In Concert
The Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale will present its 40th anniversary concert at 2 p.m. June 1 at Irvine Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania, 3401 Spruce St., Philadelphia. Tickets are $25 to $45.
The choir will perform at 7 p.m. June 8 at the First United Methodist Church, 446 E. Camden Ave., Moorestown. A freewill offering will be taken.
For more information or to buy tickets, call 215-222-3500, Ext. 1 or visit www.phillyboyschoir.org.
Delran woman gets ‘Real’
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20110220/NEWS/302209639By Todd McHale
Posted: Feb 20, 2011DELRAN - You never get used to the cameras.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they're on and focused on you.
Every move you make, every misstep along the way - documented for all to see.
"It's not something you can prepare for," Heather Marter said. "(The cameras) are literally on all the time."
The 22-year-old college student from Delran knows it all too well.
She lived it for three months while taping MTV's "Real World: Las Vegas."
MTV will mark the 25th season of the reality show with a return to Sin City. The season, which is being billed as steamy and intense, will begin March 9 at 10 p.m.
The show, which films seven strangers living and working together for three months, debuted in 1992.
"In creating 'The Real World,' we set out to capture the unfiltered lives of seven strangers living under one roof. But the show immediately became much bigger, pushing television boundaries and holding a mirror to the issues affecting society," said Jonathan Murray, chairman of Bunim/Murray Productions, during a recent kickoff to the season.
"While times have changed and 'real' lives have become fodder for programs on every channel covering every possible topic, we remain relevant because we are always at the forefront of addressing the challenges faced by young adults," Murray said.
And when you put a bunch of strong-willed, opinionated individuals together, sparks are going to fly, cameras or no.
Especially with the cast of characters Marter lived with in the suite of the Casino Tower at the Hard Rock Hotel Casino from October through December.
She described the show as "very real with raw emotion" and a fair share of "hookups."
"I'm excited about the season being aired," Marter said. "I think a lot of issues are addressed in this season. + I think it's going to be fun to see. It's fast-paced - a lot of things happen."
While Marter said she looks forward to the show's airing, she can't help but feel a bit apprehensive about watching the episodes with her parents and grandparents.
"Obviously, I'm 22 years old. I've made mistakes," she said. "It kind of reminded me of my freshman year of college."
But this wasn't a tiny dorm room. The housing arrangement for the cast was more like the digs that a rock star would demand.
"It was awesome," Marter said of the suite. "It overlooked the whole strip.
"I've done my share of partying, (but) it's crazy out there. And we lived there for three months."
Marter believes the latest "Real World" will give viewers plenty to watch.
"We're all outspoken," she said of the cast. "And when you put a bunch of outspoken people together, you're going to have some conflict and drama. But you're also going to develop some real friendships."
Marter still keeps in touch with some of the cast members.
"All the girls were extremely close," she said. "I still talk with them every day."
Marter, a senior at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, said she isn't overly concerned about how she will be portrayed. In fact, she said the show, along with the multiple interviews over several months that were part of the selection process, actually helped her.
"I learned a lot about myself," she said. "I don't regret anything I did."
Well, except for one thing.
"I was a horrible bowler," she said with a laugh.
Marter has no plans to be on any other reality shows.
Instead she's back at school, finishing her communications degree and hoping to do some work behind the camera, such as editing, or in another position in the industry.
Whatever she does, she knows how difficult it can be to be followed by a camera crew day in and day out.
"It's not natural, but you do eventually have to block them out," Marter said.
Todd McHale can be reached at 609-871-8163, tmchale@phillyBurbs.com or twitter.com/toddmchale.
Children fast for famine awareness
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20110402/NEWS/304029896By Mark Zimmaro
Posted: Apr 2, 2011DELRAN -- A group of thoughtful students spent part of their weekend with full hearts and empty stomachs.
In an effort to raise money and awareness for starving children around the world, nine children from the First United Methodist Church on Conrow Road in Delran decided to go hungry for 30 hours while participating in a weekend full of activities at the church.
"We get three meals a day and sometimes we aren't even thankful for that," said Kyle Melvin, 16, of Delran. "We are only fasting for one day out of the year when other kids do it every day."
The fasting began on Friday at noon. Children then arrived at the church and made tents out of household items and slept inside a large room inside the church. The original plan was to camp out, but event organizers said the weather didn't permit the plan to carry through.
Children made bunks out of furniture and folding tables and attempted to add some comfort with a few blankets and sheets. The purpose was to create an essence of sleeping outside, which homeless children deal with on a nightly basis.
After a few hours of sleep, the children then participated in a food drive at the Food Bank of South Jersey in Swedesboro on Saturday morning.
"It was tough because after helping out, people were offering us food," said Mount Holly resident Hunter Kramer, 11. "But we said no even though it was tough turning it down because we were so hungry."
Children collected pledge money from family and friends which paid for each hour that they fasted. Greg Pagani, 14, took it a step further. The Burlington City resident upped his personal ante to a goal of 54 hours by starting his fast a day earlier.
"I really wanted to see what the experience was like," Greg said. "Other children are forced to do it for three days and I couldn't imagine what that must feel like. So I decided to start early."
Proceeds from the event will be donated to working on global hunger issues. To emphasize the community's effort to raise money for the cause, more than 1,000 white crosses were planted on the church's lawn.
Youth Group Leaders Andrew Kramer and Meghan Winner said it wasn't tough to get children interested in participating in the fast, which was also done at the church last year.
"These kids really enjoy raising money and making a difference," Kramer said. "They were actually excited about it."
Also participating in the event were Delran residents Ellie Segan, Andrea Vanderburg and Caitlynn Cole and Cinnaminson residents Amanda Banas, Sarah DeMirjian and Sarah Endicott.
"It really opens your eyes after doing something like this," Ellie, 13, said. "We talk about going on diets here when other kids don't have a choice. At least for a day, we get to know what it really feels like to not have three meals a day and be hungry."
Mark Zimmaro can be reached at 609-871-8059 or at mzimmaro@phillyBurbs.com
Follow Mark on Twitter at twitter.com/mzimmaro
Marc Narducci: Pioneering passer Sacca wins spot in S.J. Coaches Hall
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20141015002912/http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-22/sports/29571466_1_tony-sacca-delran-jim-donoghueBy Marc Narducci, Inquirer Columnist
Posted: May 22, 2011The former Delran and Penn State standout will be inducted on June 29.
Back before it was in vogue to be throwing the ball all over the field in high school football, Tony Sacca was ahead of his time.
During his senior year at Delran in 1987, Sacca completed 96 of 176 passes for 1,665 yards and 24 touchdowns. At the time, the touchdown mark was a single-season South Jersey record. (The current record is 40 by Holy Cross' Jason Amer in 1999.)
Sacca also led Delran to an 11-0 record and the school's first South Jersey Group 2 title.
Sacca became a four-year starter at Penn State, where he threw for 5,869 yards and 41 touchdowns, and he was drafted in the second round by the Phoenix (now Arizona) Cardinals and was with the team in 1992 and 1993. He threw only 11 passes in 1992 and didn't attempt any the next season; he later played two seasons with the Barcelona Dragons of the World League of American Football.
So football took Sacca to quite a few locales, but he never abandoned his roots. He is living in Delran and teaching in Willingboro, where he serves as the team's offensive coordinator, and he still enjoys his association with the game.
After Sacca, the passing gates flew open with the likes of Glenn Foley of Cherry Hill East and Al Mallen of Holy Spirit, both of whom were 2,000-yard passers in 1988. The passing craze has continued to this day.
Yet it was Sacca who was one of the trailblazers. His place in South Jersey history has long been established, but now we're reminded of his excellence with his impending induction into the South Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony will be June 29 at Masso's in Glassboro. The event is held the night before the Adam Taliaferro Foundation all-star game, which will be held at Rowan University.
"It was around that era when it wasn't such a stretch to throw the football 20-25 times a game," Sacca said. "And what helped me is I had great receivers such as John Ellison and a coach [Jim Donoghue] who played quarterback in college."
Ellison would earn a scholarship to Michigan, and Donoghue, who had quarterbacked at Syracuse, was able to teach the intricacies of the passing game.
And Sacca was a willing pupil.
He was also among the more impressive athletes in South Jersey history. In addition to being The Inquirer's South Jersey player of the year in football, Sacca was an all-South Jersey basketball player and a first baseman and pitcher in baseball. He won South Jersey championships in all three sports at Delran.
Sacca will always be associated with the town of Delran, where he lives with his wife and 4-year-old son.
"We enjoyed it so much in Delran growing up and going to high school there," Sacca said. "It's a great place."
Sacca became a starter as a true freshman at Penn State. With all he has accomplished in the game, this latest honor has caught him slightly off guard.
"It's a humbling experience anytime you get an award like this," he said. "It is an exciting event and means a lot to the Adam Taliaferro Foundation."
It also means a lot to still be associated with the game. After Sacca finished playing football, he was a business owner for nine years before turning toward teaching.
"It's great, and if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten into high school teaching and coaching after playing," he said. "I just love doing it."
He admits to one day wanting to run a high school program of his own, although he says he is in no hurry.
"I really enjoy being an offensive coordinator, but at some point I'd like to be a head coach," he said. "I do realize that being a head coach is a year-round job."
Not everybody gets to set a goal at a young age and then achieve it, but Sacca always saw a future for himself in football.
"From the time I was a young kid, I always wanted to be a football player, even though I really liked basketball and baseball," he said. "But I always felt I could be a football player."
The sport helped him earn a college education and a pro salary and to travel the world.
"I feel so fortunate to have been able to travel, to play in college and a couple of years in the NFL," Sacca said. "It was a tremendous thing to go through and to be a football player, so to speak."
Marc Narducci: Hall of Fame Inductions
The South Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame's Class of 2011 will be inducted during a banquet at 6 p.m. June 29 at Masso's in Glassboro.
Among the inductees will be Bruce Lazaruk (high school coach), formerly of Hammonton, Rancocas Valley, and Riverside; Bryan McKinnie of Woodbury High and the Minnesota Vikings (named as the pro active player); and Tony Sacca of Delran (pro inactive player).
The post-playoff legend inductee will be Mike Koerner (Washington Township), who won two NCAA baseball championships at LSU, and the pre-playoff legend inductee will be Wilbur Fennal, who starred at Clayton before playing at Montana State.
Former Inquirer South Jersey player of the year Adam Taliaferro of Eastern will be inducted as a player and for achievement, with the success of the Adam Taliaferro Foundation.
Paul Mauriello, longtime assistant at Overbrook, Edgewood (now Winslow Township), and Timber Creek, will be the assistant coach inductee. Kathy Moscufo, a founding member of the Adam Taliaferro Foundation, will be inducted for distinguished service.
Tickets for the banquet are $30 and may be obtained by calling 856-582-0212. The banquet precedes the Adam Taliaferro Football Classic, which will be played at 7 p.m. June 30 at Rowan University.
- Marc Narducci
Contact staff writer Marc Narducci at 856-779-3225, mnarducci@phillynews.com, or sjnard on Twitter.
A Delran-Rutgers connection
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150920152443/http://articles.philly.com/2011-07-16/sports/29780877_1_rutgers-carli-lloyd-world-cupBy Marc Narducci, Inquirer Columnist
Posted: July 16, 2011The U.S. team's Carli Lloyd and 1990 men's player Peter Vermes share alma maters.
What is it with Delran and soccer and Rutgers and the World Cup?
First, there was Peter Vermes, a 1984 Delran High School graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and then for the U.S. men's national team at the 1990 World Cup.
Now, there is Carli Lloyd, a 2004 Delran graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and is a star for the U.S. women's national team that will play Sunday against Japan in the 2011 championship game.
Lloyd, a two-time Inquirer South Jersey girls' soccer player of the year, turns 29 on Saturday.
"I'm so happy for Carli," Vermes, the coach of Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City, said in an e-mail. "We have a lot in common, being from Delran and going to Rutgers, and I wish her all the best. She really is a tremendous competitor, and it's shown in this tournament."
This is the second World Cup for Lloyd. She also scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 overtime victory over Brazil in the gold-medal game of the 2008 Olympics.
"I'm ecstatic for them," Vermes said of the women's team, which is going for a third World Cup title. "It's been such a pleasure to watch this team play. They play every roll of the ball, and they're reaping those benefits right now."
Vermes was named the 1988 U.S. Soccer male athlete of the year. He also played in the 1988 Olympics and 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He ended his international career with 67 caps and played for three MLS teams and was the MLS defender of the year in 2000.
- Marc Narducci
All aboard! Train enthusiasts hosting open houses
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20111104/NEWS/311049747By Peg Quann
Posted: Nov 4, 2011
DELRAN -- In Mike and Tanya McNamara's basement, one can visit the small whistlestop towns of Vermont and New Hampshire near the Canadian border.
Arnold Kimmons' basement in Evesham welcomes visitors to South Carolina's Low Country.
Both men are model-railroad enthusiasts, and they're holding open houses at their homes this month to show their train layouts to fellow railroaders and those who might be interested in the hobby.
Kimmons will hold his open house from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and on Nov. 13 at his home at 29 Abbotsford Drive in Evesham.
McNamara will hold his open house from noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 13 at his home at 58 Stoneham Drive in Delran.
A native of South Carolina, Kimmons said his HO-scale platform depicts the coastal region from Charleston, S.C., to Savannah, Ga., including the towns of Buford, Hilton Head and Port Royal.
"It's a Southern railway ... so you're going to feel like you're in South Carolina instead of the mountains of Pennsylvania," he said.
Since November is National Model Railroad Month, Kimmons thinks the open houses are a great way to promote the hobby.
"If someone is interested, it's a good way to learn about it," he said.
In his basement, McNamara has set up a realistic view of the "Northeast Kingdom." It's a New England region he's come to know during family vacations, beginning when he was a kid growing up in Haddon Township, Camden County.
Maine Central and Canadian Pacific locomotives weave through tiny tunnels and over the Fisher Bridge near St. Johnsbury, Vt., while canoeists row in a pristine stream below. A train horn blows and a locomotive revs as it pulls away from a station.
"I did a lot of vacationing up there," McNamara said. "My first exposure to railroading was up there. ... I've been doing this since I was a kid. Some of this stuff is 30 years old."
McNamara and his wife, Tanya, bought their home partially because it has a tall, spacious basement where he could set up his exhibit in one part, while leaving the remaining area for family use. His wife agreed.
"Growing up, seeing other people's layouts, I didn't want to take over the whole basement. It becomes too much to deal with," he said.
It's a hobby that's becoming more sophisticated as technology in actual and model railroading has advanced.
In his layout, McNamara is operations director, although he's introduced sons Randy, 19, and Dillon, 15, to the hobby as well. He has more than 35 HO-scale sets, with several on the tracks at any one time.
There are commuters and long freight trains. He choreographs them to run on time and avoid crashes.
"The whole control setup is digital, based on a computer network," McNamara said. "It's still individually controlled by the user operator."
McNamara is a software development manager for ADP. Kimmons is a sales and marketing manager. Both men say they relax with the hobby.
"This is a good, creative outlet for me," Kimmons said.
"I like the research of real railroading and adapting that to a model form," McNamara said.
Building the platforms and designing the sets, using his artistic skills, also appeal to him, as does the social aspect of the hobby.
Some model railroaders like the historical aspect of the hobby. Kimmons' layout dates from the 1950s. McNamara's focuses on the '80s.
"The locomotives are different in different eras," Kimmons said.
The National Model Railroad Association and other groups bring together those interested in the hobby to share their ideas and expertise. McNamara said he meets model-train buffs who have gotten jobs with railroads and real railroaders who also like to make model trains.
"When you say trains, most people think of a circle around the Christmas tree. That's not what we're about. It's a much more involved hobby," said P.J. Mattson of Swedesboro, Gloucester County, vice president of the Mid-East region of the association.
With computer chips aboard today's model locomotives, railroaders can "control 100 engines on the same track and not run into each other," Mattson said.
He said the hobby appeals to boys -- the Boy Scouts even have a railroading badge -- until they get interested in cars and girls.
"Then they get married and start a family. ... Then we get them back," he said.
Peg Quann: 609-871-8057;
email: pquann@phillyBurbs.com;
Twitter: @pequann
Delran native uncorks career overseas
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120109/LIFESTYLE/301099721By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Posted: Jan 9, 2012
DELRAN -- After spending his formative years traveling the world, a township native has planted New Zealand roots with what one may call "grape" expectations.
Daniel Brennan doesn't live here anymore, but the winemaker's presence looms at a number of local liquor stores that stock his brand. Decibel -- a label name inspired by his love of independent music -- is making a splash in an industry soaked with competition, and Brennan has a good feeling about the upcoming year.
"I'm fairly certain the (distributors) don't have any other wine in their portfolio that was made in New Zealand by a guy from the South Jersey/Philly area. We're hoping for big things in 2012," said Brennan, a Philadelphia Phillies fan who named his fermenting tanks after the team's players.
It's not surprising that Brennan, who studied viticulture in New Zealand and interned at California's Pina Napa Valley, likes to talk about wine.
Herbaceous and crisp, Decibel's sauvignon blanc features quince, pear and flowers in the nose, as well as a full palate of gooseberries and green apples, and hints of spicy acidity through the finish.
The malbec offers bright fruits and floral notes and a delicate palate of spiced raspberries. Two pinot noirs and a riesling will be added this year.
Wine is food, and it's personal, according to Brennan.
"Just like other foods, I can't tell you if you like or dislike something. Your palate is exactly that, yours. My favorite wines of the world are dry, Italian white wines. My buddy in New Zealand loves pinot noir. You can't convince us otherwise," Brennan said.
It was 2008 when he made his first batch, a non-oaked chardonnay, but the wine lifestyle was always in the cards. Brennan's Irish/Italian family has traveled frequently to Europe, operates McCrossen's Tavern in Philadelphia and formerly owned McCrossen's Dockside Bar and Grill in Delran, and indulges in traditional Sicilian seven-fish dinners on Christmas Eve.
"An eye was always on the Old World," Brennan said.
His own journey took him on a visit to Italy while attending Holy Cross High School, to Belgium as an exchange student at Catholic University of America, and then to the Bronx, N.Y., for a post-college stint managing a touring rock band. After considering politics and philosophy as careers, he decided the former was too dirty and the latter too impractical.
So, Brennan returned to McCrossen's as a bartender and manager, and took some classes at the Wine School of Philadelphia. In 2008, he enrolled in the Centre of Viticulture and Wine at Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay and graduated with a bachelor's degree in winemaking.
These days, Brennan is likely to be found in Hawke's Bay vineyards making notes, asking for updates from winegrowers, and taking readings.
Decibel wines are made at Unison Vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district of Hawkes Bay, where Brennan is a winewaker consultant; sold in seven states and shipped to 24; and promoted on www.vitisdivine.com, a wine education website he created.
Local outlets that carry Decibel are ShopRite in Cinnaminson, Canal's Discount Liquor Outlet locations in Delran and Pennsauken, and Wineworks in Cherry Hill. Brennan expects to add more distribution outlets in the coming months.
"Give us time," he said. "We're just getting started."
Jeannie O'Sullivan: 609-871-8068;
email: josullivan@phillyBurbs.com;
Twitter: @jeannieosulliva
‘Paint the Town Purple’ contest to be held in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120423/NEWS/304239734By Todd McHale
Posted: Apr 23, 2012DELRAN -- Purple ribbons, purple lawns, purple everything.
May 1 is It's Paint the Town Purple Day.
"This is to raise awareness about the Relay for Life of Delran," said Gina Reed, publicity chairwoman for the event. "It's to get people into the spirit of the relay.
"We're just asking people to decorate their houses in purple. You can hang up purple ribbons, paint your lawn purple, whatever they want to do. To make it a little competitive, we're going to have a contest for the best house."
To enter the contest, email a photo of your house, along with contact information, to paint.purple.delran@gmail.com.
The "purplest" residence in Delran will win a basket of goodies, including a ShopRite gift card.
The winner will be announced during the relay's opening ceremony June 1.
The Relay for Life is an overnight event designed to raise money for the research, education, advocacy and patient services programs of the American Cancer Society as well as celebrate those touched by cancer.
The first relay was held in Washington state in 1985. Communities, schools and other organizations across the country have hosted similar events ever since, including many in Burlington County.
Delran High School has hosted the relay for the last five years at the football stadium. The 2012 theme is "Find a Cure -- It's a Jersey Thing."
"Our goal is to raise at least $155,000," Reed said.
Organizers expect at least 130 teams and 105 survivors to take part.
The event will kick off with a lap around the track to celebrate all cancer survivors.
For more information about volunteering or forming a team, visit the Relay for Life of Delran's website at www.relayforlife.org/delrannj.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163; email: tmchale@phillyBurbs.com;Twitter: @toddmchale
Football: Burlington City tabs Sacca as new coach
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120502/NEWS/305029723By John Lewis
Posted: May 2, 2012The journey for Tony Sacca the quarterback reached the greatest heights a football player can reach; sectional championships, college bowl games and a stint in the National Football League.
The journey for Tony Sacca the coach will begin in earnest in the fall, when he assumes the reins at Burlington City High School.
Sacca, an assistant under Reggie Lawrence at Willingboro High School last year, was approved by the school board last week to replace Tim Reardon as the City coach.
Sacca worked with Lawrence at Pennsauken and then at Willingboro High, and took part in a renaissance at both schools. He's hoping to accomplish the same thing at City.
"I'm hoping to change the atmosphere a little bit," Sacca said. "I've been with Reggie Lawrence for a number of years, and it's a similar scenario to when Reg took over the job at Pennsauken. Burlington City is always a town that's had good football players. I'm looking forward to this."
Sacca said you can expect the Blue Devils to have something in common with Willingboro, too.
"Without seeing the kids, it's tough to say, but I think you're going to see some of the same stuff offensively," he said. "A simple offense, run out of multiple sets and formations."
Sacca, 42, is a 1988 graduate of Delran High School who was the Burlington County Football Club's player of the year in his senior season, when he led the Bears to a South Jersey Group 2 championship. He threw for 6,419 yards during his career at Penn State University and was a second-round selection of the Phoenix Cardinals in 1992.
He played two seasons for Phoenix, then had a two-year stint with the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe.
He owned a bar-restaurant in Pennsauken for about 10 years, then decided to get back into education. He'd worked as an assistant under Lawrence for the last 13 years.
This will be his first head coach position.
"I'm excited to be going to this program and this town," Sacca said. "I can't wait to get started."
John A. Lewis: 609-871-8141; email, jlewis@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter, @JohnLewis19
Relay for Life celebrations in Delran and Evesham this weekend
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120601/NEWS/306019665By Todd McHale
Posted: Jun 1, 2012It's a day to celebrate, remember, and fight back against cancer.
Thousands of walkers will hit the high school tracks in Delran and Evesham as part of the Relay for Life to benefit the American Cancer Society.
"It's the ultimate community event, with everyone out there walking and raising money for cancer research," said Edward Anderson, co-chairman of the Delran walk. "People come to Relay because they want to do something to fight this dreaded disease."
Relay teams camp out at high schools, parks or fairgrounds and take turns walking or running around a track or path.
Founded in 1985 by a Washington surgeon, the event is held every spring in 21 countries and draws 3.5 million participants, according to the American Cancer Society.
"It's important to get the word out about cancer research, awareness and advocacy. And it helps to bring people together," said Meryl Schindler, co-chairwoman of the Marlton Relay for Life. "It shows a sense of unity."
The Delran Relay for Life kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday at the high school stadium on Hartford Road and continues through Saturday morning.
More than 1,300 members of the community and surrounding area will participate.
At nightfall, participants will light hundreds of luminaria candles around the track in a ceremony to honor cancer survivors as well as friends and family members lost to the disease.
"For people who have never seen a Relay for Life event, it is a very different dynamic and an event to experience firsthand in order to appreciate the sense of community and humanity for those who fight this terrible disease," said Gina Reed, who is involved with the Delran event. "There is still a cancer burden in Burlington County, and that is why Delran and its surrounding communities come out to Relay year after year."
The Marlton Relay for Life will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cherokee High School on Tomlinson Mill Road in Evesham and continue until 8 a.m. Sunday. More than 600 people are expected to take part.
"It's a fun event," Schindler said. "It brings the young people out. It starts them on a path of volunteerism."
Although Schindler loves to take part, she hopes one day it won't be necessary.
"I hope for a cure," she said. "I hope someday you will never hear those words 'you got cancer.' "
Anyone interested in participating or volunteering in the Relay for Life celebrations in Delran or Evesham can do so by stopping by the registration booth at either event.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163;
email: tmchale@phillyBurbs.com;
Twitter: @toddmchale
Delran vacationer saves young boy’s life
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120807/NEWS/308079678By Peg Quann
Posted: September 07, 2012
DELRAN -- Mike Garrigues' wife, Kim, was putting their 2-year-old down for a nap at a vacation house on North Carolina's Outer Banks on Thursday when a friend came running back from the beach.
"You need to give your husband a hug. He just saved a little boy's life," said the friend, Cindi Grahl of Maple Shade.
Grahl had just seen Garrigues use cardiopulmonary resuscitation to revive a 3-year-old boy who was blue when he was pulled facedown from a puddle of water and sand along the beach at Kill Devil Hills. The child had stopped breathing and had no pulse.
A nurse at Virtua Marlton in Evesham, Grahl assisted Garrigues, checking the child's vital signs before rescue personnel took him to the hospital. Then she checked Garrigues, who said his heart was beating out of his chest when he realized what he had done.
It all happened so quickly.
Garrigues said he was just about to go for a swim when he heard an "unnerving scream."
"There was a woman pulling a 3-year-old out of the surf. The child was completely limp. I ran over," he said. "Once I got there, I grabbed the kid out of her arms. He was completely blue, eyes rolled back, no pulse, nothing at all. There was nothing to him.
"At that point, I had the child on the ground. The sand is really coarse. There was so much sand in his throat, it was caked inside his mouth."
Garrigues said he tried to clear the boy's throat but was afraid that if he breathed hard into his mouth, he would push the sand farther in. So he breathed into the child's nose while pressing on his chest.
"I gave him breaths through the nose ... heard gurgling in his stomach. But he had no pulse," he said.
A large breath into his nose helped dislodge the debris in his throat. The child started vomiting up a lot of sand, pulverized shells and water.
"He was still unresponsive, but his eyes came back. 'I'm getting a response,'" Garrigues thought.
So he blew hard into both the boy's nose and mouth. The boy vomited again.
"He took a huge, huge breath. ... There was a pulse, a heartbeat."
T-Mike Morrison, ocean rescue director for Kill Devil Hills, said the child was on the beach with his grandmother and an aunt when the incident occurred.
"When I got on the scene, the boy was still laying on the beach. He was conscious and alert," Morrison said. "The story was he was facedown in the puddle of water (when he was found)."
The child, whom Morrison could not identify, was transported with his grandmother to the Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head. He didn't know his condition afterward.
Garrigues, 39, said it was "the best feeling" to see the child answer the rescue personnel's questions after being revived.
"It was very gratifying to me to see the child respond," he said.
Garrigues took a CPR course as part of his training as a security officer for Allied-Barton Security in Voorhees. He works in security at the Moorestown Mall.
A father of two, Garrigues urged everyone to get training in CPR, which is offered by the American Red Cross.
Kim Garrigues, an attorney with the firm of Costa, Vetra & LaRosa in Mount Laurel, also suggested that children wear Puddle Jumpers, a type of life jacket, showing a pair that their daughter, Giuliana, uses.
The couple met at a pet store where her bulldog, Bently, who's normally very shy, took a liking to Garrigues and crawled over to him. That led to a conversation, which led to the exchange of phone numbers and a date. Eight months later, they became engaged. Bently now has his own bedroom in their Tenby Chase home.
Kim Garrigues wasn't surprised that her husband saved the boy's life.
"He's very good with thinking on his feet," she said.
"I'm not David Hasselhoff," he said, referring to the "Baywatch" star. "When you have people you don't know tell you you're a hero, that's when it hits. ... Cops, firemen, the military, they're the real heroes. Me? It's five minutes. But they're the real heroes."
When he was 16, Garrigues used the Heimlich maneuver to help his sister, who was choking on a piece of bacon. Now that he's used CPR, he wants to urge others to take a course in the rescue technique.
"I think it's extremely important," he said. "I'll remember this for the rest of my life."
Peg Quann: 609-817-8057; email: pquann@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @pequann
Onetime star takes Burlington City reins
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150911200135/http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-07/sports/33651342_1_high-school-football-assistant-coach-head-coachBy Phil Anastasia, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 07, 2012Tony Sacca figures his players probably don't know much about his career as one of the best quarterbacks to emerge from South Jersey.
"Their parents might know who I am," said Sacca, the new coach at Burlington City. "My players probably think I played defensive tackle. I want to tell them, 'Guys, I didn't look like this 20 years ago.' "
Sacca, who was an all-South Jersey player at Delran, a 5,800-yard passer at Penn State, and a second-round draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals, is cherishing his first opportunity as a head coach.
A longtime assistant coach, Sacca took over a Burlington City team that went 1-9 in 2011 and will be rebuilding under the new head coach.
"I love it," said Sacca, 42. "I was an assistant for a long time, and I just love high school football. I wanted to get this opportunity. This is the perfect place for me."
Two of Sacca's players said the coach has made a major impact on the program.
"He's been there," Burlington City senior wide receiver/defensive back Vinny Vasapolli said. "Guys really respect him because of that."
Burlington City senior linebacker Lucas Wells agreed.
"He knows the game," Wells said. "He's been through it all."
After playing two years in the NFL, Sacca was an assistant coach at Delran for three seasons, then spent three years as an assistant coach at La Salle University. He also has been an assistant coach at Pennsauken and Willingboro.
"I really thought at first I wanted to get into college coaching," Sacca said. "But I just fell in love with coaching high school football."
Sacca said he wants to develop a team that limits its mistakes while playing smart, physical football.
"So often in high school football, the team that loses is the team that beats itself," Sacca said. "You have to try to limit the penalties, the turnovers, the mistakes."
Sacca takes over a program that has struggled recently. The Blue Devils are 12-38 in the last five seasons, with a combined 4-16 mark in 2010 and 2011.
"It sounds like a cliche when you say, 'We've got to change the culture,' " Sacca said. "But that's what we're trying to do. We want to get the kids all moving in a positive direction."
Contact Phil Anastasia
at 856-779-3223, panastasia@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @PhilAnastasia. Read his blog, "Jersey Side Sports," at www.philly.com/jerseysidesports
Football: Delran’s Miller living NFL dream ... as a coach
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20121206/SPORTS/312069691By Ron Martin
Posted: Dec 6, 2012
When you talk to people who know Bill Miller, the word special always seems to come to mind.
And that's fitting because the former Delran High School and Delaware Valley College place kicker and defensive back is now the special teams assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It may seem like a long way from the fields of Delran to Raymond James Stadium in sunny Florida, but those who have seen Miller's progression from high school to college to the pros never had a doubt he knew where he was going and that he would accomplish his very special goals.
"He is truly a unique person," said Holy Cross head coach Frank Holmes, who taught Miller in middle school and coached him at Delran as an assistant. "He has a charismatic personality and he's the kind of kid that people are drawn to. He has the ability to make friends and keep them."
And everyone fondly remembers Miller, who is preparing his squad to host the 3-9 Eagles Sunday.
"He was a huge asset for us at Del Val," said former Delaware Valley head coach G.A. Mangus, who is the quarterback coach under Steve Spurrier at 10th-ranked South Carolina. "He wasn't the biggest guy we recruited but he turned out to be a true leader on the field and he was more than just a kicker, he was a good defensive back, too."
Miller graduated from Delran in 2003 and played four years at Del Val and earned NCAA Division III All-America honors as a kicker. But he had aspirations off the field once his playing days were over.
"I coached at Delran, then two years at Haddon Heights under Tim George," said Miller. "I also helped out a little at Del Val and then in the spring of 2010 I was hired at Rutgers by head coach Greg Schiano."
In a very short time Miller knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his career.
"When I was younger I thought about playing in the NFL," said Miller. "I saw what my neighbor Tony Sacca did at Penn State and with Arizona, and then Alex Lewis with the Detroit Lions. Every kid has a dream of playing football in the NFL."
Miller got the call, too, but in a much different way.
"I got an opportunity with coach Schiano at Rutgers and when he went to Tampa Bay (last January), he gave me a call, asked me some questions on a Sunday and the next day he offered me a job," Miller said. "That Tuesday I drove 18 hours to get there at 2 in the morning.
"Every day I wake up thinking it's a total dream. It has been very special."
As a special teams assistant with Tampa Bay, Miller has learned to use his personality and the lessons from his previous coaches to balance the delicate give-and-take with professional athletes.
"It isn't like trying to teach college players," said Miller, who at 28 is one of the youngest assistants in the league. "Some of these guys have been in the league longer than you've been coaching. Ronde Barber is in his 16th year.
"You treat people the way you want to be treated. You have to approach it in a professional manner. You can't be yelling and screaming. You have to learn what works for you."
And you have to adjust to not only the personalities but the game itself.
"The biggest adjustment from college to pros is the speed of the games," said Miller. "At every level the players are faster, stronger and bigger from high school to D-III to D-I to the NFL."
His mentors knew he had what it took to get to the next level.
"You could tell that he was a student of the game and I'm not surprised he has moved along so far in coaching," said Mangus, who is preparing the Gamecocks for the Outback Bowl against No. 18 Michigan on Jan. 1.
"He has a great family and he's just the kind of kid you're looking for when you're building your program. He comes from good stock and his parents were always very supportive of our program."
"For two years I think he lived in the football office at Rutgers. I don't even think he had an apartment," joked Holmes. "He has always worked his tail off.
"When I talked to Greg Schiano, he was a very serious man and a little intimidating, but there was not a doubt in my mind that after he left Rutgers he'd take Billy down to Tampa. There's not a whole lot of guys who want to do special teams but Billy has a passion for them."
Miller is positive that the guidance and support of Mangus, Holmes, George and a host of other coaches are the reasons he is with Tampa Bay today.
"I had a lot of people help me along the way," said Miller. "Coach Holmes was a big mentor in my life and Tim George at Haddon Heights, too. They all planted the seed for me to become a coach.
"Coach Mangus showed me what it took to become a coach at a higher level, too. I would watch him and despite being mostly a kicker -- although I played defensive back, too -- I tried to observe the coach and that's what really led me to my profession."
After a meteoric rise, there still are goals on the horizon for Miller.
"I'd love to be a coordinator some day in the league," he said. "After all, it's the highest form of football and it's big business.
"And I even dream of being a head coach some day. Hey, John Harbaugh (head coach of the Baltimore Ravens) was a special teams assistant once, too. It's my ultimate goal."
Mangus doesn't doubt him.
"If that's what you want, sure, you can do anything. Your dreams can come true," said Mangus. "There may be a lot of coaching jobs out there but not that many in the NFL.
"I told him 10 years ago the same thing -- it can happen if you work hard and put your mind to it."
Miller's plans this week are simple.
"I'm really looking forward to (Sunday) when we play the Eagles," he said. "Of course I was a fan all my life and I know it will be fun for me but I really want to beat them. It will be special."
Of course it will.
Sandy victims still on long road to recovery
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130107/NEWS/301079671By Danielle Camilli
Posted: Jan 7, 2013
DELRAN -- Claude Buttros knows the $9.7 billion in Superstorm Sandy aid that Congress approved Friday won't help his family members as they continue the slow recovery from the loss of their home and most of their belongings.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has already given him two months of rent and $7,000 for all the lost contents of the former three-bedroom rental home in Tuckerton he shared with his wife and three children before the Oct. 29 storm that made landfall at the Jersey shore.
It's not nearly enough to cover their losses, he said Friday, but Buttros and his wife, Desiree, know others need the aid. Nearly 70 days and without it has been devastating.
"With Congress not voting on FEMA sooner, it has hurt a lot of people," Desiree Buttros said. "It won't help us, unfortunately, but we know people who are still living in hotels and still living in their cars. We all still need help. What we received was not even close to what we lost."
Last week Superstorm Sandy became a political story, with Gov. Chris Christie berating fellow Republican and House Speaker John Boehner for delaying the vote on a Sandy recovery bill. Soon, the storm will likely become a budget story, as spending on the recovery comes under scrutiny. But for the Buttroses, who have relocated to Delran, Superstorm Sandy remains very much a human story. They know full well the impact of the storm during the "66 days and counting" that the governor spoke of during his impassioned speech before the bill passed.
The measure gives more borrowing authority to the National Flood Insurance Program to pay about 115,000 pending Sandy-related claims as well as about 5,000 claims unrelated to the storm. The U.S. House could vote on an additional $51 billion by the middle of the month.
"I'm a Democrat, but I would vote for Christie. He gets it," said Buttros, an unemployed union ironworker. "He was absolutely right."
During those 66 days, the Buttroses fled their home with only some clothes for the kids and little else, slept on friends' and family's floors and basements when they couldn't find an available hotel room, moved to a new rental in Delran, enrolled their children in a new school, and hoped more aid would come -- with no results.
The family had weathered Hurricane Irene in 2011 and thought Sandy would be no different. But during Irene, the water never topped the bulkhead and never entered the home. Five days after Sandy, the Buttroses were allowed back to survey the damage.
"You know, going back to the house, seeing things scattered here and there, the kids' toys down the street, their clothes covered in water, a boat in our backyard, we were surrounded by water -- it's been a nightmare," Desiree Buttros said.
She said the mold and saltwater destroyed most of the contents and rendered the house unlivable. They moved to Delran on Dec. 1 and are hoping to stay and make their home in Burlington County.
"We put in our claim with FEMA, but honestly, the community has done more for us than FEMA, and that's a shame," Desiree Buttros said, noting that the rental assistance did not cover the cost of monthly payments in her former or new home. "They told us they won't review our claim again."
She said her two autistic sons' adaptive and occupational therapy equipment was lost in the floodwaters, and the family lost all of its furniture, clothing and home comforts.
"The boys' equipment was never covered by insurance, so we worked to get them things, and now FEMA denied it as part of our claim," Desiree Buttros said. "We came from a three-bedroom house and got the same or less than single people. It just doesn't seem fair in our eyes."
A FEMA spokesman said Friday that all claimants can appeal a decision and revise their claim with any change in status. The agency does not provide information about individual claims. The spokesman said Sandy victims in need of help should visit Disaster Recovery Centers for further assistance.
The Buttroses have used the assistance they received mostly on items for their young children: sons Jordan and Tyler, and daughter Cheyenne. While the kids now have beds, the parents are making do on an air mattress and are still working to fill the house with other necessities.
But the couple said they are focusing on the children first.
"It's been pretty hard for the boys. Any kind of change is really difficult for them. Our daughter has adjusted better," Desiree Buttros said. "On top of everything, FEMA denied our medical claims."
But the community has embraced the family. After the Buttroses shared their plight with a neighbor, help poured in from the Delran Fire Department, the Burlington County Sheriff's Officers FOP Lodge 166, and others, including for the holidays.
"If it wasn't for the community, there would have been no Christmas," Desiree Buttros said. "It just means so much. No parent ever wants to not be able to do for their child. The whole neighborhood and community have cared for us and supported us. There are no words to express our gratitude."
Danielle Camilli: 609-267-7586; email: dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @bctdanielle
Delran native practices ‘flying wine making’ from New Zealand
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130116/LIFESTYLE/301169613By Peg Quann
Posted: Jan 16, 2013
Delran native son Daniel Brennan, now an international winemaker, will bring his own brand of New Zealand wines to a Riverside restaurant Monday before heading to Italy and then back to the summer warmth of the South Pacific.
Brennan, 36, will lead a wine tasting event at The Madison which will pair the wines with four-course gourmet tasting plates prepared by the restaurant's executive chef Jack Connor.
Brennan combined his interest in wine and music to produce his own Decibel wines. He will bring a variety of them to the tasting.
A world traveler, he grew up learning about wine from his Sicilian grandfather who made both wine and the barrels in which to ferment them. His family operated McCrossen's Tavern, a restaurant in the Art Museum area of Philadelphia where Brennan further developed his interest in wines. He attended Holy Cross High School in Delran, before heading to Catholic University in Washington, where he earned a degree in world politics and philosophy and later worked as a stagiaire, or intern, in the European Union Parliament.
Brennan developed a love for New Zealand wines while working at his family's restaurant.
The wines were "always vibrant and unique, but also tough to find, which meant there wasn't that many of them, he said.
He studied winemaking at The Wine School of Philadelphia and later was accepted at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawks Bay, New Zealand, where he further studied the country's wines.
In 2009, he decided to settle there and now works at the Unison Vineyard in Hawks Bay where he bottles the Decibel wines. "The owners at Unison were kind enough to let me experiment with my own wines, sourcing fruit from some of the surrounding vineyards," he said, adding that Hawks Bay "has a gorgeous maritime climate and strong sunlight hours" that make it "one of the best places on Earth to grow wine."
In New Zealand's off season, "I come up to California and work for wineries there, helping out. It's called 'flying wine-making,'" he said.
His sister and brother help him market the wines locally.
Brennan said he has sold a couple of thousand cases of wine. "We're trying to build it up slowly," he said.
The wine tasting at The Madison begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $55 per person.
Each guest will receive four flights of wine, comparing the Decibel 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc. Next, the Decibel 2010 Pinot Noir will be sampled, followed by a comparison tasting of the Decibel 2010 and 2011 Malbecs. The final testing will be the Unison Vineyard's Classic Blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
Reservations are required. The Madison is located at 33 Lafayette St. Riverside. For more information, call 856-764-4444. For more information on Decibel wines, or to order directly, go to www.decibelwines.com.
Peg Quann: 609-871-8057; email: pquann@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @pequann
Delran students forge bond with Boston Marathon runner
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130425/NEWS/304259644By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Posted: Apr 25, 2013
DELRAN -- The kindness of a group of township teens has helped one man trying to process the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Six weeks before Brad Spicer, a middle school teacher and recovering alcoholic, ran in the now-infamous race, he spent a day speaking about his disease to the school district's 10th-grade gym classes as part of his efforts to raise awareness about underage drinking.
Fast-forward to April 15. Spicer, a resident of Salem, Salem County, who has pledged to run 7,000 miles this year to raise money for those struggling with addiction, completed the 26.2-mile marathon in just over three hours. He was cheered on by his parents, one of his two young sons, and a nephew.
It was the 14th marathon for Spicer, who logs in more than 20 miles a day and credits running with saving his life.
Then an hour later, the bombs exploded.
Spicer drove his family home, reeling as the chaotic aftermath unfolded behind him.
No stranger to pain given his hellish 15 years in the throes of substance abuse, the 37-year-old husband and father was struck by the sheer horror of terrorism.
"All of the runners work so hard just for that day," said Spicer, noting the prestige associated with the race. "Just to watch it go down like that was just unbelievable. It's tragic."
But comfort awaited him. He arrived home to find a package of heartfelt letters from the students he had connected with during his March 1 presentation. They also sent quarters printed with their initials, touching symbols considering his sons had given him quarters to mark his first full year of sobriety.
"It stuck out to me that you get up every day and run 20 miles, no matter how tired you are, because you're living day to day. I'm a runner, too, and that seems crazy even to me. I'll always remember how you and everyone else around you never thought it would happen to you and how one drink just changed your life," one of the notes read in part.
Another letter said, "Your story made me so aware that this can happen even to anyone, even to me. I will always make good decisions to make sure this doesn't happen to me."
Emotion washed over Spicer, who stopped drinking on Jan. 2, 2011, and started running that same day.
"I was just blown away by what they did for me. Feeling the way I was feeling ... it just made my day. It was awesome," he said.
Spicer posted a picture of the quarters and excerpts from the letters on the Facebook page he started to promote his goal to raise $1 for every mile he runs. The proceeds from Spicer's Project Run 7000 will benefit the Herren Project, a foundation started by former NBA player Chris Herren to assist people dealing with addiction.
Stephanie Scanlon, student assistant coordinator at the township's middle and high schools, said she contacted Spicer after learning his story from a newspaper article.
The students were very receptive to the presentation, according to Scanlon. She said she's producing a DVD that will include footage of his visit along with words from students who have pledged to abstain from drinking.
She expressed gratitude for Spicer's efforts.
"He didn't accept a penny, for even gas reimbursement. He spoke the entire day, eight periods, without a break," Scanlon said.
Spicer's quest has generated considerable buzz, including Nike's Runner of the Week designation, media coverage and numerous appearance requests. Spicer estimates he's visited about 15 school districts, and has spoken at Municipal Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse events.
As for how he manages to balance recovery, work, family and his hobby, he clings to the familiar addict's creed: day by day.
"Just a simple thing as getting up, going out, and putting one foot in front of the other is healing," Spicer said.
Jeannie O'Sullivan: 609-871-8068; email: josullivan@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jeannieosulliva
Delran Siberian husky undergoes treament for rare cancer
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130510/LIFESTYLE/305109663By Joe Mason
Posted: May 10, 2013
DELRAN -- When they first saw him, they weren't exactly sure what was wrong with the Siberian husky.
All they knew was he needed immediate care and someone to love him.
Luckily for the dog now named Tico, he received both.
Tico, short for Quantico, was turned into the Tails of the Tundra Siberian Husky Rescue by a previous owner because his legs weren't working. The rescue took him to NorthStar Vets in Robbinsville for a diagnosis. What they thought was a slipped disc turned out to be much worse.
"He had X-rays and they didn't see anything, so they did an MRI," said foster mom and Delran resident Jodi Klein.
"They called and told us it was (very rare congenital cancer called nephroblastoma).
"They did a biopsy and we thought 'We (have) to help him.' So he had surgery the next day."
This was five weeks ago. And while he's still struggling and going through radiation, the nearly 6-month-old Tico is a whole new dog.
"At first he couldn't walk at all, he would drag his legs behind him," said Klein, a who works in Camden as nurse for the state Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS). "Then we had him in a sling. Now he's outside, walking without it. He's slow, but he's doing really well."
Sadly, Tico's cancer isn't a quick fix.
The tumor was on his spine, causing the paralysis. And the worst thing about it is that not many dogs, and especially not many puppies, have this type of cancer. Because of this, there is not much literature about outcomes. But with his foster family's help, and a ton of doggie perseverance, Tico is a fighter.
He's also got a lot of support from the rescue group, which decided to go through with the treatment, which includes the surgery and 20 radiation treatments. Every disease has a first. Every cure out there had someone or some pet go through it a first time. Quantico has a chance to be the first survivor of this cancer. With the backing of the rescue, he has a chance to help every future dog diagnosed with the cancer.
And he's bringing tons of joy to his foster family that includes two children, A.J., 5, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, and Nyi, 16. He also has four doggie siblings -- Princess and Eddie, both husky mixes, Kya, a husky and Jasmine, a pit bull.
While Tico is the wild one of the bunch, it's one big happy family.
"Both of my children are adopted and all four dogs are adopted," Klein said with a laugh. "Tico certainly runs everyone wild, he's got a lot of energy. The older dogs get a little annoyed sometimes, but he's full of life.
"This is a remarkable process. We just hope he keeps getting better through radiation, and then he'll be up for adoption."
To donate to the rescue and help with Tico's mounting bills, visit http://www.siberescue.com/supportUs/ticoStory.php
Joe Mason can be reached at jmason@phillyBurbs.com
Delran mother spearheads drive to help young students in need
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130802/NEWS/308029701By Todd McHale
Posted: Aug 2, 2013
DELRAN -- Every time Laura Kulinski sees a young student walk into school with a tattered plastic grocery bag with few or no supplies in it, she can't help but be saddened.
"It breaks my heart," the township resident said. "I just want to go over there and give them a hug and tell them it's going to be OK."
While Kulinski can't go around embracing every child, she knows she can do something.
The mother decided earlier this month to spearhead a school supplies drive.
Items gathered will benefit needy children at Providence House, which provides education, support and temporary shelter for abuse victims.
She figured what better place to distribute the items than to the nonprofit organization run by Catholic Charities.
"I had a friend go through there, and they helped her tremendously," Kulinski said. "But a lot of families that need to go to Providence House have to pick up and go with whatever they have on their backs. The mom or dad isn't thinking about grabbing somebody's backpack. They're just trying to get to safety."
Given the need, Kulinski decided to team up with the municipality and local businesses to set up bins to collect as many supplies as she can for elementary school students.
Township Councilwoman Lona Pangia applauded Kulinski's desire to help those who can't help themselves.
"Building a community starts with good people with great projects," Pangia said. "I joined Laura Kulinski in this endeavor, because she is bringing light to our local families that are in need of support."
Even though backpacks are in the highest demand, any donation will be accepted. Notebooks, composition books, pencils, pens, dry erase markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, highlighters, folders and index cards are all welcome.
Anyone interested in helping out can drop off items in one of the bins set up at the municipal building off Chester Avenue; the Delran Farmers Market, at the municipal building parking lot, on Tuesday nights; AmeriKick Martial Arts on Route 130; and the Delran Pharmacy on Hartford Road.
And what better way to restore some normalcy to a youngster's life than handing him a new backpack filled with all he needs for school, Kulinski said.
"I have seen kids come into school who don't have what they need," she said. "And if they don't have the things they need, how can they succeed? They can't."
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163; email: tmchale@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @toddmchale
Farmers market really taking root in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130807/NEWS/308079606By Chris Bishop
Posted: Aug 7, 2013
DELRAN -- Light rain couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of area residents as they looked for fresh produce at the township Farmers Market on Tuesday.
The market, next to the municipal building, received some special guests in the late afternoon.
"It's fun to see this market blossom," said state Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher, who spoke to several dozen people in attendance. "One of the best places to find the freshest Jersey Fresh produce is at a community farmers market."
Fisher and other state officials were part of an effort to celebrate Farmers Market Week in New Jersey, which runs until Friday.
The importance of farmers markets wasn't lost on others attending.
State Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said she was growing corn and tomatoes in her backyard in Princeton with the help of her 2-year-old son.
"He enjoys watering the garden," O'Dowd said.
She reminded the visitors about the value of the state Women, Infants and Children and Senior Farmers Market nutrition programs.
"I encourage all residents to take advantage of our farmers markets," said O'Dowd, who oversees a staff of more than 1,200 and a budget of $1.9 billion.
She noted that the Senior Farmers Market and WIC programs provided healthy options to more than 105,000 seniors and low-income women in 2012.
Also speaking at the market was Patricia Dombroski, the federal administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service's Mid-Atlantic Region.
"Farmers markets like this one in Delran are a win-win," Dombroski said. "Participants benefit from healthy local produce, and farmers benefit from having additional customers."
Putting together a farmers market in Delran wasn't easy, said Township Councilwoman Lona Pangia, who attended and has been active in promoting the event. Yet the loyalty of customers has been steady, she said.
"We have had rain almost every week," Pangia said. "But it doesn't stop the people from coming out."
She said the event averaged about 400 cars each time and was supported by 20 volunteers who put in about 100 hours a week.
The hard work paid off, according to vendor Hugh Pribell, a honey producer in Mansfield who has attended the market since it opened in mid-June.
"This is a great event," Pribell said, adding that it was difficult to put together a farmers market because of the needs of finding a location and flexibility.
The township market operates from 4 to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and has four farmers as well as a number of related vendors.
Agriculture is still a big deal in New Jersey, despite the well-known name of its turnpike and its reputation for highways and housing.
According to a federal and state agricultural annual report, New Jersey is third in the nation for production of cranberries and fourth in blueberries, peaches and bell peppers.
Its farm sector also grows other green stuff: cash. State agriculture officials said that in 2012, the 10,300 farms generated cash receipts of $1.1 billion. Cash receipts for fruits and vegetables were $428.8 million.
To locate a nearby farmers market, visit www.jerseyfresh.nj.gov.
Chris Bishop: 609-871-8140; email: cbishop@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @chrisleebishop
Grandfather, granddaughter bridge generation gap in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20131001/LIFESTYLE/310019756By Sally Friedman
Posted: Oct 1, 2013
DELRAN -- Some might see them as a generational "odd couple." But that doesn't bother either Fred Lopez or his granddaughter, Danielle Lopez. They are housemates, with each delighting in their togetherness, and also in the fact that there is still space for separateness.
"This arrangement is wonderful for both of us," said 26-year-old Danielle, noting that her grandfather loves the company, and she welcomes spending time with him.
"Danielle definitely adds a lot of spunk and spirit to this household, and having her around really isn't a novelty. When my late wife was ailing, she spent a great deal of time with us," said Fred.
A year ago, Danielle arrived to stay. She was ready for a fresh start herself, and the time was right for her to leave her apartment in West Chester, Pa.
While there are no formal "rules of the road," grandfather and granddaughter have evolved into a harmonious unit. The design of their home in the Ashley Crossing community actually is ideal.
Danielle occupies the lower level, one with a decidedly more feminine feel, while Fred occupies the main level. And there's lots of time for sharing conversation, meals and "Jeopardy," complete with good-natured competition.
"I'm making a life on this side of the river, and Pop is already settled here, so his life has not been disrupted" said Danielle, who has landed a job in sales and is a part-time college student hoping for a journalism career.
The arrangement might not work as well as it does if there were tight space, or issues over who does meal preparation. But the kitchen is ample, and Grandpa Lopez is an accomplished cook with several specialties that keep them both happy.
Their home is a testament to family in many areas. Fred's late wife, Evelyn, was an accomplished artist whose works are everywhere. One wall is alive with "ancestor pictures." and both Fred and Evelyn's families are represented through the generations, a reminder for Danielle of her roots.
Fred Lopez grew up in Newark in a household that can only be described as "lively" given the presence of five brothers close in age. His father was born in Spain, and was a stationary engineer. Even as a young man, Fred Lopez found his voice in theater, including the years when he worked for the Social Security Administration, rising to area director in charge of 17 offices. Later, as the deputy commissioner of labor in the administration of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, he still continued acting.
His credits ranged from regional theater in the New York area to community theater in South Jersey.
"I didn't inherit that talent from Pop," said Danielle, who admittedly freezes at the thought of auditioning.
But one thing did take from Fred: the love of travel.
The two have visited London, Montreal, San Francisco and spots along the East Coast, and love experiencing new places. But they also are happy to return to their Delran home.
A collection of miniature homes are among their collectibles, a tribute to how both feel about the joys of a house as haven.
Both grandfather and granddaughter enjoy a deck off the living room which lends the aura of being out in a treehouse, surrounded by leafy trees and greenery.
At the front door entry to this intergenerational house is a small sign which sums up their feelings about what the home means to them:
It simply reads "Sunshine, laughter and friends are always welcome!"
Delran Scout troop gets 5 new Eagles, with 6th on the way
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140601/NEWS/306019724By Steven Hart
Posted: Jun 1, 2014
DELRAN -- They were five friends who joined Boy Scout Troop 25 as a group and discovered they liked it enough to stay with it. And, as a group, they received Scouting's highest honor in a Sunday afternoon ceremony at the Church of the Holy Name.
While the hard work and dedication shown by Bryant Murt, Kevin Bryson, John McCann, Charles Francis and Connor Murt, all 18, were impressive in their own right, the fact that five young men would become Eagle Scouts on the same day, and from the same troop, made it all the more remarkable. Two of the members, Bryant and Connor Murt, are triplet brothers, whose sister, for obvious reasons, did not join Troop 25.
On top of that, a sixth member of Troop 25, Samuel Stephenson, will get his Eagle badge in a separate ceremony in two weeks, said David Denney, assistant scoutmaster.
"I don't know if it's Guinness Book material, but I'm sure it puts Troop 25 in the very top portion," Denney said. "In one of the bigger troops you might expect to see this, but Troop 25 only has about 25, 30 members. That's incredible."
Denny was scoutmaster and leader of Troop 25 as the five young men accumulated the badges and accomplishments. With a few dozen relatives, friends and fellow Scouts in the hall, the mutual affection was obvious as the Scouts spoke of their years in the troop.
"I joined in the eighth grade because my friends all joined," Bryant said. "I made a lot of memories with my best friends."
"I loved it," said Connor Murt. "If I could do it all over, I'd join in again."
Getting to be an Eagle Scout is fun the hard way.
Bryant Murt's project involved stripping off lead paint from a 15-foot cemetery crucifix in Riverside, then repainting it and installing solar-powered lights for nighttime illumination. For good measure, he installed similar lights in a garden area he built around the cemetery's flagpole.
Kevin Bryson built a 12-by-18-foot pond for turtles and fish at a local elementary school, so the children could study water life for their science classes.
John McCann completely organized a computer database of Holy Name parishioners.
Charles Francis built a 12-foot-long bridge at Rancocas State Forest in Hainesport, a project that required him to haul in lumber and materials through a little less than a mile of woodlands.
Connor Murt repainted the curbs at St. Peter Cemetery, power-washed the mausoleum and redid areas of landscaping.
Gary Catrambone, president of the Delran Township Council, was on hand to congratulate the group. He said the five young men "are in very good company."
"Only 12 people got to walk on the moon and two of them were Eagle Scouts," Catrambone said. He listed former U.S. President Gerald Ford, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, filmmaker Steven Spielberg "and over 25 astronauts" as other notables who have worn the Eagle badge.
"Be prepared," Catrambone said, because they are going to have some amazing lives."
The new Eagle Scouts are Delran High School seniors who will graduate June 19.
Bryant Murt plans to become an Air Force pilot after securing an associate degree from Burlington County College and then finishing with an engineering degree at the College of New Jersey.
Kevin Bryson has a three-year Army ROTC scholarship to the College of New Jersey, where he will study political science.
John McCann is bound for La Salle University to study chemistry.
Charles Francis is going for a master's degree in chemical engineering at Wilkes University.
Connor Murt joined Air National Guard and will leave for basic training in July. After that he's set his sights on the Air Force.
Steven Hart: 609-871-8050; email; shart@calkins.com
Relay for Life of Delran slated for Saturday
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140604/NEWS/306049604By Todd McHale
Posted: Jun 4, 2014DELRAN -- Hundreds hope to make strides in fighting a deadly disease this weekend in the Relay for Life of Delran.
The annual fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society kicks off Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Delran High School football field and runs for 12 hours.
Relay for Life raises money for research, education, advocacy and patient services for the American Cancer Society. The event also celebrates those touched by cancer, including patients, survivors and their families.
"This is our eighth year, and we have some very high expectations and goals," said Gina Reed, publicity chairwoman. "Our fundraising goal is $140,000, 130 teams and 115 survivors."
More than 1,300 people from the area are expected to participate. The event also includes live entertainment, children's activities, music, video games, theme laps and contests designed to keep everyone involved throughout the night.
At nightfall, participants will light hundreds of luminaria candles around the track in a moving ceremony to honor cancer survivors as well as friends and family members lost to the disease.
Organizers urge even more people to come out.
"We are hoping to attract more survivors and caregivers to share their stories of their journey with cancer," Reed said. "By sharing their stories, we hope to raise more money for the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, which is a place to stay for cancer patients and their caregivers, who must travel away from home for treatment so they can concentrate on getting well."
The 2014 theme is "Pass Go for a Cure," after the popular board game Monopoly.
To gear up for Relay, teams have been raising money for several months through a host of events, including comedy nights, car washes, all-you-can-eat-wings nights, casino bus trips and ice cream socials.
Organizers said the outpouring of support has been exciting.
"Participants understand how important Relay is and how it makes a difference, as the money raised goes directly to research, education, advocacy and support," said Edward Anderson, a co-chairman of the event with Kristi Howell.
For last year's effort, the local Relay for Life was recognized for Best Team Retention, Top Survivor Participation and Top Fundraising Event during the Southern NJ Summit of the American Cancer Society.
For more information, or to walk in the survivors lap, form a team or volunteer, visit www.relayforlife.org/delrannj.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163;
email: tmchale@calkins.com;
Twitter: @toddmchale
Scout News
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140713/NEWS/307139684Posted: Jul 13, 2014
Daniel Comeau, a recent graduate of Bordentown Regional Middle School and Life Scout with Bordentown Troop 13, completed his Eagle Scout project at Peter Muschal School. Daniel installed two benches and a patio area in front of the school. The project took over 200 manhours to complete including a year of planning.
Raymond Burgess of Boy Scout Troop 17 in Delran has earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He collected more than $5,000 worth of personal care supplies for the American Red Cross at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to distribute to the men and women stationed there and their families.
Lemonade Kaitie: Wild for animals
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140801/NEWS/308019599Posted: Aug 1, 2014
Three enterprising girls have committed themselves to raising money for animals this summer at Kaitie's Korner Lemonade Strand at Arch and Fifth streets in Delran. Kaitie Thomas, 12; Gabbie Leahy, 10; and Cate Cinti, 11, sell two kinds of lemonade, ice tea and bottled water at the stand every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All proceeds benefit area animal shelters, especially Paws Farms Nature Center in Mount Laurel and Almost Home Animal Shelter in Pennsauken.
Soccer: Lloyd comes home for camp
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140809/SPORTS/308099908By Joe Tansey
Posted: Aug 9, 2014
MEDFORD -- There's nothing glamorous about the field Carli Lloyd practices on, but that doesn't mean it can't produce another superstar of women's soccer.
Lloyd, who currently plays for the Western New York Flash of the National Women's Soccer League, was back on the field she grew up on for two four-hour camps Saturday at the Universal Soccer Academy.
"I'm just like them, I started off here and played for the Medford Strikers," Lloyd said. "This is where I train now. It's nothing glamorous. There's no nets on the goals, it's bumpy, but this is where I started. There's been some ups and downs, it hasn't been easy, but everyone starts somewhere."
During the camps, Lloyd put the players through her own personal routine, which gave the athletes a chance to see how a professional of the women's game prepares.
"Over the last three to four years, my camps have done real well. It's great to see the turnout and the numbers," she said. "I think what's special and unique about my camp is this is a real-life experience. Everything that they do is what I do. This is pretty much my training regimen."
Another focal point is the message the Delran native delivers about the off-the-field mentality someone must have in order to succeed.
"They also get to hear from me about my off-the-field habits and my on-the-field habits, ask any questions they like," said Lloyd, who starred at Delran High and Rutgers University on her way to the U.S. Olympic and World Cup teams.
"I really pride myself about being a good role model on and off the field. I think if you have a good work ethic of coming to training and giving 100 percent, then that's going to translate to school and other daily activities. But if you show up and you're lazy and take short cuts, you're most likely doing that in other things as well."
Lloyd and the Flash, 2013 NWSL runners-up, are a few points out of a playoff position with a few games left in the regular season.
"It's been a tough season, but overall I'm happy with my performance," she said. "You're gonna win some, you're gonna lose some, but the most important thing is keep focusing and preparing."
The bigger goal in Lloyd's future is making it on to the 2015 Women's World Cup roster. The first step in that process will come at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, where the CONCACAF semifinals and final will be held Oct. 24 and 26.
"I love playing in front of a home crowd, but at the same time it can be a distraction," Lloyd said. "I have to keep in mind that I'm there to purely focus (on qualifying for the World Cup). It's awesome, and I'm super excited . . . great field, great stadium, great for me being right home."
The quest for the World Cup in 2015 brings on a bigger significance for Lloyd, and most of the veterans on the team, since the United States hasn't won the trophy since 1999.
"I don't think there's one single person on our team that doesn't want (to win the World Cup)," she said.
As for whether she delivers another game-winning goal on the big stage, Lloyd says she is up for it.
"That would be the plan," she said. "That's when I like to shine."
Shear magic: Plaza Barber Hairstyling
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140825/NEWS/308259748By Eric Herr
Posted: Aug 25, 2014
Long before the days of email, Iphones, text messaging and social media, the local barber shop was the place to get the scoop on what was going on.
Whether it was catching up on gossip, keeping tabs on community news and activities or maybe even crooning a few tunes with three other guys in that unmistakeable four-part harmony barbershop style, the corner barbershop was always buzzing with activity.
Indeed, the quintessential barbershop, perhaps best captured in American artist Norman Rockwell's "Shuffleton's Barbershop," will never fade into oblivion -- and certainly not if owner of Plaza Barber Hairstyling, Joe Melchiorre, can help it.
Joe's shop, on Mount Holly Road in Burlington, is reminiscent of a bygone era.
They come from near and far, for great cuts, good conversation and that personal touch.
"Unlike a lot of places, we do more traditional scissor and comb work, which allows for better control and more precise overall shaping", explains Joe, noting that since everyone's hair is different, every haircut must be different, too.
It's a formula that keeps customers like Gregg Atzert of Delran coming back year after year.
"The quality of Joe's haircuts are always great, but another reason I come here is because I was Joe's football coach at Holy Cross High School, back in the late 1960's.
I happen to know some of Joe's old teammates from Holy Cross are customers, so I can always catch up on what's going on with them, too," Atzert says with a smile.
Then there's Loui and Tony Mastoris, who along with their dad, John, have been coming to the shop for at least 10 years.
"It's really become a bonding thing for them, because it's something they all do together," observes mom and wife, Eleni Mastoris, who drove her sons in for their back to school cuts.
The business, now in it's third generation, started with Joe's father, Nicholas, who cut hair in the basement of his Delaware County, Pennsylvania home in the early 1950's.
Nicholas eventually outgrew his home based business and moved to what was then The Willingboro Plaza, now called Towne Center, in 1959.
Fast forward a few decades and another couple of moves later and we find Joe, celebrating 55 years in business at his current Springside Commons Shopping Center location, which opened in March.
Joe, Jr., the oldest of three sons, along with Bernice McNulty of Swedesboro and Drema Banks of Millville all help to keep the steady stream of customers flowing smoothly.
"We offer a variety of traditional and sometimes not so traditional cuts and hairstyling plus perms, color, shampooing and more for men, women and children of all ages. Whatever you want we can do," says Bernice, adding that part of the fun is never quite knowing what the next day will bring.
As for Joe, Jr., it's all about fine tuning his craft and carrying on the family tradition.
"I learn so much from our customers for sure, but it's not everyone who gets to work alongside their father every day," said Joe, Jr.
"Like anything you love doing, it becomes part of you. It's just like breathing in that you don't even think about it," said barber and stylist Joe Melchiorre.
Delran native’s ‘Quest’ makes her the ultimate hero
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140917/LIFESTYLE/309179688By Mariel Carbone
Posted: Sep 17, 2014
Jousting, spearing and sword fighting.
It may sound like scenes from a mystical movie or video game, but this was all part of everyday reality for one Delran native.
Lina Carollo was deemed the "ultimate hero" after she was announced the winner of the ABC reality show "The Quest" last Thursday.
Produced in conjunction by the executive producer of "Lord of the Rings" and the creators and producers of "The Amazing Race," "The Quest," which was filmed in Austria, is a reality game show that takes 12 contestants into a world of magic and fantasy. The players compete in themed challenges based on a scripted story line.
One by one, as players lose challenges, they are voted off by their fellow "paladins," the name given to the players, until two contestants remain. The final two compete for the winning title.
"I've known (I won) since last year but to let the secret out is so relieving," said Carollo.
The journey began for Carollo after hearing several people talking about the show. After doing some research she was immediately intrigued by what she described as a very positive show. With that she decided to audition.
Carollo, as well as the rest of the cast, were put through a series of interviews to determine who would be picked to compete.
"They were very, very basic interviews, almost like a job interview," said Carollo. "They wanted real people with real stories, they didn't have us do any challenges or anything like that."
Once the 12 finalists were selected, they were notified and told they would leave in one week to begin filming. The players were not told what challenges they would be given, where they were going or the storyline of the show. As it progressed, the players found out about the story as it was happening, just as the audience did. Players were totally immersed in this fantasy world, she said.
"They gave us a list of things to pack and I got there and the first thing they did was take our suitcases away ... and they took our technology away," said Carollo.
Carollo said this was the most difficult part. Players were unable to communicate with family, friends or the outside world. But, going through the experience on her own helped her grow, she said.
Throughout the show players competed in challenges such as mastering horsemanship skills, spear throwing, smashing skulls with a hammer, and battle dome competitions. As different contestants won different challenges they were awarded with badges such as the Mark of Leadership, the Mark of Intelligence and the Mark of Wisdom, among others.
Making it to the final two episodes -- aired back to back -- Carollo competed against Andrew Frazer and Shondo Blades. She believed both were stronger competitors than herself, but that didn't stop her.
"I just told myself to go in this with a fresh start. I knew what my weaknesses were at that point so that was an advantage," said Carollo.
That mindset clearly benefited her. She moved on to the final two, heading off against Frazer.
Carollo won the game after shooting a bull's eye target across a lake, which banished her final opponent. She was then able to reassemble the "Sunspear," which brought back all of the banished paladins on the show, providing her with an army so she was able to ultimately save the day.
"(Winning) was the number one best moment of my life," said Carollo. "I'm cheering so hard at the end, I was so ecstatic and just so happy."
Although she gained no actual prize from winning the show, Carollo said the experience in itself was the prize.
With the show wrapped up, Carollo is now pursing a career as a school counselor and living in Los Angeles, but returns to New Jersey often to visit her family and help work at their Evesham restaurant Casa Carollo.
She attributes her success on the show to her roots.
"The influence of my family, that really is a big part of my life and where I am today. Seeing my parents' and my brothers' work ethic has shown me anything really is possible," said Carollo.
Episodes of "The Quest" can be viewed online at abc.go.com. You can also keep up with Lina by following her on Twitter @TheLinaCarollo.
Mariel Carbone: 609-871-8055; mcarbone
@calkins.com; Twitter: @Mariel_BCT
Veterans Day events planned around Burlington County
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20141111/NEWS/311119673By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Posted: Nov 11, 2014
Patriotic citizens can choose from an assortment of ceremonies, parades and observances to attend in honor of military heroes on Veterans Day.
Following are some of the events being held around Burlington County:
Burlington City: The annual parade will proceed along High Street, starting at 10 a.m. at the Hope Steam firehouse on the Riverfront Promenade and ending at the American Legion Post 79, across from City Hall.
Burlington Township: The lights on the Tree of Honor will be illuminated at the Masonic Home of New Jersey at 902 Jacksonville Road.
Hainesport: A wreath presentation will be at 8 a.m. at the war monument in front of the municipal building at 1 Hainesport Centre Blvd.
Medford: Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7677 will hold a ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Medford Memorial Community Center at 21 S. Main St.
Moorestown: Moorestown High School will host an assembly at 9 a.m. at the Moorestown Arts Center at 350 Bridgeboro Road.
Mount Holly: The township will hold a ceremony at 11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park at High and Ridgley streets. Township Manager Eric Berry and Detective Sgt. William Fields will dedicate wreaths. The gathering will begin about 10:30.
North Hanover: Gov. Chris Christie will join an observance at 11 a.m. at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 350 Province Line Road.
WEDNESDAY
Delran: An appreciation ceremony honoring veterans from Burlington County will be at 6 p.m. at the municipal building at 950 Chester Ave.
SATURDAY
Edgewater Park: Veterans and community members are invited to a dinner, featuring a POW/MIA ceremony, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Elks Lodge at 315 Green St. The cost is $10, $6 for children, free for veterans.
A heartfelt thank-you from the D’Amico family
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150208/OPINION/302089595Posted: Feb 8, 2015
The D'Amico family -- Nicole, Tessa, Carmella, Ted, Marie and Victoria -- wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming outpouring of support from family; friends; the Delran and Riverside communities; Delran, Riverside and NJ Transit police officers and rescue workers; and the many perfect strangers who reached out to us in our grief and sadness over the tragic death of baby Johnny, our only son, brother, grandson and nephew.
We will remember with kindness all of those who cried with us; said a kind word; offered a hug; attended the vigil; lit a candle; prayed with or for us; sent a card, flowers, food or other gift; made a donation; attended the ceremony; or just thought about us, especially Jess Workman, who set up the online donation site at www.gofundme.com/kd3y48, which continues to grow every day; Jeremy Kopp and his wonderful staff at the Delran Staples, who generously created, free of charge, the reproductions and enlargements of photos used at the vigil; the kind man who helped nail the photos to the telephone pole at the memorial site when the duct tape we used wasn't quite enough; John D'Amico, who is not a relative, of First Class Luxury Limousine in Willingboro, who generously donated a limousine for my family for the day of the funeral; and Natalie Labarge of Sweeney Funeral Home in Riverside, who went above and beyond by allowing Johnny's mom, Nicole, to spend a few more precious hours alone with her son the night before the funeral service and made sure favorite photos from our family were ready for all to view, providing a lasting memory of this perfect, beautiful boy, who now smiles down on all of us from heaven.
Marie D'Amico
Delran
Residents hit tracks across Burlington County to fight cancer for Relay for Life
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150528/NEWS/305289669By Todd McHale
Posted: May 28, 2015Relay for Life is coming soon -- and often.
Over the next two weekends, the annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society will be held in Mount Laurel, Evesham, Moorestown, Medford and Delran.
Organizers expect hundreds to come out, but they'd like even more to attend.
"Anybody is welcome to our Relay events," said Debbie Cooney, senior manager of Relay for Life Southwest New Jersey. "It's an empowering experience."
Relay for Life is not only a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, but it also gives participants a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease.
Founded in 1985 by a Washington surgeon, Relay for Life draws more than 4 million people in over 20 countries. At each event, individuals and teams take turns continuously walking around a track to raise money to fight cancer.
"Our event will host over 600 participants involved in the celebration, with live entertainment, children's activities, theme laps, and contests to keep the momentum up," said Allie Stefencavage, of the Relay for Life of River Towns, which will be held at Delran High School on Hartford Road from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. June 6.
"At nightfall, we light hundreds of luminaria candles around the track in a moving ceremony to honor cancer survivors as well as friends and family members lost to this dreaded disease," Stefencavage said. "Participants understand how important Relay is and how it makes a difference, as the money raised goes directly to research, education, advocacy and support."
The name of the Delran event was changed this year to encourage members of neighboring communities Beverly, Burlington City, Burlington Township, Cinnaminson, Delanco, Edgewater Park, Palmyra, Riverside, Riverton and Willingboro to join.
On Friday night, the effort in Burlington County kicks off with the Relay for Life of Mount Laurel at 6 p.m. at Lenape High School on Hartford Road in Medford.
Evesham's Relay for Life of Marlton will follow Saturday from noon to 1 a.m. at Cherokee High School on Tomlinson Mill Road.
Next week, Moorestown will host its first Relay at the high school on Bridgeboro Road from 6 p.m. until midnight June 5.
"What makes Moorestown's relay so incredible is it was started by a high school freshman," Cooney said.
The Relay for Life of Medford rounds out the events June 6 at Freedom Park on Union Street from 8 a.m. until the next morning.
"Medford is one of our long-standing events," Cooney said. "It's one of the few 24-hour events."
In April, Florence held its Relay, which organizers called a success.
"Our entire region is doing very well," Cooney said.
For more information or to donate to the cause, visit RelayForLife.org or call 800-227-2345.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163;
email: tmchale@calkins.com; Twitter: @toddmchale
Inspired Delran fan hoping to meet Taylor Swift
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150609/LIFESTYLE/306099694By Kristen Coppock
Posted: Jun 9, 2015
DELRAN -- Taylor Swift songs have gotten Kelsey Goodwin through many of her medical treatments and hospitalizations over the years. So, it was only natural that Goodwin, a 19-year-old township resident, would want to attend a Swift concert and meet her idol.
A social media campaign launched by Goodwin's best friend could make it happen.
Hannah Magann, 19, said she wanted to spread the word about complex regional pain syndrome and share her BFF's journey with the sometimes-debilitating condition.
"It's nice to be a helping hand, and to maybe even show the world about this disease that's affecting a lot of people," Magann said.
Complex regional pain syndrome is a progressive disease of the autonomic nervous system. According to the organization American RSDHope, about 200,000 people in the United States are living with the condition. Anyone can develop it, but it affects mostly women.
The pain is often constant, extremely intense, and out of proportion to an injury. It also is described as a burning pain, according to American RSDHope. Other symptoms include inflammation that can lead to a rashlike appearance of the skin and excessive sweating, as well as spasms and insomnia. In some CRPS cases, there also is bone and muscle loss or changes, and swelling and stiffness in the joints.
Magann said she has watched her friend relearn how to walk, be unable to move an arm, and deal with many other incidents.
"I've been by her side through everything, and it's been tough seeing her go through (it)," said Magann, who also is Goodwin's neighbor.
Goodwin has credited Swift's music with helping her tap into her inner strength and keeping her motivated to persevere. The popular song "Shake It Off," which encourages listeners to not let negative things get them down, has particularly resonated with the patient.
"I like all of her stuff, the country and pop," Goodwin said. "I was so scared of what was to come in my future, but (Taylor Swift) taught me to be fearless."
The disease, combined with a case of postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which is characterized by a racing heartbeat and loss of consciousness when standing, has caused Goodwin to be hospitalized on multiple occasions, including a nine-week stay last summer and a monthlong admittance last fall. Her medical issues also have prevented her from attending Swift's concerts during the singer's previous tours.
Goodwin had purchased tickets for shows in the area that were part of those tours, as well as the upcoming 1989 World Tour concert Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
She said she feels well enough to attend, but is hoping to take the experience a step further with a face-to-face meeting with the artist.
"I'd be able to say thank you for everything," Goodwin said.
A Twitter account (@taylormeetkels) created by Magann for the effort went live Sunday evening, and a presence on Facebook and other social media sites followed. The women are encouraging supporters to use the hashtag "taylormeetkelsey" in hopes that the effort will go viral and attract the singer's attention. At press time, there were more than 275 followers, many of whom offered supportive messages.
They included Ani McHugh, a language arts teacher at Delran High School, who tweeted, "(Kelsey) is my former student & current hero. Nobody is more deserving."
And Twitter follower Kaitlyn Shawaryn tweeted, "(Kelsey) is one of the strongest and most inspirational girls I know and certainly deserves meeting (Taylor Swift)."
One day into the campaign, the popular social media outlet had already reached the 600 mark for shares known as retweets.
"We've already gotten so much feedback," Magann said. "To see so many responses, it made me cry."
A meeting with Swift isn't beyond the realm of possibility. The young singer has responded to similar requests in the past.
"She's really good to her fans," Goodwin said.
So far, it is unknown if her dream will be realized. The Burlington County Times was unsuccessful in reaching Swift or her representatives.
Kristen Coppock: 609-871-8073; email: kcoppock@calkins.com; Twitter: @kcoppockbct
Waitress at Delran diner picks up tab for 2 firefighters
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150724/NEWS/307249799By Associated Press
Posted: Jul 24, 2015
DELRAN -- Two Burlington County firefighters are paying it forward after a waitress picked up their $15 breakfast tab.
Tim Young, of the Mount Holly Fire Department, took Paul Hullings, of the Hainesport Fire Department, to eat at the Route 130 Diner after Hullings had spent 12 hours fighting a massive warehouse fire in North Brunswick on Wednesday.
Young told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that they turned the bill over and saw a note from waitress Liz Woodward, of Mount Laurel, saying she was paying for their meal. Woodward thanked them for their courage and bravery.
"I started tearing up, and it made me feel good -- us firefighters are wanted; people care about us," Hullings told the news station.
"I know it's been remarked as this extraordinary act. It's small. It's a little gesture," Woodward said.
The note on the bill read: "Your breakfast is on me today. Thank you for all that you do, for serving others and for running into the places everyone else runs away from. No matter your role, you are courageous, brave and strong. Thank you for being bold and badass every day.
Fueled by fire and driven by courage -- what an example you are. Get some rest!"
Young posted the note, which also included a drawing of a red firefighter's hat, on Facebook and learned that the waitress is trying to raise $80,000 to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for her paralyzed father, Steve, who suffered a brain aneurysm five years ago. She has raised $30,000 so far.
Hullings said they will do whatever they can to help, including holding a fundraiser.
Also, on his Facebook page, Young urged his followers to patronize Woodward at the diner and to "tip big."
For more information or to make a donation, visit Woodwardstrong.com or GoFundMe.com/Woodwardstrong.
Delran retiree, 85, takes 12,000-foot plunge
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150809/NEWS/308099759By Todd McHale
Posted: Aug 9, 2015
DELRAN -- Sometimes in life, you've got to jump when an opportunity presents itself.
Township resident Charles Perritt knows that all too well.
Without warning, the 85-year-old retired engineer decided to jump out of an airplane.
"I did it on a whim," Perritt said of his latest adventure. "Nobody knew I was going to do it. We were going to watch our granddaughters skydive on July 25, and when we got there, I said, 'I might do it.'"
"Might" turned to "did."
Perritt's wife, Terry, was stunned, but not really surprised.
"I knew he always wanted to do it, but I was a little worried," she said. "I kept thinking, 'He's too old to do this.'"
But that's just the way her spouse of more than six decades likes to live life. From rides in a World War II-era trainer jet, a glider and a hot-air balloon to an aerobatic flight in an open cockpit plane, Perritt loves it all.
So the longtime resident paid his fee, watched a safety video, agreed not to sue the company if anything went wrong -- and off he went.
"I had to sign my life away," Perritt said with a laugh. "I think I waivered everything."
After a little training and a long wait, he was ready to fly.
Perritt and his granddaughters, Michelle Perritt, 22, and Alison Leary, 27, along with her husband, Tim, all from West Chester, Pennsylvania, headed to the plane, but quickly learned that boarding the aircraft wasn't all that easy.
"Getting in was awful for me," he said. "They had steps, but the final step was pretty high. So I go to grab onto the side of the plane, and they say, 'Sir, you can't grab there.' So I had to crawl in. It was embarrassing."
With more than a dozen passengers and crew on board, the Freefall Adventures plane took off from the airport in Williamstown, Gloucester County.
At 6,000 feet, the first skydiver jumped. A few minutes later, two women leaped. Then it was time for Perritt to take the plunge with his tandem partner.
The two inched toward the door, but got held up briefly to go over some final instructions.
"I think the guy behind me was ready to push us out," Perritt said.
No need. With a couple of last words of advice, the two rolled out, plummeting at a high rate of speed toward the ground.
"I wasn't nervous until I looked down at 12,000 feet," Perritt said. "It was a long way down."
The rush of air was more than he expected.
"The free fall was very bumpy," he said. "You're falling free. I was supposed to pull the rip cord, but I didn't. He was supposed to tap me on the shoulder, but I guess I didn't feel it. So he pulled it.
"Then there's a sudden jerk, and the strap came up around my neck, and I say, 'I can't breathe,'" he continued. "It was choking me."
Immediately, his partner adjusted the strap, and the two began their descent.
Perritt was so excited about the jump that he didn't even notice he had cut his shin on the way out of the plane.
"When he comes down, you can see his leg bleeding like fury," his wife said.
As the duo neared the ground, Perritt was told to lift up his legs for the landing.
"I thought maybe we would just step off, but no," he said.
As it turned out, Perritt's foot got too low, hit the ground, and flipped both of them over.
"He was supposed to land standing, (but) he was on his face," Terry Perritt said, as the couple chuckled.
Crash landings seem to be a habit for Perritt.
"When I went on the hot-air balloon ride, we had a crash landing in the woods," he said, after a plane crossed too close to their route.
Even though Perritt is still recovering from the cuts and scrapes he suffered during his jump and landing, he wouldn't change a thing, except for possibly going during the week to avoid the long wait.
And he would encourage others to try skydiving, no matter how old they are, or to do whatever makes them happy.
"I would say if you want to do it, just go for it," Perritt said.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163;
email: tmchale@calkins.com;
Twitter: @toddmchale
Turkish Fest welcomes all in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150830/NEWS/308309718By Alexis Sachdev
Posted: Aug 30, 2015
Traditional Turkish folk music carried over tents and stands, while thousands of attendees munched on homemade stuffed grape leaves and shish kabob browsing for artisan scarves, jewelry and tea sets.
The Turkish Cultural Center of New Jersey's inaugural Turkish Fest took over Delran Community Park on Sunday afternoon, welcoming families to partake in the sights and sounds of the Eastern European country.
"The food," Linh Nguyen said laughing when asked what brought her to the outdoor festival. Nguyen, 25, has traveled through the Middle East and said she loves Middle Eastern food, which has influenced much of Turkey's culinary traditions.
Hakan Karahan, a driving force behind the festival's organization and a member of TCCNJ, said Delran and the surrounding area has a large Turkish community that spans into the tens of thousands, but "nobody has done anything to promote our culture," he said.
Wanting to spread Turkey's music, food and wares to others, of Turkish descent or otherwise, Karahan and fellow TCCNJ members of the Burlington County branch laid foundation for the festival just two months ago.
"Normally, things like this you start a year in advance," Karahan said, adding that he thinks he and fellow members were successful despite the time crunch and are happy to be sharing their native culture with others.
"It brings people together," the business owner said of the event. "I'm enjoying it because more of other people are coming out, it's not just Turks."
Indeed, the Turkish community in the county has been burgeoning, with a number of Turkish-owned restaurants opening, including Liberty Two Diner in Bordentown and Efes Market in Delran, both on Route 130.
As festival-goers lounged on luxurious oriental carpets and floor poufs, sipping hot tea under the blistering summer sun, Nguyen and Vasiljon Cobo, of Northeast Philadelphia, made their way past bounce houses to the food stalls.
Nguyen echoed Karahan's sentiment, saying she was pleased that the center wanted to open its culture to others.
"It's really great to blend ideas, and food and other cultures, and understand other people around you," the Willingboro resident said.
Cobo, 23, is from Bulgaria. He said Turkey bears many similarities to Bulgaria, but enjoys the opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation for other cultures
On whether the center will throw another festival in the future, Blank was confident that would happen. "I know we're going to make a lot of mistakes, but, as they say, you learn from your mistakes.
"Next year it's going to be even better."
Delran guitarist, 16, wows classic rock legends, fans alike
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150908/NEWS/309089767By Joe Green
Posted: Sep 8, 2015
DELRAN -- The February snow had begun to lay outside the Sands Bethlehem Event Center when 16-year-old Matt Stanley arrived with his band, the Land of Ozz.
The concert at the Pennsylvania venue was the premier of the Ozzy Osbourne tribute band in which Matt, a junior at Delran High School, and his father, Mike Stanley, play guitar.
To old-school classic rock fans, the teen must have seemed out of place. Many had their doubts he could hold his own onstage.
They'd quickly learn otherwise.
A few songs in, the band members encountered a wiring problem with one of their amps, and needed to make a quick fix. They did just that, and Matt was unfazed.
"He was doing a guitar solo, and I looked out at the audience and saw this sea of hands up in the air," Mike Stanley said.
"I looked over at Matt, and it was like he had arrived."
It wouldn't be the last time the youngster whom many are calling a guitar prodigy blew away a crowd of rock gurus.
Following this past winter's Bethlehem show and others, Matt has received accolades from the likes of Sammy Hagar, and fellow guitarists regularly line up to talk shop with the young phenom.
An early start
Guitars and rock accoutrements have never been foreign to Matt Stanley. His father was in a band during his own youth and worked as a full-time musician. But even after settling down to a day job and family, his love of rock never ceased.
"We always had guitars laying around the house," Matt said. "My dad had been playing since he was my age. When I was about 7 or 8, I wanted a guitar for Christmas."
He soon began dabbling in picking the strings, but his interest didn't stick at first.
Then around age 12, he began playing the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" video games, and he was noticeably good. That's when he got into playing the real thing.
"He just picked it up very quickly," Mike Stanley said of his son's aptitude for music. "But I didn't want to push him."
Nonetheless, Matt's skills progressed over the next few years, as did his enthusiasm. It was just last summer, when he was 15, that he showed just how far he'd come.
He'd been listening to Osbourne's 1981 album "Diary of a Madman" and had been learning to play parts of it on his own.
"One day, I just woke up and decided to learn it all," Matt said. He spent the day going through the entire album, then looked for his father.
"He came to me and said, 'Hey, Dad, come check this out,' " Stanley recalled.
He was astounded to hear a guitar rendition of "Diary of a Madman" in its entirety.
"It was note for note, and I was blown away," Stanley said. "I looked at him and said, 'What we should do is start an Ozzy band.' "
He reached out to Paul Picarri, a producer and songwriter whose projects included helping start Get the Led Out, a Led Zeppelin tribute band whose September tour schedule alone stretches from Atlantic City to Kirkland, Washington.
The men spoke of recreating the sound of the two albums Osbourne recorded with legendary guitarist Randy Rhoads: "Diary of a Madman" and 1980's "Blizzard of Ozz."
The idea was to harness Matt's uncanny ability to imitate Rhoads' trend-setting style, in which he blended classical influences with heavy metal.
"He had a very particular sound and style," Stanley said of the guitarist who died in a 1982 plane crash at age 25. "And I've never heard anyone play as close to his style as Matt.
"After each show, there's a line of guitar players asking him how he does it."
Ozzy all over again
Matt's unique talent and the idea of an Osbourne tribute band appealed to Picarri, who also became the new band's bass player. As for lead vocals, the band members decided to go for the singer they considered the obvious choice.
Enter Stephen Desko, a singer who naturally resembles the Ozzy of the '80s and '90s, aside from speaking and singing just like the self-proclaimed "Prince of Darkness."
At the time, Desko was still performing with his band the Ozzman Cometh, but he eventually agreed to join the budding group.
The Land of Ozz also added Tom "Stewart" Staszewski on drums and Mike "Viv" Vivial on keyboards.
The band has been rehearsing for shows Sept. 11 and 12 at Harrah's Casino in Chester, Pennsylvania. They practice on the same side of the Delaware at the Let There Be Rock School-Delco on MacDade Boulevard in Folsom.
Instructors there help developing groups gain and hone performance skills and practice together on-site. Genres are not limited to rock but, according to the school's website, range from that to country and even theater.
The Land of Ozz assembled at the school on a recent Wednesday night to rehearse for their upcoming show. They prepared the equipment in a small, second-floor studio with carpet, black walls, two sofas and a small wood bench. A large, ornate plate sat on top of a drum, serving as a makeshift coffee table of sorts.
The musicians went through sound checks and strummed out a few chords.
"It's gonna get loud in here," Desko said, as he approached the microphone and adjusted his classic, small-lens Ozzy sunglasses.
The group started going through the songs on "Diary of a Madman," in the order they appear on the album. They soon neared the end of the second, "Flying High Again," and the band's sound engineer, John Brady, walked in.
Brady has mixed for Jon Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp and other stars. As he listened to the evening's rehearsal, he signaled to the members from time to time to make adjustments.
Sitting on the sofa facing the band directly, he tapped his foot or bobbed his head to the beat, seeming pleased with what he heard as the group moved on to "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll."
World of possibilities
The title of the album's third song is fitting for Matt, a millennial who shows as much reverence for classic rock as any Generation Xer out there.
It's his favorite genre, he said one evening in the little, sound-insulated studio inside his home. Marshall amplifiers sat against one wall, along with foot pedals and other equipment.
Sitting in brackets on the wall or inside cases were more than a dozen guitars, many reminiscent of legends like Rhoads and Zakk Wylde.
Matt knows he wants to stick to it. He's just not sure in what form.
"I want to do something with the guitar," he said. "Whether it's giving lessons, being a teacher or being in a band.
"I just really like the classic rock sound, and think it's really cool to emulate it."
In the meantime, father and son are working on forming tour schedules. Land of Ozz shows have included appearances at the Treasure Lake Music Fest in Du Bois, Pennsylvania; Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Cumberland, Maryland; and a double bill at Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, with AC/DC tribute band Live/Wire, among others.
The group wants to perform at other midsize venues as well. The Sept. 11 and 12 shows at Harrah's will feature "Diary of a Madman" and "Blizzard of Ozz," respectively.
"We're trying to get a full schedule," Stanley said. "We'd like to get some endorsements for Matt. Maybe get him seen by a national artist, even a boy band that needs a sidekick hard rock guitar player."
But for now, Matt is drawing plenty of attention where he is. Whether it's in the form of a Hagar tweet praising his skills or the attention of seasoned rock professionals, he's had plenty of support.
And of course, that includes Dad, who usually plays rhythm guitar while Matt takes the lead. He doesn't mind a bit.
"If I were to play second fiddle to anyone, it would be him," he said.
Joe Green: 609-871-8064; email: jgreen@calkins.com; Twitter: @JoeGreenBCT
Vietnam War veterans to finally get welcome home, parade
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150910/NEWS/309109557By Todd McHale
Posted: Sep 10, 2015DELRAN -- A half century after the escalation of fighting in Vietnam, a local organization aims to give veterans of the war something that's long overdue -- a proper homecoming.
"It's time," Marine Corps veteran Thomas Farrell said. "This is the 50th anniversary of the commitment of offensive combat troops to Vietnam."
On Saturday, VFW Post 3020, with some assistance from the public, will host Welcome Home Vietnam Vets, complete with a parade and a variety of activities for the entire family. The public is invited.
The parade steps off at 1:30 p.m. from the Riverside municipal building on Pavilion Avenue and runs along Fairview Street to the post in Delran.
"We're looking to have between 400 and 500 veterans," said Farrell, a longtime member of the post who is helping to organize the event. "I'd love to see the streets packed with people to give the veterans the recognition they deserve.
"We've had I don't know how many homecomings for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and since the Vietnam veterans never had one, somebody thought it was about time. And everybody agreed let's do this and make sure everybody gets one parade and one welcome home," he said.
After the parade, veterans and their families will be honored for their service and invited to a celebration with food, beverages, entertainment and activities for the children at the post from 2 to 6 p.m.
"All Vietnam veterans and all military veterans are invited," said Farrell, who served in Vietnam in 1966 before being shot. "We don't care where they're from. We've got a bunch of them coming down from North Jersey."
Apparently the post and volunteers seemed to have tapped into something that's been desired by many for a long time.
"The reaction has been nothing but tremendous," Farrell said. "Every email and phone call gotten is, 'Where's the parade route and thank you so much. My father's been waiting, my brother's been waiting 50 years.' It's been nothing but positive, and we hope to keep it that way."
While the United States began assisting Vietnam with military trainers as far back as 1956, the first combat troops weren't sent to the country until nearly a decade later. By the time the last American troops left Vietnam in 1973, more than 58,000 U.S. service members had been killed in the war.
And now many believe the time has come to give thanks to all those who served.
"It's time," Farrell said. "It's been 50 years."
For those unable to walk but who would like to participate in the parade, the post plans have some trucks available for the veterans to ride in. Veterans who need assistance are asked to meet at the post on Fairview Street at 1 p.m. All others can meet at the start of the route in Riverside.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163; email: tmchale@calkins.com
Vietnam vets honored with welcome home parade
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150912/NEWS/309129846By Sean Patrick Murphy
Posted: Sep 12, 2015
DELRAN -- A giant American flag flapped in the breeze suspended from two firetruck ladders.
That was the backdrop for the Welcome Home Vietnam Vets parade and event held Saturday afternoon by VFW Post 3020.
Dozens of people lined the roadways waving American flags and cheering on the veterans who arrived at the post with fire engines, police cars and EMS vehicles blaring their sirens and displaying their lights. Motorcycles led the way as Scouts marched along the 1.1 mile route.
The parade started from the police station in Riverside to VFW Post 3020 in Delran.
Post Commander Todd Epperly said as many as 200 vets were on hand for the event.
He said the parade committee "did a fantastic job" in putting it together. It took three months and a little more than $5,000 to pull it all together.
Epperly also thanked the townships -- Delran, Riverside and Delanco -- that coordinated efforts to direct traffic and take part in the parade.
The event, which included a moon bounce and barbecue, took place 50 years after the commitment of offensive combat troops to Vietnam.
"It's important that they get their just due," Epperly said of Vietnam vets.
A Persian Gulf vet (he served from 1990-1995), Epperly said he got a parade when he came home.
Now VFW Post 3020 has a majority of Vietnam Vets in its membership.
Vietnam veteran Bob Gilbert remembers exactly how much time he spent in the Army: six years, three months and 18 days.
The Delran man, originally from Riverside, said he was stationed in Da Nang and laughed when asked about what kind of reception he got when he returned.
"Really there was no response," Gilbert said.
He said a fellow serviceman he arrived at the airport with in the U.S. had blood thrown at him by protesters. Gilbert added that he was hustled into a men's room so he could change into civilian clothing.
"It just wasn't good," he said.
"When we came home the VFWs and American Legions didn't want anything to do with us," Gilbert added. "They said, 'You didn't fight in a war.' "
He said that that's why Vietnam Veterans of America came about.
Gilbert spent 1970-1971 in Vietnam and saw some action.
"I was very lucky," he said. "The guys who came home they say we're heroes, we're not -- the guys that are on that wall in Washington, they're your heroes. They gave it everything and they didn't come home."
Delanco's Leo Ethier (known as "Smooth"), also served the Army in Vietnam from 1968-1970.
While he operated in the central highlands, his base was Dak To.
"It was a horrible response," he said of what faced him when he came home. "All of us were to the point where we didn't even want to talk to anyone because everybody was against us."
He also had to be put in civilian clothes because of protesters.
"They tagged you as a child killer and baby killer," Ethier said. "That wasn't the case at all. It just wasn't the way it was."
Saturday's event was important to him because he never had a welcome home parade.
"This is very important to the Vietnam vets," Ethier, vice president of Vietnam Vets of America Chapter 899, said. "It doesn't give me closure but it makes me realize people care and that's very important to us."
Harvey Crawford, of Pemberton Township, served in the Air Force for one and a half years in Vietnam. He was also based in Da Nang.
"This day is important because we went," Crawford said. "We went and a lot of people died in what my opinion was an absolutely useless endeavor. We should have never been there."
Carol Jacoby, of Westmont, was there to support her dad, Mike Bruckler, a Vietnam vet who served in the Army.
"I know that the Vietnam vets did not get the welcome home that they deserved and I know a lot of them were embarrassed and ashamed," the 39-year-old said. "This to me is long overdue for them. It makes me very proud to be a part of welcoming them home."
Two women wept and held each other, overcome with emotion when trying to articulate why this event was important for them.
Boy Scout Danny Dalbey, 14, said the event was a way of remembering all the vets lost in war.
"It's really important that we have this parade and event," the Riverside resident said.
James Hozier, also of Riverside, said he thinks Vietnam vets got a raw deal when they returned home.
"They need to remember what the Vietnam vets did for us, what they sacrificed for us even though we really didn't do much for them in return," the 25-year-old said.
While the United States began assisting Vietnam with military trainers as far back as 1956, the first combat troops weren't sent to the country until nearly a decade later. By the time the last American troops left Vietnam in 1973, more than 58,000 U.S. service members had been killed in the war.
Sean Patrick Murphy: 609-871-8068; email: smurphy@calkins.com; Twitter: @SMurphyBCT
Delran’s original soccer legend makes area return
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20150928/SPORTS/309289719By Mike Shute
Posted: Sep 28, 2015
One of the most accomplished men's soccer players in United States history marveled as Carli Lloyd historically powered the United States women's national team to a World Cup title this summer.
More remarkable, Peter Vermes and Lloyd both grew up in the 7.2-square mile township of Delran, both attended Delran High School, both played at Rutgers University, and both have represented their country in the Olympics and World Cup.
"There was instantaneous pride," Vermes said via telephone from Kansas City late last week. "There's a lot of connection there. It's one thing to just see all of those connections, but for her to do so well, it was tremendous.
"There's a lot of soccer tradition in Delran," said Vermes, the 1984 Delran High graduate who led the Bears boys' team to the first of their eight state championships back in 1983 by scoring the winning goal with less than 20 seconds left in overtime.
"I played for a coach in high school, Bob Surette, who was the ultimate when it came to hard work. You had to carry yourself every day. There's no doubt that I'm a big believer that the hardest steel has to go through the hottest fire. And I can tell you, I went through some fire in those young days.
"There's a blue-collar mentality in Delran that was always, especially when I was growing up, very prevalent. There's a toughness and I think that was really evident in (Carli's) play. The way she went about her evolution through the (World Cup) tournament, you could just see the way that she was playing.
"She was pushing her team along and at times she was pulling her team along. And, I really believe this, if she was not on that team, I think it would've been very difficult for them to have the kind of run that they did. She was that key player to the team. She was tremendous."
Vermes, who scored 109 career goals at Delran, became an all-American and was runner-up in the National Player of the Year voting in 1987, when he helped Rutgers to its first NCAA tournament appearance in 26 years. He was inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in 2013. But he never forgets his roots and so he was thrilled to see a fellow Delran native achieve at such a high level.
"I know where I'm from, I grew up in New Jersey, I grew up in Delran," said Vermes, whose name graces the Delran Soccer Club's fields on Tenby Chase Drive. "It is the basis and the foundation of everything of who I am today. So just from that standpoint alone, and just the connection to Delran, was everything and I was absolutely, incredibly impressed (with Carli), not just in the final but just her entire evolution through the group stage, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals.
"She was no doubt the leader of that team in her mentality and also in her play. It was great to see. I'm very, very happy for her and, more importantly, proud that she comes from the same city that I was from."
Vermes will be making a return trip to the Delaware Valley this week as the manager and technical director of Major League Soccer's Sporting KC. His team will play the Philadelphia Union in the U.S. Open Cup final on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, with the Lamar Hunt Cup up for grabs.
Vermes guided Sporting KC to the U.S. Open Cup title in 2012 by outlasting Seattle 3-2 in a penalty kick shootout after the two teams played to a 1-1 draw. Before he became coach, Vermes' team also won the cup in 2004 when it was known as the Kansas City Wizards.
Meanwhile, the Union are hosting the U.S. Open Cup final for the second straight year and are seeking redemption after losing 3-1 to Seattle at PPL Park in 2014.
Vermes, who grew up as a Philadelphia sports fan, knows that his team won't be welcomed warmly by Union fans.
"It's a great environment. The fans (in Philadelphia) are fantastic," said Vermes. "I grew up as a fan of the Eagles, the Flyers, the Sixers, Phillies. The bottom line, the fans are the fans (there) and I have an appreciation for their commitment to their teams, and the fact that they look to try and intimidate when other teams come in here. I'm used to it.
"We've played there many times and I don't expect it to be any different than any other time we've been there. They have a great following with the Sons of Ben. They've done a tremendous job and they were incredibly influential even before they had a team. That was an amazing aspect of it. That following is tremendous. We know that we're going into the den of the lion and we have an uphill climb playing away from home."
What about the opportunity of playing for a championship so close to home with many family members and close friends in attendance?
"I'm probably not that deep in thought about it," said Vermes, who led his team to the MLS Cup championship in 2013 and is the only person to win the MLS title as both a player and coach with the same team. "I'm more of a guy that thinks (that) whenever you get a chance to play for a championship, you're very privileged because those opportunities don't come around a lot.
"Obviously, coming back to that area is a part of it, for sure. I still have family, I have a tremendous amount of friends and everything back there. But, at the end of the day, I'm coming with the opposing team. So like I said, we're going into the den of the lion and everything is stacked up against us and all of the cards are in their favor. We realize that and we'll do the best we can to make a good match of it."
Coaches, report scores to: BCTsports@yahoo.com; 609-871-8081; Twitter: @BCTGameOn, #BCTsports
Golf: Fond memories of Willowbrook Country Club in Moorestown
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20151106/NEWS/311069712By Doug Hadden
Posted: Nov 6, 2015
It's difficult for Brian Feldschneider to walk his dog these days.
When Feldschneider, who lives near the site of the former Willowbrook Country Club in Moorestown, walks by the place where he worked since 1982, he now sees houses under construction where there used to be fairways and greens.
Willowbrook opened in 1968, Feldschneider became head professional in 1990 and the popular public course closed in December, 2013.
"It's desolate," Feldschneider said recently in his office at Golden Pheasant Golf Club, where he took the job as head pro in April, 2014. "Before I came here my first day, I actually went to Willowbrook and that was the first time it really hit me. That was the finality of it."
Feldschneider helped many Willowbrook members relocate to Ramblewood CC, but he still frequently gets to reminisce about his former course with players who now visit Golden Pheasant.
"They were the great times," Feldschneider said about the memories from Willowbrook. "I get more sentimental now because my dad just passed away in June and I get sentimental when someone talks to me about playing golf with my dad at Willowbrook.
"I'm just as comfortable here as I was at Willowbrook. Really great people and there's a lot of the same people. I love this business.
"My son (Josh) growing up there, my daughter (Taylor) working the beverage cart there -- those are the things that make me more emotional."
Josh was a standout golfer at Delran High before graduating in 2009, and he played at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Josh now has a master's degree in Business Finance, but keeps in touch with his golf roots by doing demo days for Titleist and FootJoy.
Champ x 2
Brian Catchpole won the Deerwood club championship nine times between 1996 and 2012 before moving to North Carolina. Catchpole, 57, recently completed a rare double at his new course, the Country Club at Whispering Pines, by winning the medal-play and match-play club championships in the same year.
Results
Philadelphia PGA: The Links' Dave Quinn defeated Philadelphia Cricket Club's Bill Sautter, 3 and 2, in the final of the section's prestigious Match Play Championship at Merion East. John DiMarco of Laurel Creek reached the semifinals of the 64-man event before losing to Sautter, 1 up.
Golf Association of Philadelphia: Little Mill's Troy Vannucci shot 1-under par 69 at Springhaven and finished third in the 58th annual Tournament of Champions, which is open only to club champions from area courses. Merchantville's Ryan Cass carded a 76, and Medford Village's Mike Korcuba shot 79.
In the Senior Division, Laurel Creek's Joe Russo made four birdies in a back-nine 31 on his way to a five-stroke victory, posting 5-under 65. Old York's Tom DiCinti tied for sixth at 76.
GAP Winter Series: Vannucci won the series opener, a Stableford event at Stone Harbor on Oct. 22, with 38 points and Little Mill's Michael Dunn was fourth. Rancocas' Sean Smith won the net division, and Medford Lakes' Tom Gramlich tied for first in the senior division.
In the second event at Concord on Oct. 27, Little Mill's Bernard Kelly won the senior division, and Moorestown Field Club's Jon Mabry was third.
If you have golf news from around the county, email pards440@me.com.
FOOTBALL: Sacca steps down at Burlington City
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20151214/sports/312149782By Joe Tansey
Posted: Dec 14, 2015
After four seasons as head football coach of the Burlington City Blue Devils, Tony Sacca is stepping down.
Sacca went 15-26 at Burlington City, including a 3-7 record in 2015, and one playoff win in 2013 over South Hunterdon.
The Delran High School graduate cited a lack of numbers as the main reason for his resignation.
"After four years of being the head coach, the program just wasn't going as well as I had hoped it would be," Sacca said. "The main reason I stepped down was the lack of numbers that we had, which a lot of Group 1 schools have this problem.
"We finished with 19 kids two years ago and 21 kids this year. As the head coach, that's my responsibility and I just didn't feel the program was where it should have been after four years. That's why I decided to step down."
The inability to field freshman and junior varsity squads was the main consequence of the lack of numbers.
"We already didn't have freshman football and we were unable to play any JV games the last two years," Sacca said. "It was at a point where I felt as though for me it was time to step down."
Sacca noted the 2013 victory over South Hunterdon in the Central Jersey Group 1 playoffs as one of his top moments with the Blue Devils.
"Two years ago, we won a playoff game and we made the playoffs this year," Sacca said. "But it was just my general feeling that this might be time for me to step down."
Burlington City fell to eventual Central Jersey Group 1 champion Shore in the quarterfinals of the playoffs this season.
Sacca had plenty of praise for the support he received from the community, which he believes will help the next head coach prosper.
"I wish them all the best of luck," Sacca said. "Without the support of the community, which you do get great support up there, it's impossible to be successful. We did get a lot of support from the town and from the school."
Coaches, report scores to: BCTsports@yahoo.com; Phone: 609-871-8081; Twitter: @BCTGameOn, #BCTsports?
Delran waitress, 90, is still serving it up at Applebee’s
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160208/NEWS/302089752By Kristina Scala
Posted: Feb 8, 2016
WESTAMPTON -- Katherine Walsh just celebrated her 90th birthday, but she's not ready to close out her tab to make way for retirement.
"I don't know how to relax," the longtime waitress said. "I just like to be a part of living."
For 13 years, the Delran resident has worked as a server at Applebee's on Burlington-Mount Holly Road, a busy place just off the New Jersey Turnpike exit.
Walsh, called "Miss Katherine" by her co-workers, is the oldest out of 40,000 Applebee's employees nationwide.
Yet she walks swiftly with a bit of pep in her step, while taking orders by memory and delivering food to tables with a smile on her face.
Despite turning 90 on Tuesday, it was a normal day on the job until Walsh was met with a surprise celebration hosted by her co-workers.
"She's like everyone's grandmother," said restaurant manager Ryan Zuvich, of Westampton.
Co-worker Kimberly Edge, of Burlington Township, said Walsh is a hard worker and kind to everyone who comes into the restaurant.
And she's been like that since she started, according to bartender Desiree Barker, who has worked with Walsh for 13 years.
Walsh, a widow, mother of eight and great-grandmother of four, said she's worked at a handful of restaurants before Applebee's. She said she's always worked and hasn't considered ending her long-standing career.
"I haven't really thought about (retirement)," she said. "I take every day as it comes. Maybe one day."
Kristina Scala: 609-871-8057; email: kscala@calkins.com; Twitter: @Scala_Kris
Burlington County seniors learn CPR compliments of Virtua
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160211/NEWS/302119675By Joe Green
Posted: Feb 11, 2016
WESTAMPTON -- At any second, with an alert on her smartphone, Janice Martella could be called to save a life.
Martella, of Delran, is not a Stan Lee superhero creation. She's not a physician or an emergency responder. But she is a grandmother to a young child and a daughter to parents in their 90s.
And she never knows when she might have to perform CPR on one of them, or a complete stranger.
That's why Martella was among the 40 Burlington County senior citizens who attended a free CPR training course Thursday offered by Virtua Emergency Medical Services. She and the other participants also learned about a smartphone app that can alert them to a nearby person whose heart has stopped.
The class was the first in a series included in the Sheriff's Department's Senior Citizens Police Academy. The program also includes SWAT and K-9 demonstrations, along with lessons in home security, fire prevention, personal protection and other safeguards.
Martella said she was intrigued by an online alert announcing the training.
"I got the (alert) from Moorestown police," she explained. "And I just thought it was fascinating.
"I have a 2½-year-old granddaughter who's with me about half the week, and elderly parents," Martella said. "I thought it (CPR) was something I should know."
A course on CPR for children ages 1 to 8 -- which, along with CPR for infants, is also offered by Virtua -- would be appropriate for Martella in case of an incident involving her granddaughter.
Nonetheless, she said Thursday's lessons at least gave her an idea of what to do. She added that she was impressed with Virtua's presentation.
"It's wonderful," Martella said. "It was very well-done. I was afraid I wasn't going to pick it up, but I did right away."
Thursday's course included CPR for adults involving chest compressions and easy use of an automatic external defibrillator (AED), not on giving breaths.
Virtua instructors Karen Newman and Anne Conway stressed the importance of performing the compressions to keep blood flowing to the brain until either an AED is used to restart the heart or emergency personnel arrive to take over.
The seniors watched an instructional American Heart Association DVD on performing CPR and practiced on plastic head and abdomen dummies. They performed compressions on the dummies on top of tables, although in a real-life emergency, that would be done on the floor or ground.
Newman and Conway, along with other Virtua personnel, helped the participants as they practiced.
Attendees also learned about PulsePoint, a free app that alerts potential lifesavers to a nearby scene. It can be found at an app store and downloaded to a smartphone.
When an emergency call for a cardiac arrest is dispatched, an alert goes to anyone who has the app and is within 1,000 feet of the emergency scene.
Scott Kasper, Virtua's assistant vice president of emergency services, said the Good Samaritan Law protects those administering CPR from liability in case of errors or failure to revive a victim.
PulsePoint was launched in Burlington County in November as a result of a partnership between Virtua and the county, which is the third East Coast jurisdiction to use the app. The other two East Coast locales in which it's available are Jersey City and Howard County, Maryland.
Kasper said five PulsePoint alerts had been issued in Burlington County as of Thursday afternoon. More than 800 people in the county have the app, he said.
He stressed the importance of teaching CPR to as many people as possible.
"The survival of cardiac arrest victims outside the hospital depends on CPR being provided as quickly as possible," he said. "The American Heart Association and others have evolved training to make it possible for anyone to learn lifesaving techniques. ... There are only so many EMTs, paramedics and police officers.
"But there are thousands and thousands of others who can be trained in CPR."
Effective CPR provided by a bystander right after a sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple the victim's chance of survival, according to the association. Yet, the organization says, only 32 percent of such victims receive CPR from a bystander.
Anyone who wants to register for future CPR courses can visit the Burlington County website, www.co.burlington.nj.us. They can also get updates on Facebook at BurlingtonCountyNJ and on Twitter @BurlCoNJ.
Virtua will offer several more free CPR courses on the third Saturday of each month. Information on Virtua can be found at www.virtua.org.
Joe Green: 609-871-8064; email: jgreen@calkins.com; Twitter: @JoeGreenBCT
Delran community rallies to help fire victims
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160421/NEWS/304219663By Kelly Kultys
Posted: Apr 21, 2016DELRAN -- Elizabeth Sanchez and her family lost everything in the fire that gutted apartments at the Hunters Glen complex Wednesday morning, displacing more than 20 residents.
"Nothing was saved in that apartment. Basically, everything was gone," Sanchez said Thursday.
While the two-alarm fire at the large complex off Route 130 is still under investigation by the Burlington County fire marshal, the community is banding together to help victims. A total of eight apartments were heavily damaged in the morning fire that broke out shortly after 8:30 a.m. and quickly went to two alarms. At the height of the blaze, flames were shooting through the roof of the building.
Sanchez said the fire in Building 51 began in the apartment that she has lived in for the past 11 years, but was not home at the time. Her 12-year-old daughter's father was in the home and said the stove was off when he left the kitchen, but when he returned to the room he noticed black smoke. He escaped the apartment and was not injured.
Sanchez said for her, the most important thing is that no one was physically hurt.
"I'm happy to be alive," she said. "My daughter is safe. I don't care about anything else right now. I do cry, but I try to hang in there."
The Delran community is trying to help those affected, like Sanchez, get back on their feet. Mayor Ken Paris said he worked with the families yesterday to find housing in other units in Hunters Glen or help them coordinate with the Red Cross.
The Red Cross in New Jersey is providing temporary lodging, food, clothing and personal care items for 21 people in nine families affected by the fire.
The Delran Fire Company #2, at 1020 South Chester Ave., will be serving as a drop-off point from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. during the week for donated items. The items they are collecting include:
The Delran Township School District has set up a GoFundMe page, called "Hunters Glen Apartment Fire Victims" where community members can donate money, which all be given to the families. High school principal Dan Finkle said he hopes that this money will help them cover things that won't be donated such as furniture and moving expenses.
"We want to provide for the kids and their families," he said.
The high school student government teamed up with another organization at the school, the Transition Project, to collect non-perishable kitchen and bathroom items as well as school supplies. They will also be collecting small appliances, such as a coffee maker or toaster for the kitchen, phone chargers and other devices that the families might need. These items can be brought to the high school, Finkle said. The school store has also purchased Target gifts that they are giving to the families so they can purchase other things items.
Brian Radwell, the president of Radwell International Inc., of Willingboro, will be making a $10,000 donation to the families Friday afternoon as well.
Hunters Glen officials said they specifically are not taking donations, but they are asking people to donate to the nearby fire department. The apartment complex released a statement late Wednesday evening, thanking the first responders for their efforts yesterday.
"It was a not a good day, especially for those residents who lost so much in today's fire and have to pick up and move forward," the statement reads. "But we still wanted to express our heartfelt thanks to those who rushed in to help."
Sanchez said she is grateful to everyone for all of their help, especially her family and friends.
"It's difficult. I can't say I'm OK. But I'm coping with everything," she said.
Kelly Kultys: 609-500-0429; email: kkultys@calkins.com; Twitter: @kellykultys
Delran fire victims receive $10,000 donation
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160422/NEWS/304229780By Kelly Kultys
Posted: Apr 22, 2016
Kelly Kultys, staff writer
DELRAN -- School officials, Township Council members and a local business owner gathered to present money and gifts to the families who were impacted by the fire at Hunters Glen apartments Wednesday.
Brian Radwell, president and CEO of Radwell International Inc. of Willingboro, donated $10,000 to the families of the eight apartments lost in the two-alarm blaze Wednesday morning.
Over 20 people were displaced in the fire that is still under in investigation, fire officials said.
Kelly Kultys, staff writer
On Friday, the high school and middle school student governments gave the families gift cards. The high school and middle school principals, Dan Finkle and Wendy DeVicaris respectively, gave school clothing items to them as well.
"This is great to see people willing to help," said Kyle Shivley, a resident who lost his apartment in the fire. "We lost everything. We really appreciate it."
Radwell said that when he heard about the fire he wanted to reach out and help.
"This will be a story you tell one day about how you overcame this difficult time," he said to the families. "This isn't the end of it, this is the beginning of a better story."
Kelly Kultys, staff writer
Saundra Clinton said it means a lot to have the community support at this time for her and her son Kevin Smith. "When it happened I was just in shock. We weren't expecting it," she said. "All of the support and help it's indescribable."
Finkle said that the school and the fire department are continuing to collect items and money until Friday. On Friday, at 3 p.m. the department will set up tables of everything so the families can come through and take what they need.
The district is also collecting money through GoFundMe, located here: https://www.gofundme.com/2br9s4d4.
They have raised just shy of $2500 so far.
Kelly Kultys: 609-500-0429; email: kkultys@calkins.com; Twitter: @kellykultys
Boy Scout creates veterans memorial at Delran VFW
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20171113/boy-scout-creates-veterans-memorial-at-delran-vfwBy Todd McHale
Posted: Nov 13, 2017
[RACHEL WISNIEWSKI / PHOTOJOURNALIST]
DELRAN — Conor Osborne has always held in high regard the sacrifices veterans are willing to make for their country.
And what better way to express his gratitude to those who served than by creating something that will stand for years to come at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3020 on Fairview Street, a place where his grandfather was once commander.
“We decided to do a memorial to honor veterans who lost their lives during war, and honor those who made it back but have complications from war injuries,” said Conor, 18.
After receiving approval from the VFW, Conor, a Boy Scout from Cherry Hill, embarked on a nearly yearlong mission to devise a plan, raise money and build the circular memorial, which is 17 feet in diameter with two walls, pavers and a plaque, to be unveiled at a ceremony at noon Saturday.
[RACHEL WISNIEWSKI / PHOTOJOURNALIST]
The resourceful young man managed to land a major block donation from EP Henry’s HeroScaping program, which provides materials to help restore or build memorials, monuments and residential projects for returning soldiers.
With the materials and other financial commitments in place for his Eagle Scout project, Conor began seeking help to start building in July. But he quickly discovered that the summer can be hard to find volunteers, with people busy doing other things and going away on vacation.
He eventually rounded up more than a dozen people. Despite a setback from a torrential rainstorm, Conor and the volunteers completed the memorial over several months, with help from his father, Joe Osborne Jr.
[RACHEL WISNIEWSKI / PHOTOJOURNALIST]
“It was important for me to do this, because of family members being in the post and in the service, and people saying that this project was too big for me,” he said.
His mother, Kim, said on a lot of Thursdays, Conor, who is home-schooled, and his father spent hours clearing the ground and building.
The work didn’t go unnoticed.
[RACHEL WISNIEWSKI / PHOTOJOURNALIST]
“I think it’s absolutely outstanding what the young man did,” said VFW member Phillip Briscoe, of Riverside.
“It just adds to the character of the VFW, which is service. In the military, it’s service before self, and this is just what that equates to,” Briscoe said. “Coming from a young man like that, it means a lot. It shows respect for what we’ve done.”
Fellow VFW members Harry Becker and Ed Sikorski were equally impressed.
“This guy worked his butt off,” said Sikorski, of Pennsauken, who visits the post regularly. “Lugging that the big stone from over there to all the way over here, let me tell you, he’s got a hell of a back.”
And Conor’s parents couldn’t be more pleased with his accomplishment.
“I’m a proud mom, very proud," his mother said as she wiped away tears.
[COURTESY OF KIM OSBORNE]
Unfortunately, Conor's grandfather, Joseph Osborne Sr., didn’t get to see the finished memorial. He died in September, eight months after Conor lost his grandmother, Barbara Ann, who contributed to the project.
“It’s been a tough year,” his father said.
To put the finishing touches on, Conor’s brother, Liam, plans to build a walkway leading to the memorial, as well as a fire pit for flag retirement ceremonies.
On Friday, Conor and his dad were back at it, planting bulbs that they hope will bring flowers in the spring.
“It feels good,” said Conor, a member of Boy Scout Troop 54 in Lindenwold, Camden County. “I’m proud to see all the hard work and dedication put into it paid off.”
And for a good cause.
“What you did means more to these people than anyone can ever imagine,” Joe Osborne Jr. told his son.
Delran native Carli Lloyd ramping up her game in preparation for the 2019 event
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/sports/20180304/delran-native-carli-lloyd-ramping-up-her-game-in-preparation-for-2019-eventBy Tom Rimback
Posted: Mar 4, 2018
HARRISON — Carli Lloyd is always building toward something.
This year, the captain of the United States Soccer Women's National Team is preparing herself and her team for the 2019 World Cup. On Sunday, Lloyd appeared in a reserve role as the United States tied France 1-1 in the second of three games of the She Believes Cup. The team will head to Orlando needing a win against England on Wednesday to win the four-team mini-tournament. The U.S. beat Germany last week to open the tournament.
Lloyd played 65 minutes against Germany and a bit over 20 on Sunday.
"It is all about the process," Lloyd said. "We have to trust the process. Right now it's all about getting continuously better. Peaking at the right moment is ultimately what the goal is."
The Delran native didn't exactly coin the term 'trust the process,' but it's easy to excuse the lifelong Sixers and Eagles fan for borrowing the catch phrase.
After all, Lloyd is the living embodiment of the concept.
Lloyd is looking to play in her fourth World Cup next year, then her fourth Olympic Games a year later. Few beyond Lloyd herself dreamed she would ever play in either.
With game-winning goals that led to two Olympic golds and the fastest hat trick in World Cup finals history, Lloyd knows how to prepare herself for the right moment.
"I feel great," Lloyd said. "I'm fitter than I've ever been. I'm sharp. I just need to get myself back into full-game mode. I haven't played a full game in a while."
Last year, in the lull between the Olympics and World Cup qualifying, Lloyd worked through some minor injuries, stepped away from the team briefly to get married, played an abbreviated season in England and closed the books on her professional career with the Houston Dash.
Lloyd was traded to the Sky Blue Football Club during National Women's Professional League Draft weekend. Sky Blue is based at Rutgers University, her alma mater.
For the first time in her career, Lloyd can call her home base home.
"Life never slows down," Lloyd said. "There's always something going on. I did notice the big reception when I was introduced today. I heard the crowd. That's always nice.
"It was really nice to step onto the field and have everyone from Jersey supporting me. I'm so looking forward to playing at home. This is it. Home. I want to finish out my career playing here."
The short commute, a couple exits up the Turnpike, for Sky Blue games won't interfere with her bigger goals.
Expect Lloyd to get stronger through World Cup qualifying the rest of this year, then the 2019 World Cup in France, then the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Lloyd is always building toward something.
"I'll be doing the same thing I've been doing," Lloyd said. "Plugging away at the Blue Barn. Working out at the Marlton Field House back at home. Training with Sky Blue. It's all about continuously getting better and better.
"You keep setting the bar. I'm in a good place and I will keep plugging along."
Opinion: Relay for Life needs continued support
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/opinion/20180523/opinion-relay-for-life-needs-continued-supportby Donald Petroski
Posted: May 23, 2018On May 19, I participated in the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" at Holy Cross Academy in Delran. The event has been inactive recently but has been held with success in Burlington County in the past.
Participation on Saturday was reduced because of the weather, but what I witnessed made me feel good since the majority of those attending were young, in contrast to the "Survivors," who were expected to be older. The credit for initiating this event rests with the students of Holy Cross as a community service project.
Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has donated $4.6 billion to battle cancer with research and development for diagnosis and treatment, support/help programs for patients and families, education to allow early diagnosis by way of screening, general information as a reference source for patients, and support for continued fundraising efforts. Most families have someone who has been affected by cancer, and it is good to know that early diagnosis, better surgical and radiation techniques, better medicines, and education allow for improved cancer survival.
We honored the "Survivors" on Saturday, including our "No. 1 Survivor," Sister Bernadette, who is healthy at year seven. As the honorary physician chairman, I also must mention the "No. 2 Survivor," who was diagnosed at age 31 with stage 4 sinus cancer in 2008. Given a 20 percent chance of five-year survival, he underwent more than 30 surgeries, including chemotherapy, traditional and proton radiation, followed by major facial reconstruction to allow him to survive, hold a job, and raise two young daughters. Never once did he ask, "Why me?" but instead fought his cancer with a positive attitude from day one. At 10 years, he volunteers to counsel others recently diagnosed to educate, comfort and reassure that there is hope for all.
So let's honor "Survivors" Sister Bernadette and Matthew, and all those loved ones who need our emotional support, and make sure that events like Relay for life and the American Cancer Society get the financial help to keep up the good fight.
Keep the faith, never lose hope, and support the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Donald Petroski is a resident of Medford and gastroenterologist associated with the Lourdes Health System. He was the honoree health care champion at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life on May 19.
In memory: Local veterans remember those who made ultimate sacrifice
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180527/in-memory-local-veterans-remember-those-who-made-ultimate-sacrifice/1By Kelly Kultys
Posted: May 27, 2018
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Veterans from Burlington and Bucks counties said they use Memorial Day to serve the memories of their fallen military members.
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Earl Courter’s memories of serving in Vietnam never leave him, but around Memorial Day they come back even stronger.
“I always remember what happened,” Courter, 75, of Delran, said. “It was like yesterday when my whole platoon got wiped out. Sometimes that’s rough getting over Memorial Day and (remembering) those who passed away and you feel like survivor guilt — why am I here and they’re gone.”
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Memorial Day brings back the memory of Ferdie Tellado’s classmate Reginald Stancil.
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“I used to run track with an individual — his name was Reggie Stancil,” said Tellado, a Vietnam veteran from Bristol Township. “And he went into the service before me. He was in ROTC, became a lieutenant, went to Vietnam and within a month, he was killed. So every time Memorial Day comes around, I remember him.”
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Edward Sabol, who also served in Vietnam, remembers one of his fellow soldiers on the holiday.
“Manny Favazza is one of the main guys that I was with when I was in Vietnam,” the Falls veteran said. “He’s no longer with us.”
For local veterans, the celebration of Memorial Day evokes strong memories of their fallen comrades who lost their lives in service to their country. While towns and local Veterans of Foreign Wars groups host parades and services, the veterans who attend them and participate in them carry the memories of their service and those who are no longer here.
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“A lot of those flags have faces,” said Richard Bruehl, a Vietnam veteran from Bristol Borough.
The history of Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In May 1868, three years after the war had ended, the Grand Army of the Republic started a “Decoration Day” where people across the country could take time to decorate the graves of those who had died in the war with flowers. That was the first year a large-scale observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery, according to the VA. The official birthplace of Memorial Day, however, was credited to Waterloo, New York, by President Lyndon Johnson and Congress in 1966, for holding a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honoring local veterans who had fought in the war.
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In 1971, Congress officially declared Memorial Day a national holiday and expanded it to honor all Americans who had died in the country’s wars. It also was moved to the last Monday in May.
The day also serves as a reminder for those who have lost a military member in their family, even it it wasn’t during combat.
U.S. Air Force captain and instructor pilot Scott Craven, of Bensalem, wasn’t killed during combat, but during an automobile accident in Georgia in 2006. Still, Memorial Day serves as another reminder for his family to honor his legacy.
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“It’s difficult,” his father Robert Craven, also a veteran of the Air Force, said. “We’ve all lost somebody — my son is a deceased vet.”
Craven, who serves as president of the Guardians of the National Cemetery, the official support committee for the Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Upper Makefield, spends most of Memorial Day weekend at events at the cemetery and surrounding communities. But once his work is done, he said, he’s not usually in the mood to celebrate.
“That day you don’t want me (around),” he said. “I’ll sit and go home with my family.”
Still, Craven and others said the day also reminds veterans to continue their service, especially in honor of those who passed.
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“They’re our heroes,” Todd Epperly, the Burlington County District Commander for the VFW, said. “They’ve gone before us and we’re here to take care of what’s left on this side of life. And it’s very important that we remember them — they’re not forgotten and it’s a special day for veterans to do that.”
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Epperly helped organize the 73rd Memorial Service at Beverly National Cemetery the week before Memorial Day. The service gave those in attendance a chance to remember those who were buried in the cemetery through the placing of wreaths and honors given to Gold Star families.
Epperly, his son Kevin, 20, both of Riverside, as well as Josh Ashton, from Delran, who served in the Army, made a special stop at the grave of Thomas Campbell Jr., who died in December 2015 and was a member of the local VFW post 3020 with both Todd Epperly and Ashton.
[KIM WEIMER / STAFF PHOTOJOURNALIST]
Like Epperly, Tellado, an administrative representative of the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans organization, said the day is a reminder to continue to serve in the memory of those who have died.
“It's fine celebrations, barbecues and all that, but because of that people are forgetting what the real meaning of Memorial Day is,” he said. “It's warriors that died in combat and that's who we're honoring.”
[SCOTT ANDERSON / PHOTOJOURNALIST]
Robert Craven also serves as the director for the Scott Craven Mentoring Fund, which helps provide mentoring programs for students at the Sallas-Mahone Elementary School near Moody Air Force Base in Georgia where his son was stationed before he passed away. Both he and Sabol said the day also gives them a chance to vocalize causes and programs that support military members, veterans and their families so they’re not left behind.
“We have to be the voice for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice,” Sabol said. "By doing this we remember them and make sure they're not forgotten, what they did for us."
Delran woman celebrates 102nd birthday
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180907/delran-woman-celebrates-102nd-birthdayPosted: Sep 7, 2018
[COURTESY OF ACTIVE DAY]
Bertha Lee Bell, a member of Active Day adult services center in Delran, celebrated her 102nd birthday on Aug. 31. Her family from North Carolina and close friends visited to help commemorate the day.
Vietnam veteran from Delran tells story of ‘rock and war’ in new book
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20181105/vietnam-veteran-from-delran-tells-story-of-rock-and-war-in-new-bookBy Danielle DeSisto
Posted: Nov 5, 2018
WESTAMPTON — Billy Terrell went from establishing an orphanage in Vietnam to working with renowned musical artists like Frankie Avalon to seeing documentaries made about his life.
The Delran resident's life has taken so many twists and turns, it almost feels as if he were living in a movie, Terrell said.
"The story is amazing not because it's about me, but because it's an amazing story," Terrell said.
He decided to document his experiences in his new autobiography, "The Other Side of Rock and War: One Man's Battle to Save His Life, His Career, His Country, and the Orphans He Left Behind." The book is co-authored by noted CBS reporter Rich Podolsky with a foreward by Frankie Avalon.
Born in 1944 in Newark to a poor family, Terrell dropped out of school after the ninth grade and began working in a hotel in Asbury Park. He would frequently hear rock 'n' roll shows going on at a concert hall next door.
"I just made up my mind that this is what I wanted to do," Terrell said of music.
He ended up landing a job at Kama Sutra Records, but his blossoming career was cut short when was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1965. While serving in the Army, he alongside other soldiers established the Mang Lang orphanage for needy children. They sacrificed portions of their wages and volunteered their spare time to keep the orphanage afloat. Terrell has fond memories of spoon-feeding babies, teaching English and playing baseball with the children.
Once Terrell returned to the United States in 1967, he didn't receive the warm welcome from his community he'd hoped for. Employers passed him over for jobs, and he felt judged for his service overseas. He struggled with alcohol for a time and continues to attend post-traumatic stress disorder group sessions to this day.
"For the first few years it was really tough for me," Terrell said. "People treated me poorly. It was so hard to understand."
Terrell slowly pulled himself out of that dark place by immersing himself in the world of rhythm and blues. He began establishing himself as a songwriter and producer, and went on to produce over 63 records across multiple genres with artists like Helen Reddy, Maria Muldaur, Lorrie Morgan, David Clayton Thomas, and of course, Frankie Avalon.
He later enjoyed a career in comedy beginning in the mid-1980s, at one point touring 200 nights a year for six consecutive years.
At 73 years old, Terrell continues to write and produce music. He tried not to think often about his time in Vietnam up until 2013, when he discovered the orphanage he'd helped establish was still open.
"Everyone knows about the gore of Vietnam. I wanted people to know about the humanitarian side," Terrell said.
He was inspired to tell his story at area military foundations through a moving presentation called "The Other Side of the War." Groups like the West Point Center for Oral History, Rutgers Living History Society and the Library of Congress produced presentations about Terrell's life, and another is in the works for PBS.
The National Foundation of Patriotism sponsored the publication of his autobiography in August.
Terrell will speak and sign books at the Burlington County Library in Westampton on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. For information, visit bcls.lib.nj.us/calendar/billy-terrell-other-side-rock-and-war.
Delran Knights collect for drive with community support
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20181127/delran-knights-collect-for-drive-with-community-supportBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Nov 27, 2018Delran’s Knights of Columbus Council 1436 is collecting once again for its Christmas food and toy drive, with help from the community.
DELRAN — The Knights of Columbus St. John Neumann Council 1436 has spread the joy of its annual Christmas food drive, in no small part because of the efforts of area schoolchildren.
The drive serves about 200 local families, substantially more than the dozen or so families from its beginnings almost 40 years ago.
The effort has grown in proportion not only to community need, but also to volunteer turnout, drive chairman Tom Derrico said. The drive was recently renamed after Jim Vesaki, a hardworking contributor who died several years ago. Derrico said the drive would not be so successful without all the volunteers, young and old.
The weekend before Christmas, volunteers will deliver at least 800 4-gallon boxes of perishable and nonperishable foods that include turkeys, fresh fruits and canned vegetables, as well as toys for families with children. The Knights and their volunteers deliver to homes in Delanco, Delran and Riverside and have also found ways to honor requests for baskets for those who live farther away.
Although the Knights raise about $5,000 to $6,000 from Labor Day through November to buy groceries for the families, community supporters also donate toys and canned food.
“Primarily the canned goods we get from the schools — thousands and thousands of cans,” Derrico said. “It’s a great feeling. As far as I’m concerned, that’s my Christmas.”
Delanco, Delran and Riverside schools collect canned food in the fall to give to the Knights come Dec. 14. In some schools, students and staff turn the charitable collection into a friendly competition, with rewards for the homeroom or elementary class that donates the most.
“They do get awarded, but I think they collect because they really like to do it,” said Allison Donnelly, a guidance counselor and drive leader at Delanco’s M. Joan Pearson School. “They’re just really nice, sweet, generous kids.”
Donnelly said the elementary school students have an innate desire to help others, and once their teachers reinforce that with lessons on giving back during the holidays, the kids are off and running.
Motivation is a bit different in Riverside, according to high school student council adviser Jennifer Hunter, who oversees the drive districtwide. Hunter said that lessons in kindness help the younger kids absorb the message of the initiative, but that the older students' teachers often turn the drive into a challenge. For example, to encourage donations, one teacher agreed to wear an elf costume the day before winter break if their students brought in the most cans.
Still, Hunter said, the older students also want to contribute because they understand that the drive hits close to home for some classmates.
“It’s humbling, because we have families we know are in need, so we know it’s going back to our community,” she said. “It’s humbling to see kids giving to their peers and not necessarily knowing. … It’s really the holiday spirit.”
Making deliveries opens many volunteers’ eyes to the number of neighbors who face a largely hidden struggle, Derrico said. One year, a volunteer gave boxes to a family without a Christmas tree, only to knock on their door again later with a tree in tow.
“It brings the best out in everyone,” Derrico said.
Not-so-typical baby photos spark laughs, connection in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190210/not-so-typical-baby-photos-spark-laughs-connection-in-delranBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Feb 10, 2019
At just a few months old, Ryan MacMillan was posing for photos doing “manly things,” like chopping firewood and tuning up the family’s car. While the pictures are edited, their impact is real.
DELRAN — At just a few months old, Ryan MacMillan was posing for photos doing “manly things,” like chopping firewood or tuning up the family’s car. The pictures may be edited, but their impact is real.
Ryan was born 9 weeks ahead of his due date, and although doctors would say he was born premature, his parents, Alyssa and Matt MacMillan, joke that he's just "advanced." It's why they made a photo series where Ryan does things no baby, even one with a birth-weight above 2 pounds, 15 ounces would be able to do.
The photos, in which Ryan plays cards with “Sesame Street” characters, goes fishing, or toddles to work with a tiny briefcase in hand, were a hit with family and friends. Last month, Matt MacMillan decided to share the pictures publicly.
“It got picked up by a couple different sites here and there, and then it kind of exploded,” he said. “It’s fun. The coolest thing about it is I had a lot of people both comment on the posts and message me directly that either had premature kids or were premature themselves just saying ‘Hey, I really love the positive spin you put on this, it’s really cool to see.’”
One in 10 babies born in the U.S. each year is premature and many will need to stay in a neonatal intensive care unit, according to March of Dimes.
In the photos, Ryan had recently come home from a six-week stay in Virtua Mount Holly’s NICU, according to Alyssa MacMillan. He was healthy, and not letting the fact that he was a little smaller than the average baby stop him from hitting the gym, or mowing the lawn of the family's Delran home.
Matt MacMillan also aimed to go beyond the average baby photo two years ago, when the couple's daughter, Ella, was born. MacMillan Photoshopped Ella onto skateboards and sports fields, and his theme for Ryan was “manly things,” something he brainstormed with his brothers.
For every photo, Matt MacMillan had to edit out his or Alyssa's careful grasp on Ryan, and also remove unwanted objects. Then he'd splice together backgrounds and elements of the best photos of his son: a hand raised like a fist-pump, or a particularly funny face.
“My biggest message from all of this is just for other parents of preemies just to say it gets better, and it’s not as bad as it seems when your baby is first born,” Alyssa MacMillan said.
The couple also want to use the popularity of the photos to thank and highlight the work of Virtua's NICU staff, who Alyssa MacMillan said supported their family during a scary and uncertain time.
Both the MacMillans and Virtua nurses Cami Corvino and Melissa Weissman described the relationship between patients, parents and NICU nurses as a sort of second family.
Corvino and Weissman said it's not out of the ordinary for them to receive a letter or holiday card sharing a former patient's progress, but the MacMillans' photos were a bit different.
“Any time we get pictures it’s awesome, and then when it’s pictures like this that are hilarious and people are loving them, it’s even better,” Weissman said. "I think projects like this give families hope that they’re going to get out of here, and that their babies are going to grow big and strong and do manly things.”
Delran grad serving at US Navy’s Fleet Weather Center
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190403/delran-grad-serving-at-us-navys-fleet-weather-centerBy Staff report
Posted: Apr 3, 2019
Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Hamilton, a native of Delran, is serving as an aerographer's mate with U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet Weather Center.
Hamilton, who graduated from Delran High School in 2009, is responsible for weather forecasts for airports so they have the necessary information to route aircraft. He earned top graduate in forecasting school and is part of a team effort to provide both en route and operating area forecasts to the ships, submarines and aircraft of the U.S. and its military partners.
"I played a lot of sports growing up which taught me the importance of teamwork," said Hamilton. "The Navy is all about working as a team, so it really correlates."
The U.S. Pacific Fleet is the world's largest fleet command, encompassing 100 million square miles from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle and from the West Coast of the United States into the Indian Ocean.
Being stationed in San Diego, the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, allows Hamilton to play a part in the country's military readiness. Serving in the Navy is a continuing tradition of military service for Hamilton, who said he is honored to carry on that family tradition.
"My dad was in the Navy, and his dad was in the Army," said Hamilton. "I knew that a lot of pros come with being in the military. It isn't a bad life option."
Watch soccer star Carli Lloyd kick a 55-yard field goal at the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/zz/entertainmentlife/20190821/watch-soccer-star-carli-lloyd-kick-55-yard-field-goal-at-philadelphia-eagles-practiceBy Abigail Rosenthal
Posted: Aug 21, 2019
Carli Lloyd of the U.S. Women's National Team is making yet another sport look easy. The two-time FIFA Player of the Year, Olympian and a two-time World Cup champion joined the Philadelphia Eagles at their practice and got some kicks in herself.
Lloyd, a dedicated Eagles fan, joined the team at their practice earlier this week and easily put away a few 40-yard field goals.
What did you expect? She's a World Champion.@CarliLloyd |#FlyEaglesFlypic.twitter.com/kIwHOABMKa
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles)August 20, 2019But that wasn't it: Lloyd effortlessly sent the ball flying 55 yards through an extra narrow set of goalposts.
Now that we have your attention, here's a 55-yarder!pic.twitter.com/7k2WeQNUso
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles)August 20, 2019Lloyd thanked Eagles kicker Jake Elliott and Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker for the tips. "I'm really impressed with all these guys," Lloyd said in a video she posted Tuesday. "It's awesome to be here. Really looking forward to the season."
Thank you to the@Eagles for having me out! Thanks to@JustinTuck@jake_elliott22@MayorRandyBrown for the good time and tips! #55ydpic.twitter.com/owZ16f46Th
— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd)August 20, 2019The impressive kick even caught the attention of Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt, who said he would give Lloyd "an honest tryout."
"Honestly, I don't think it will be long before we see a woman break through this NFL barrier," Brandt wrote in a tweet. "I'd give her an honest tryout if I were, say, the Bears."
Honestly, I don't think it will be long before we see a woman break through this NFL barrier. I'd give her an honest tryout if I were, say, the Bears.https://t.co/pyIlIY6Jxv
Lloyd is coming off her second World Cup win with the U.S. Women's National Team. She scored three goals in the 2019 World Cup.
Soccer star Carli Lloyd willing and able to kick in the NFL
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190828/soccer-star-carli-lloyd-willing-and-able-to-kick-in-nflPosted: Aug 28, 2019
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — U.S. soccer star Carli Lloyd might be ready to get her kicks in the NFL.
Lloyd, who grew up in Delran and now lives in Mount Laurel, said she was considering potential offers to kick in the league after her recent 55-yard field goal at Philadelphia Eagles practice put the sport on notice. Lloyd did not name any teams that were interested in signing her.
"I was laughing about it with my husband at first. But now I'm sort of entertaining the idea," Lloyd told NBCSports Philadelphia. "I think that I definitely could do it with the right practice and the right technique and get my steps down and figure all that out. I don't want to go in there blindly. I want to actually attempt to do it. But I know that I definitely could do it because anything I set my mind to do, I can do it. And I actually do kick balls for a living. So, yeah, it's all about the technique, and we'll see what happens."
Lloyd threw the first pitch Tuesday night before the Phillies played the Pirates. The World Cup champion U.S. women's team is in Philadelphia to play Portugal on Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field as part of a victory tour.
Delran residents organize food drive to help feed neighbors
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20200430/delran-residents-organize-food-drive-to-help-feed-neighborsBy Jarrad Saffren
Posted: April 30, 2020
Between runs on grocery stores and uncertain employment situations, food insecurity is a real problem during the coronavirus pandemic. A group of Delran residents are working to alleviate that in their hometown and its surrounding area.
DELRAN — Food.
Along with water, it’s the most basic necessity.
Yet during the coronavirus pandemic, between runs on grocery stores and uncertain employment situations, it’s been harder and harder to come by for some.
But two Delran residents are working to alleviate this food insecurity, at least in their hometown and its surrounding area.
Patricia Pomeranz and Sal Miliziano, two congregants at the Calvary Church on Conrow Road, have organized the "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" food drive.
With a lot of help from resident families donating food, local restaurants serving as collection sites and the Calvary Church organizing the pick-up sessions, Pomeranz and Miliziano have fed more than 100 families since starting the drive on April 17.
Families in need have been entering the church’s student center, receiving two big shopping boxes from Miliziano and then browsing between 12 and 20 tables stacked high with canned goods, sauces and breads. Since the drive has mostly catered to young families, there are also diapers, toys and coloring books.
By filling two bags, a family walks out of the church with about $50 to $60 worth of food, according to Miliziano. The organizer said families have come from Delran, Mount Holly and Willingboro, among other towns. Some even came from Pennsauken in Camden County.
Pomeranz and Miliziano originally intended for the food drive to last for a week, with collections starting on April 17 and pick-ups concluding on April 24. But the organizers have gotten so many donations that they decided to keep it going.
On Monday afternoon, Miliziano said the church’s student center still had 12 tables full of food, diapers and toys. So Calvary Church Pastor Paul Jackson allowed the church to reopen from noon to 5 p.m. for pick-ups.
Pomeranz, Miliziano and Jackson are planning on continuing the food drive for as long as residents continue to donate items, and they don’t appear to be stopping any time soon. Five more people made donations Monday, Miliziano said.
"As long as people are bringing food, we’ll give it out," he added. "It’s gone far beyond what we expected."
"The surrounding towns also have a lot of needy people and we’ve had people reach out and say, ’Hey, can I come?’" said Pomeranz. "And we say, ’Absolutely.’"
Pomeranz had the idea for the food drive after she heard, through word of mouth and Facebook, that a lot of residents were in need and that food banks were running out.
She responded by calling Miliziano and then pitching him the idea over breakfast at the Chick-fil-A on Fairview Boulevard, which Miliziano owns and operates. He loved the idea, and the two got to work, creating a digital flier, printing 1,000 paper copies and posting them at local businesses and in Delran Facebook pages.
But both Pomeranz and Miliziano wanted to make clear that this drive was not just two local residents, plus Pastor Jackson, doing all the work. It was a town-wide effort, they said.
Hundreds of residents donated hundreds of food items to stack the tables at the church.
Several Delran businesses, including Milanese Pizza and Dooney’s Pub, collected items.
And several town organizations, like the Delran Business Association and the Kiddie Academy of Delran, a daycare center, posted and distributed fliers around town. The Kiddie Academy alone printed and disseminated 500 fliers.
But it wasn’t even just families and organizations playing a small part. There was also a team of people who worked as hard as Pomeranz and Miliziano, they said.
Delran resident Michael Piper sorted and organized the food at Calvary Church. Fellow resident Joseph Joyce manned the Dooney’s Pub drop-off site and called around to schools to identify families in need.
And Sharon and Lou Coryell, a couple in their 70s, helped sort products, make phone calls and get people involved.
"We want to make sure they all get recognized for their hard work because we do appreciate it," said Pomeranz.
Now that this community spirit is in full force, residents are finding new ways to alleviate food insecurity, in addition to the food drive.
On Tuesday, Miliziano had his Chick-fil-A employees make 80 boxed lunches to distribute to residents in neighboring Cinnaminson Township. Pastor Jackson bought the lunches to support Miliziano’s business.
"No one’s going to go hungry," Miliziano said.
Family connections brought two all-star defenders to Delran soccer team
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/sports/high-school/soccer/2020/06/17/family-connections-brought-two-all-star-defenders-to-delran-soccer-team/112816450/By John A. Lewis
Posted: June 17, 2020
Jennifer Olivo is used to the question.
She's learned to answer it with another question.
“When people ask if I'm Mike Otto's sister, I always ask first, do you love him or do you hate him? Tell me and I'll let you know,” Olivo said.
She's been through the process enough times to realize that nobody's going to say “ah — he's OK.” Everybody who's dealt with Otto, the Delran High School boys soccer coach, loves him or hates him. There's no middle ground.
If you live in Delran, though, it's a no-brainer. The Bears have won eight state championships in boys soccer. Otto has been involved in six — one as a player on John Hughes' 1988 squad and five as the head coach. Delran has gone undefeated in a season twice — with Otto as the sweeper in '88 and with Otto as the coach in 2003.
He was the Burlington County Times Coach of the Year last season, and also in 2003, 2009 and 2013.
For Olivo's part, there was never any doubt about where her sons would play.
“We're a big soccer family,” she said. “We love it. My sons have graduated, but I still go out to watch my brother coach.”
Mike Olivo is a 2015 graduate who was part of the Bears' 2013 state championship team. Mark Olivo, better known as “Butter,” is a 2019 grad who was a big part of the team's current run of five straight sectional championships.
In keeping with a family tradition, both of them were primarily defenders.
“Mike was a defender for Delran,” Jennifer said. “I played for Holy Cross — a defender like the rest of the family. We all still fight about who was the best one. Mike was on the team that had all those (17) shutouts. Joe was the defender of the year.”
Jennifer was involved in a team effort recently that was just as big. She's a cafeteria worker at Delran High School and part of the crew that produced 65,000 meals that the school distributed during the coronavirus quarantine.
It was difficult to not have interaction with kids every day, but the cafeteria and maintenance staffs powered through it.
“I guess the hardest thing was just missing the normalcy,” she said. “You really don't know what's to come for next year. What's going to happen in August? Dealing with stress is probably the hardest thing.”
At work it's the hardest thing. Home presents a different challenge.
The cafeteria shut down for the summer on Tuesday. There was a luncheon on Wednesday to celebrate.
Then what?
“I've started walking with my girls every day,” Jennifer said. “I'm like everybody else. You spend the day cleaning out stupid stuff. It's so quiet.”
It's so far from fall afternoons at the Bears' Den.
“Delran is a family town,” Jennifer said. “You watch your kids play and you watch your friends kids play. I get as excited for them as I got for my own kids.
“Frankie Taylor — I remember him as a chubby little kid and he ended up being a phenomenal player this year. You get to know their families and you cheer for them.”
And being a Delran soccer mom changes your perspective, if you started out as the coach's sister.
“In the beginning, he'd come to my mom and me and ask for advice,” Jennifer said. “Should I start this kid? Should I try this? But once my kids were involved, that was it — we didn't talk soccer another day.
“He's taught the kids respect, though. He's taught them teamwork — basically, life. He was as much a part of raising my kids as I was.”
And they know it.
Both of the Olivo boys wore number 19 for the Bears, as did Otto.
“We took it to represent him,” Mark Olivo said. “It had been stuck in the family all that time. We just kept it going. Soccer was always in our family and our uncle always put it on us. He had a way of making you believe in yourself. You're representing Delran, the school and the town and the community. You want to make him proud.”
Mark recalled that he didn't take any opponent lightly, but even more, that “he didn't take negativity from anyone.”
He always believes he's got the best squad. If you don't believe, he doesn't want to hear it.
“He's one of the best, to play for,” Mike Olivo said. “You hear a lot about him being hard on his players. He gets in your head and keeps pounding you. You have to stay focused (and) you have to keep working.
“It's a big thing to play in Delran. You grow up watching the team and hearing about all the championships and you want to experience that. For me, growing up, I thought about it a lot; am I going to make it?”
He did, and he played a huge part in helping the last of those championships happen. Despite his reputation as a defender — he was all-county in 2013 — it was a goal he scored in a penalty kick shootout that he's most remembered for. It gave Delran a victory over Holmdel in the 2013 Central Jersey Group 2 semifinal.
“My uncle was so nervous. He didn't watch,” Mike said. “It was scary, but I knew where I was going. I pictured it in my head before it happened.”
The picture is still in his mother's head. She can even tell you it happened on November 12.
“He scored that penalty kick on my mom's birthday,” Jennifer said.
Madge Otto passed away from breast cancer five years earlier. She's represented by the pink star in the Bears' logo. Jennifer said she could feel Madge's presence at the game that day.
“When Mike hugged him after the goal, that wasn't a coach's hug,” she said. “That was a family hug.”
Troop 25 Delran celebrates five new Eagle Scouts
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/news/2021/06/22/troop-25-delran-celebrates-five-new-eagle-scouts/5299724001/From Staff Reports
Posted: June 22, 2021
Scout Troop 25 Delran conducted a Court of Honor on June 12 to celebrate the achievement of the Eagle Scout Rank by five members: Connor Darlington, Owen Minix, Chris Pappas, Jack Pappas and Owen Taylor.
The projects the Scouts completed included:
Present at the Court of Honor were 13 returning Eagle Scouts from Troop 25, Assembly Woman Carol Murphy, Burlington County Commissioner Daniel O’Connor, Delran Township President of Council Tyler Burrell (Eagle Scout Troop 25), Delran Council Members Lynn Jenney and Marlowe Smith, American Legion Post 146 Commandant John Volkman, Burlington County American Legion Representative Steve Anderson, Father Daniel Kirk Pastor of Saint Charles Borromeo Parish (Eagle Scout Troop 25), Garden State Scout Council Commissioner Donald Reardon, and numerous family and friends. Congressman Andy Kim was unable to attend, but he sent a personalized letter of congratulations for each new Eagle Scout.
In addition to honoring the Eagle Scouts, younger Scouts in Troop 25 were recognized for their rank and merit badge achievements.
Troop 25 is chartered by the Holy Name Society and meets at the Resurrection Parish site at 260 Conrow Road in Delran.
For Troop 25 information, email Scoutmaster@Troop25Delran.com or Joe.Melber@hotmail.com.
For Pack 25 information, email Cubmaster@pack25Delran.com or rps021@yahoo.com.
Send community news and event items to lvoit@gannett.com.
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