Ice hockey and boys lacrosse graduate from clubs to fully-funded RFH sports
RUMSON, N.J. — After decades as club sports, ice hockey and boys lacrosse are now school-funded sports at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School.
Over the years, lacrosse became the second most popular RFH sport behind football as far as student interest. The program has grown to encompass full Varsity, JV and freshman teams with about 90 students participating annually. “The sport became part of the fabric of the school over time,” says Gordy Sweely, past Board President for both the high school and youth teams for the last five years. Now that the high school team is funded by RFH, there will be a separation between the youth and high school teams. Tom Collard and Paul Lyle will take over as Co-Presidents of the youth program. The remainder of the board includes Ted Whitehouse, Fred Testa, Danielle Sherwood and Jamie Keefe.
Over twenty years, RFH boys lacrosse grew from a small local organization to a state- wide high school team that has won multiple group state titles, NJ south state titles and conference titles. “Teams around the state want to play us and we try to make our schedule away from the Shore Conference as difficult as possible because that’s how the kids get better,” says Sweely.
As a club sport, everything including registration, fund- ing, equipment ordering and field usage was run through the organization and funded exclusively by parents. On top of registration costs, parents donated and organized dinners, auctions and raffles to fundraise for the team. Through RFH, they were able to schedule field space and use school turf for games and practices just like the other spring sports.
Over the last several years, the organization regularly presented to the Board of Ed, providing information on growth, student interest, and updates on the RFH stu- dents who went on to play lacrosse at the collegiate level.
“We provided an exhaustive presentation that continued to build awareness with the Board of Ed until finally they came to us last year and said there was no reason why the team should not be a fully funded school sport,” says Sweely. Girls lacrosse has already been a school funded sport at RFH for years.
After cancelling the 2020 season due to COVID-19 re- strictions, the team is looking forward to kicking off the 2021 season in early March. The coaching staff will remain the same with potential to expand.
“You can imagine the cost and sheer amount of work it takes from an accounting perspective, managing all the uniforms, the equipment and the logistics,” says Sweely. “We appreciate the support of the commu- nity and of numerous families every year who help make the program successful. Our volunteers continually improve and bring the program for- ward and we’re always looking for additional help. You don’t need to be schooled in lacrosse – you can be schooled in any number of things – and we will figure out how to use your time and abilities to help make the organization run more smoothly.”
RFH ice hockey was founded nearly 40 years ago and is one of the longest standing ice hockey programs in the state. This year, it is a fully funded school sport for the first time. Eric Zullo, RFH physical education and health teacher, took over as the team’s head coach last year. Three additional coaches include RFH woodshop teacher, Dino Pagano, and two coaches from outside sources.
Ice hockey had an extremely successful 2019-2020 season, finishing 16- 3-3, winning the Shore Conference and going on to play in the quarter finals at States. One week after their season ended, schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pay-to-play program was run by the school but funded completely by a booster program made up of team parents. “Becoming a fully-fund- ed school sport opens up the program for multi-sport athletes,” says Zullo. “For the kids who play football or soccer, hockey and lacrosse, it got expensive for parents because two of those sports were clubs and not funded by the school. Sometimes, families had to make the financial choice to cut a sport. Now we have a whole new wave of support from the school and parents don’t have to feel that financial burden. It lets kids be kids when money doesn’t get in the way.”
This year, the ice hockey team consists of 38 players including three goalies and 35 skaters. “We had a fresh coaching staff last year with a great crop of seniors and we keep getting bigger and better,” says Zullo. “The school believes in the program and we can expand from here. We want to show off the RFH name in a positive way.”
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