Brendan O’Callaghan, who was a victim of the Route 206 bus crash in
May, drops the puck for the ceremonial faceoff with Paramus Local 186
member Thomas Keough and Paul Moran of FDNY.
Cause and Effect
NJSPBA hockey team renews its charitable dedication
with a game to honor Route 206 bus crash victims
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
■ PHOTOS BY ED CARATTINI JR.
Cheers rose through the Ice Vault in Wayne like the roll of a
wave engulfing the crowd in any big-time arena. The first star
on this Saturday night—when the NJSPBA Strongest hockey
team began its third season by taking on the FDNY—made the
big play before a stick even hit the ice.
Budding goalie Brendan O’Callaghan from the Spartans Pee-
wee Elite hockey team out of Bergen County stepped on to the
ice to drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoff. You may know
Brendan. His father, Arnie O’Callaghan, is a Dumont Local 377
member. Brendan was severely injured in the Route 206 school
bus crash when he and his fifth-grade classmates from East
Brook Middle School in Paramus were on a field trip to Waterloo
Village in Lafayette.
Paramus Local 186 member Thomas Keough — one of Bren-
dan’s coaches — took the faceoff and it inspired him to exhibit
the fortitude to honor Brendan. It was a faceoff honoring the
courage that enabled Brendan to recover from a fractured tem-
ple bone, broken collarbone, punctured right lung and bruised
orbital bone suffered in the crash that killed a classmate and
one of his teachers. It inspired the toughness that enabled Ke-
ough to endure what might have been a broken foot resulting
from blocking a shot in the first period and even play through a
broken skate blade.
“I will ice my foot when I get home,” Keough submitted after
the 7-1 loss to FDNY. “We had to keep moving for the kids. We’re
all here for the cause. We fought to the end.”
The cause for this game was the Paramus Children’s Health
CONTINUED ON PAGE 50
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ NOVEMBER 2018 49