Glory day
n BY AMBER RAMUNDO
There are plenty of NJ State PBA mem-
bers who look forward to the Special
Olympics Snow Bowl each year, but for
Pascack Valley Local 206 team captain
Anthony Piccinich, it’s practically a hol-
iday.
His passion for the event is so well-
known throughout Local 206 that mem-
bers are prone to jokingly assume that
he sleeps at MetLife Stadium the night
before the game. Piccinich may not ac-
tually wake up in the stands, but he cer-
tainly is one of the first Snow Bowl play-
ers to arrive at the stadium, checking his
team in as early as 6:30 a.m. to prepare
for game day.
“I like to be here early, decompress,
take it all in and come up with a game
plan,” Piccinich insisted.
The former William Paterson Univer-
sity quarterback views the flag football
tournament as a way to prove that he’s
still got it. He even runs some of the
same plays that he used to use in college,
furthering his enthusiasm for the event
that allows him to relive his glory days
on the field.
“It’s like being right back in high
school and college. These guys are com-
ing at you,” Piccinich said. “We’ve played
some good teams. It keeps me young.”
Piccinich so strongly supports the
cause and competition of the event that
he wants his son and his son’s friends to
experience it, too. Each year, he takes
them out of school to come to the Snow
Bowl, learn about the Special Olympics,
meet some New York Giants players and
watch their football coach practice what
he preaches.
“They get to see that the coach that’s
teaching them can still do it,” Piccinich
said. “I have to lead by example. Plus,
they’re around a bunch of cops, so it’s a
good environment to bring kids into.” d
East Rutherford Local hosts with the most
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Even one desperate play that turned
the thrill of victory into a rhapsody of
defeat couldn’t diminish another mem-
orable Snow Bowl for East Rutherford
Local 275.
In its divisional matchup with the
NYPD Brawlers – many of whom are
New York PBA members – Local 275
held a 12-7 lead coming down to the
last play of the game. NYPD had almost
an entire field to cover for a game-win-
ning touchdown, and accordingly
hoisted one of those frantic final “Hail
Mary” passes that often come at the
end of NFL games when all players bat-
tle for the ball. The Brawlers’ prayer was
answered, and that one play kept Local
275 from advancing to the playoffs.
None of that, however, killed the
buzz that these East Rutherford mem-
bers generated with their 12th consec-
utive Snow Bowl foray, perhaps the only
team to have played in the event every
year.
“Yeah, we played when it was held in
the old stadium, when it was played in
the practice bubble and even when it
was played at FDU,” Local 275 quarter-
back and captain Michael Giancispro
noted. “It’s a great time to come out, it’s
a great cause, we look forward to it each
year.”
It’s fair to call Local 275 the home
team for the Snow Bowl. Players, who
include members from Wallington and
Carlstadt Local 312 and Wallington Lo-
cal 321, certainly had the shortest drive
to the stadium. And Local 275 held no
animosity for being the hospitable host
and allowing guests from NYPD to ad-
vance to the playoffs and losing there to
Caldwell Local 81.
East Rutherford members have come
to terms with what’s at the heart of this
event.
“We would love to win it every year,”
member Tom Berlinski shared. “But
it gets harder and harder because the
other teams get better and younger and
we just keep getting older ourselves.”
Local 275 won the 2015 champi-
onship, and they came back this year
with its unique asset: a playbook with
approximately 20 plays that Giancispro
uses to organize success. Coming up
just short, however, didn’t detract from
the sportsmanship that is as much a
part of the Snow Bowl as honor is a part
of law enforcement.
“Everyone has respect here, they
know that everyone has a job to do,”
Giancispro emphasizes. “This is for
fun. Everyone plays with intensity, but
at the end of the day everybody helps
each other.” d
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ APRIL 2018 65