Let it Snow Bowl
The Monmouth County
Corrections Local 240
“Enforcers” with their first
place trophy for the Friday
LE/FF Recreation Division B.
For the cops and for the kids, everybody at the Snow Bowl is a winner
n BY JOSHUA SIGMUND
n PHOTOS BY ED CARATTINI JR.
hen Bill Nagy and his team of Monmouth County Corrections Officers sprung from cages on Highway 9 North at
6:30 a.m. on March 20, in an RV loaned to them by Scott
Motor Coach Sales and wearing custom jerseys
sponsored by Trenton Joe’s Custom Embroidery, there was
a feeling of representation of not only these and other local businesses
that helped them raise more than $2,000 for Special Olympics New Jersey,
but of all members of Local 240. This hour-long MetLife Stadium-bound
trek had them feeling like more than officers. Today they were Enforcers.
Hours later, as the never-ending winter was putting the “snow” in
Snow Bowl – the ninth iteration of this blockbuster charity event that features nearly 30 PBA Local teams in a 6-on-6 flag football tournament and
raises thousands of dollars for Special Olympics New Jersey (SONJ) –
members of Team Enforcers were reveling in their divisional championship on the same field where Super Bowl XLVIII was played. And this
year’s event once again proved that Super Bowl has nothing on Snow
Bowl:
“It was surreal,” Nagy exclaimed. “I mean, who doesn’t want to play
football at Giants Stadium for Special Olympics?”
Apparently, nobody. Perhaps that’s why PBA members organized to
raise $123,534 of the more than $520,000 collected at Snow Bowl IX.
Originally scheduled for two weeks prior, the aforementioned perpetual winter saw to the event’s postponement and threatened another. That
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NEW JERSEY COPS
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APRIL 2015
morning, as the Enforcers and the other teams were psyching up to compete, SONJ Senior Director of Corporate Development Diane Paraskevas
had a decision to make:
“It started out as a relatively nice warm day, but I knew the
temperature would drop and I was concerned about the night games,”
she predicted. “I called the team captains and they all said, ‘Don’t cancel
it! We’re coming to play!’”
And come they did; PBA members from North Brunswick Local 160
(“Blue Bloods”), Leonia Local 381 (“Sheep Dogs”), Eatontown Local 305
(“Bullets”), Dover Township Local 137 (“Toms River Force”), Bergen
County Prosecutor’s Office Local 221 (“Bergen Blue”), State Corrections
Local 105 Trenton (“The Wall”), and dozens of others trekked to East
Rutherford to once again show a side of law enforcement the public
doesn’t get to see enough of; to build camaraderie by spending time outside of prisons and patrol cars with friends and coworkers; and, of course,
to support the Special Olympians.
“If I took a poll, I would guess that everyone who plays knows someone
with an intellectual disability, and they play for them,” Paraskevas ponders. “And that’s so cool. They get to meet our athletes and they have a
great time and everyone who plays with them has a great time. It’s a unifying event for everybody.”
Eric Kish: The real MVP
For the Enforcers, not to mention all members, meeting one particular
athlete and leaving with a new friendship was more important than leaving with a trophy.