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About The Cover
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his summer, former Mainland Regional football star Kenny Randall is doing everything he can to make the Opening Day roster of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The fact that Randall even has a shot at making his NFL dreams come true is an amazing story of tragedy and triumph. He endured a brutal car accident while he was in high school that killed four of his football teammates, ended up failing out of the University of Charleston, was out of football for several years and hit nearly 400 pounds on the scale. But in the past couple of years he turned things around in a big way, going back to college, dominating at Charleston as a defensive tackle, he now has a son and a brand new outlook on life, and appreciation for the chance he has been given. Check out page 10 of this edition to read more about this incredible comeback story!
GLORY DAYS General Contact Information Phone: 856-336-2600 Email: sully@acglorydays.com Publisher Dave O’Sullivan Email: sully@acglorydays.com @GDsullysays on Twitter Contributors Amy D’Adamo, graphic design Mark Trible, special football writer Larry Henry Jr., correspondent Ben Hale, Social Media Volume 8, Issue 8. (Issue No. 158) 2021 Glory Days Magazine LLC, all rights reserved.
Story Idea? Email sully@acglorydays.com or direct message Sully on Twitter, @GDSullysays
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headlines u PRESENTED BY BUNTING FAMILY PHARMACY u CAL representing
is capped off every year at Citizens Bank Park, home This spring the Cape-Atlantic League showed of the Philadelphia Phillies. its strength in a couple different sports, particuIf all that wasn’t enough, larly in boys lacrosse and baseball, and it was the Egg Harbor Township a banner season for Ocean City High School. girls track team took home The Red Raiders took home the first South Jer- the first Group 4 state chamsey Group 3 championship in the history of the pionship in the history of boys lacrosse program, then made history in that program. baseball as they captured their first-ever overall state championship, beating Pascack Valley in a grueling, 14-inning affair under 90+ degree heat The playoffs for the inauin Mercer County in mid-June. gural season of the South In addition, the Holy Spirit baseball team took Jersey South Shore Baseball down Morristown-Beard, 7-1, to capture its sec- League began this week, ond Non-Public B state championship in the past and what started as an eightsix years, and St. Augustine Prep also played team tournament has now for a state title, falling to a tough St. Joseph- been cut in half. Well, almost. Rain on WednesMontvale squad. And, after all that, the Tri-Cape day night forced a postponement of the Northall-stars, made up of players from the Cape- field vs. Absecon series. The winner of Thursday Atlantic League and Tri-County League, domi- night’s game advances to face the top-seeded nated the Carpenter Cup and won their first title South Jersey Surf, which dispatched No. 8 EHT, in the nearly 40-year history of the event, which winning the three-game series in two games. On
Final Four
the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Buena took care of No. 7 Egg Harbor City, and No. 3 Ocean City advanced with a sweep of No. 6 Ventnor. The semifinals begin with three-game series starting July 26, with the five-game championship series set to begin Aug. 2.
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SPONSOR CONTENT
Calvi Electric has gone residential Homeowners can now call one of the most successful electrician services in South Jersey By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer ike Brestle’s great-grandfather did some work with Thomas Edison. That’s some pretty good pedigree to have on your side when you’re running an electric company. Brestle, who himself has some notoriety as a former all-state football player at Holy Spirit High School, has been running Calvi Electric for a long time now after taking over for his father, George Brestle, who remains the company’s CEO. Mike Brestle is the president, and he recently made a big announcement — for the first time ever, Calvi Electric is serving residential homes. Part of the decision to launch a brand new residential division is because Calvi Electric — like just about every other business in South Jersey — has had to adapt to the changing landscape that is the COVID-19 pandemic. Casinos were, for decades, a staple of Calvi’s business model, but with Atlantic City’s casinos shuttered for so long, Calvi has had to adapt. It has done so by adding a sign division and a solar division, and now a residential division that Brestle hopes can capitalize on the booming housing market. “We’ve been around for 112 years, four generations, and the relationships you make along the way, quality work and attention to detail. Our name is an acronym, actually — CALVI, Cooperative Attitudes Lead to Valuable Impressions. We’ve prided ourselves on that, which is why our service is probably the best around,” Brestle said. “This is something new for us. We’ve been around for more than 100 years (but never went residential). For years, we never had to go residential because we helped build the casinos, and 80 to 90 percent of our work was in the casinos. But in 2013, we knew they weren’t going to keep building new casinos, so we expanded out all the way to the bridges (in Philadelphia), over to Cumberland County.” Nothing is what it was 20 or 30 years ago with Atlantic City’s casinos but Calvi has the kind of staff
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Glory Days photo/Sully
Company President Mike Brestle and Calvi Electric have been huge supporters of their friends in the community for generations, including supporting high school sports. Brestle’s daughter, Madison, was a star basketball player at Atlantic City High who graduated in 2020 and his other daughter, Marlee, was a standout at Ocean City High the past couple of seasons. She graduated in June. and leadership that can adapt to changes in the business landscape. There isn’t a better time for an electric company to dive into residential service. Home builders are struggling to find electricians, Brestle said, because they are so busy. There are several factors that have played into that scenario, from low interest rates to
people flocking from cities to the South Jersey suburbs because more people are able to work from home because of the pandemic. “We’re hoping we can fill a need right now and
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July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 9 Calvi, from page 6 see where it goes,” said Charles “Chick” Deveney, who was recently promoted to Calvi’s vice president. “This is another venture that gives our business some diversity. People are leaving the cities and buying homes and making that their home office and working from there. We saw a need for dependable, reliable electrical work from a company that has been around for a long time — and we’re it.” “Home building is blowing up right now. If you take a ride down Absecon Island, there are new houses going up on every block it seems. The builders are all saying they are having a tough time getting electricians because everybody is so busy. It’s a COVID thing — a lot of people are putting money into their houses. They have their house and might have to be in it longer than they anticipated, so they want to make it more livable, or they want to expand a little bit,” Brestle said. “A lot of people are getting rid of their apartments in New York and moving to the Hamptons, Florida, the South Jersey suburbs. Especially now that so many people can work virtually, a lot of them are doing that. People know we are a dependable, reliable company that is not going to do something the cheap way. People know we’re going to do it right the first time and live up to the Calvi standard.” So much about business success these days is the ability to adapt and explore new ways to generate income. “If you’re not strategizing and making moves, one ahead of the next, you’re going to fall behind. We’re always looking at what we can do to improve. When I first got into the business, our service department had about four guys in it. After I took that over we were running more than 25 guys out of the service department. Then we saw a need for solar, so we started a
solar division. We saw a need for signs as some sign companies were going out of business — I was offered a chance to bid on the sign package outside of the one of the casinos, and I said, ‘heck yeah!’ We went and got that, and when one of the companies went out of business, we hired all their guys. Now we maintain virtually every sign outside all the casinos in Atlantic City,” Brestle said. “We were three months into a huge job at a prison in Cumberland County, we come in on a Monday morning and they say they are cancelling the job. That job went away, and that was a big one, but there are some good things on the horizon in Atlantic City with El Dorado buying Caesars and Harrah’s and Tropicana. So there’s a lot of good things happening. There’s a medical office building coming to Ohio Avenue and it looks like this water park is going to happen. Stockton is building more housing. So, it looks promising. We’re hoping for the opportunity to bid on some of these projects.” Brestle said Calvi Electric absolutely is ready for the challenge of branching out into a residential division. Not only does the company carry the weight of a powerful name in South Jersey business, but they now have the ability to bring decades of quality work into people’s homes at a competitive price. “This is branching out of a new division that can capture a market that I feel is a place where we’re needed. One of my guys who has worked for us for more than 20 years is going to run (the residential division) and that will be his main focus,” Brestle said. “Daily operations won’t change around here, we’ll just have a few more guys working for us. Our service department will continue to serve our existing customers and a new service department will be starting to take care of the residential and light commercial. We’ll start off with a couple of crews right away and we’ll expand as needed. I’m pretty confident that will happen.”
“We’re hoping to change the perception that may have been the case before that we are overpriced, that people maybe can’t hire the top tier company — but we’ll be providing quality guys at an affordable price,” said Deveney, who started at Calvi Electric as a teenage apprentice back in the 1980s. “I think that will be appealing to people, knowing we’ll show up and that it will be a good job that gets done. We have a sign division, we do solar. We have a number of things we provide that can be appealing to people, so you can call us and we can cover a number of bases for you.” One thing that won’t change in 2021 is Calvi’s commitment to community, and supporting great causes throughout South Jersey, from youth sports teams to charitable companies and events. “For the last 60 years we’ve supported every organization, club or group you can think of. You have to give back,” Brestle said. “My dad has always been very philanthropic and that’s just something you should do. If you’re successful and making money, you have to give back to the community and give everyone in the area a chance — sponsor a sports team, or Gilda’s Club, whatever you can do. That’s definitely important to us.” Another thing that won’t change is the people who have made Calvi such a successful company. People like Joseph Calvi Jr., Charles Bauernhuber, Andrew Brestle, Victor Dawson, Marc Murgo, Kenneth Bishop, Robert Cullen, Henry Beckman Jr., Kenneth Ballard Jr., Michelle Broadbent, Shannon Askins, Gina McCloskey and Sharon Woerner. And, of course, Deb McAuliffe, Calvi’s office manager, secretary and treasurer, who has been on staff now for 43 years. “This is like my family,” she said. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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VIC’S SUBS COVER STORY
Taking the long road Former Mainland star Kenny Randall had to overcome a lot on his journey to the NFL By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer oung men don’t often have an epiphany. Usually it takes a couple decades of loss, heartbreak, failure and missing the mark on expectations before a man says to himself, “enough is enough. Whatever I’m doing now isn’t working, and I need to change.” But Kenny Randall isn’t your normal mid-20s athlete. He’s been through a whole lot since his days at Mainland Regional High School. This spring Randall — who was a standout football and basketball player at Mainland — signed an NFL contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent. Getting to the NFL was always a destination that Randall had in mind, but how he got to where he is today is a story
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of tragedy and triumph — of getting so low that the only way to go is up. Flash back to the summer of 2011, young Kenny Randall and his Mainland teammates had just finished up the football preseason and were off to celebrate at an area eatery, a Mustangs tradition. He and seven teammates piled into an SUV, but only four of them came home that day. Casey Brenner, Dean Khoury, Edgar Bozzi and Nicholas Conner all were killed when the SUV they were riding in flipped during an auto accident on the Garden State Parkway. Randall was just 15 at the time. A sophomore in high school. Randall developed into a huge, menacing lineman in football and a surprisingly agile post player in basketball in the two years after the accident, and
when it came time for college he had several offers, including one from Temple. He decided to go to a post-graduate school instead, for another year of seasoning. He eventually found himself at The College of Charleston. But things didn’t go as planned. “It’s been one for the books, I’ll tell you that,” Randall said of his journey to the NFL. “After high school, I went to Milford Academy and played there for a semester and then Temple took away their offer. I had committed to Temple after my junior year (at Mainland); and then my freshman year at Charleston I ended up letting academics get the best of me and got dismissed from the university. “Obviously I think about that day a lot, who wouldn’t?” Randall said of that fateful day in August 2011, when four of his friends and teammates were killed. “But it was just being away from home, being away from my mom and being able to do what I
See Randall, page 11
July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 11 Randall, from page 10 wanted to do, and not really managing my time well. I was very immature at that age, but since then I’ve had a big wake-up call and have matured a lot. I have a son now and I’m dedicating everything I’ve got to him.” After getting bounced from Charleston, Randall never imagined his dream of playing in the NFL would ever come true. He was down-and-out, working a job at Sam’s Club, out of shape, out of hope and out of motivation. His weight swelled up to nearly 400 pounds. “I was trying to find something to do, but if I don’t have football, I don’t know what to do. I was depressed, didn’t know what I was going to do. I got into the routine of doing the same thing every day and it was getting boring,” Randall said. “Two years went by and I found myself working at Sam’s Club on the Black Horse Pike. But then I got really into my fitness, lost a bunch of weight — at one point I was down about 120 pounds. I hit up my defensive line coach at Charleston and asked if I could come back, and they welcomed me back with open arms. “My second week of working at Sam’s Club, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, went into work, put some chickens on the skewers and put them in the ovens, that was my rotation for the whole day, 5 o’clock came and I was like, ‘well, time to go home.’ It was just that routine of doing the same thing every day and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ I didn’t have any time for the gym, didn’t have any time for friends. Getting fat and getting
Glory Days photo/Sully
Kenny Randall, a Mainland Regional High graduate, signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars this spring, and this summer will be looking to make the Jags’ Opening Day roster as a defensive tackle. lazy — I didn’t want to be that anymore.” Second chances don’t come around too often in life, and Randall said he wasn’t about to mess this one up. He ended up having a very good career at Charleston, as the 6-foot-1, 300-pound defensive tackle racked up 116 tackles in three seasons, including 32.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks. In 2019 he was
second on the team with 64 tackles. He opted out of an abbreviated 2020 season to focus on preparing for the NFL draft. “Everybody wanted to see what Kenny Randall was about because I lost all that weight, and they were like, ‘wow, this is a whole new person.’ My first day back at practice I ended up going out there and pancaking a 360-pound
guy who was 6-foot-8, so I showed them what I was doing while I was gone, and they were very excited with what they saw,” he said. “I put in a lot of time and effort with my diet and at the gym. I’d wake up at 6 a.m. every day and go work out then go back again at 5 p.m. My morning would be running and my afternoon would be weights. It was a lot of dedication for what I wanted. I was tired of being a loser and I was tired of being a sloppy guy. At Mainland, everybody had expectations for me and I’m the type of guy that if I don’t fulfill those expectations I feel bad about myself and that hangs over my head for awhile.” Randall said getting kicked out of the University of Charleston probably was the wake-up call that he needed. “I had been passed through my whole life, from grade to grade, just because of my size and athleticism, so I really didn’t have anything to harp on myself about. I was always pushed through, so when I finally got to college they were like, ‘yeah, we’re not going to hold your hand. This is real life.’ It was a big wake-up call when they dismissed me,” he said. “They told me that I was getting a second chance, and not a lot of people get those, so I had to make the most of it. That first day I had my head on straight, told the coaches everything they wanted to hear, and as soon as the pads came on they didn’t regret their decision to bring me back. I was absolutely (surprised they took me back). When I left, I had a 1.6 GPA and I don’t think anybody in their right
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July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 13 Randall, from page 11 mind would have brought me back. I thank God for giving me the athleticism so they could even consider bringing me back. “I approached them,” Randall explained. “I reached out to my line coach and told him I had been losing all this weight and he followed my journey the whole time on Instagram. He said, ‘I see what you’ve been doing and you’re definitely a different person now. If we take you back, I’m putting my neck on the line for you.’ And if somebody sticks their neck out for me, I’m going to do everything I can to pay them back, and that’s exactly what I did.” Some people take advantage of second chances, others don’t. Kenny Randall certainly has, and now he’s in the process of embarking on a career in the NFL. “I’m from Charleston so we went to college together, did homework together and studied. I had no idea he even played football until I went to a football game after we started dating. I realized he’s a bully and a beast on the field, but with our family he’s just a big Teddy bear. He’s awesome,” said Rochelle McCroskey, Randall’s fiance and the mother of his young son. “He’s been through so much. It’s been a journey for him to get to this point, but he’s loved the process and I’ve supported him. Our son motivates him like no other. He puts his family and everyone before him. If anyone needs help he’s the first person they can call and he’ll be there to help you out, guaranteed.” “It’s definitely amazing, looking at my journey. Looking back now, I definitely didn’t think I’d be in this situation. In Division II you’re not really getting many looks. I thank John Kaminski, the former defensive end who went (to Charleston) for opening the door for people like me to get into the NFL. It’s definitely amazing, thinking about where I am now,” Randall said. “I’m excited. Talking to all these NFL coaches in Zoom meetings (prior to the draft), I’ve been working for this since I was 6 years old and it’s everything I’ve dreamed about. I’m excited. All these coaches ask me if I care if a guy I’d be going up against went to Auburn or Clemson or wherever, and I
Glory Days photo/Sully
Randall has all the motivation he’ll ever need every day when he holds his young son, Kainyon.
“My second week of working at Sam’s Club, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, went into work, put some chickens on the skewers and put them in the ovens, that was my rotation for the whole day, 5 o’clock came and I was like, ‘well, time to go home.’ It was just that routine of doing the same thing every day and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ I didn’t have any time for the gym, didn’t have any time for friends. Getting fat and getting lazy — I didn’t want to be that anymore.” Kenny Randall, on being out of football for several years don’t care about that. I’m a bully when I go into the trenches and I’m going to work ten times harder than whoever is in front of me.” And if, by chance, Randall finds himself getting bullied by some huge offensive lineman this fall, he’ll have all the motivation he’ll ever need to get back in there the next play and go toe-to-toe with that opponent in front of him. These days, Randall’s motivation comes in the form of his 1-yearold son, Kainyon. “I can’t put enough appreciation on that because I grew up without a father. Every day I wake up and give him a kiss on the forehead to start my day.
Everything is brand new and I’m taking it day by day,” Randall said. “Having a kid does a lot. When you’re trying to get into the NFL, doing these crazy workouts, working hard, you have to really dig deep and find something that pushes you. Why are you really doing this? Why are you putting everything you have into this? I just look at him, and that keeps me going. I’ll sprint 10 times harder when I think about him. “I hope people see me for the athlete I am. I want to go into the NFL and make a name for myself, coming from D II, I just want to show everybody what I’ve got and exceed expectations. It gives me the chills thinking about
(playing in the NFL). I’m getting chills right now thinking about it,” he added. “Coming from Mainland, then getting dismissed from Charleston, working at Sam’s Club and now I’m here — it’s a story that nobody would believe unless you told them yourself. It’s amazing. I’m just grateful to be here and I’m taking every opportunity and running with it. I definitely took the long road to get here. It hasn’t been the easiest journey, but I’m glad I made that journey because it made me the man I am today.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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BASEBALL/FOOTBALL
Fighting like Frankie Ocean City, Hammonton communities continue to come together in support of a 7-year-old battling leukemia By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer uestion: how many 7-year-olds get to throw out the first pitch at a hometown high school baseball game, then field questions from local media members in the dugout? Answer: well, at least one in South Jersey. Frankie LaSasso has become a bit of a star in recent months — albeit for a reason he and his family wish never happened. The athletic second-grader who is constantly sporting either an Ocean City or Hammonton ball cap is an easy kid to love and root for — and maybe that’s why these two communities, and many others across the region, have gone “all-in” when it comes to helping the LaSasso family. Frankie’s dad, Frank LaSasso IV, is a Hammonton High graduate who is now a teacher and assistant football and baseball coach in the Ocean City district. Last fall, young Frankie was suffering from a persistent cough during his season with the Hammonton Hawks youth football team and so Frank and his wife, Tiffany — a radiology supervisor at AtlantiCare — decided to take their son to the emergency room. He was then transported to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where Frank and Tiffany got the news every parent dreads. Their son had leukemia. He was officially diagnosed in December with Tcell lymphoblastic leukemia and has been on chemotherapy treatments since then, and will be for at least the next two years. “He had a lingering cough for a little while in October and November. We noticed he was lethargic, had a lack of appetite, and then we noticed some lymph nodes and bruising on his arms — and he couldn’t explain how he got those bruises. So we got a script for blood work and we got multiple Covid tests. We were thinking maybe it was mononucleosis or anemia, but then he ran a fever a couple days after we got the blood work. We took him over to AtlantiCare Urgent Care, he was negative for Covid and negative for strep throat, so they sent us to Virtua in Voorhees, where they have a little CHOP ER in there. With-
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Glory Days photos/Sully
Frankie LaSasso, a 7-year-old from Hammonton who plays football, basketball and baseball, has been battling leukemia since being diagnosed last December. in minutes of being there, and drawing blood, they knew it was some form of leukemia,” Frank said. “They did a chest x-ray then immediately transported us to CHOP. We got there and it was just overwhelming. They got him into a room and then it was a flood of doctors and nurses. “The first 24 hours were the hardest because we knew he had leukemia but we didn’t know what type, what strand. You can’t help but get on your phone and go to Google — which is the worst thing you
can do,” he added. “Within 24 hours they had his diagnosis, they had a roadmap for what his treatment plan was going to look like, and they gave us some reassurance that what he has is not the most uncommon type of leukemia. That was comforting to see how confident they were in the plan they had in place for him.” “The chemo takes a toll,” Tiffany said. “There
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July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 15 Frankie, from page 14 are days when he gets three different kinds of chemo, some days he has two hours worth of chemo. It’s a lot on him. Sometimes he has to do at-home injections, pills.” Yet through it all, Frankie has been the same rambunctious kid he’s always been, wrestling around with his 6-yearold brother, Gio, and playing any and all sports such as football, basketball and baseball. Although football and basketball are on the shelf right now as far as full-on competition, but he can still play baseball. Frank said his son has to avoid any kind of contact sport for the time being, so baseball will be the focus for the next year or so. To that end, the little lefty’s throwing arm is in good shape. He threw a strike when throwing out the first pitch of the inaugural “Fight Like Frankie Showcase” event at Hammonton Lake Park in late May. It was simultaneous baseball and softball games featuring Hammonton vs. Ocean City. The Ocean City softball team scored a victory, while Hammonton’s baseball team got a win over a Red Raiders squad that went on to win a state championship. The idea is to keep this showcase going every year to not only raise money to help the LaSasso family, but other families dealing with childhood cancer. “He’s very active to begin with. He plays football for the Hammonton Hawks, basketball for the Hammonton Bulldogs, he plays baseball for Hammonton Little League. He’s an active kid at heart and he’s remained pretty active. A couple days after he got home from the hospital he was dribbling a basketball, doing body squats, kicking the kickboxing bag we have at home,” Frank said. “We’re just all trying to be as normal as we can be. The first couple of days I went back to work (in March) I was wondering what was going on. You’re home every day for four months then flip a switch and you’re gone for eight hours at a time — it was stressful. But he called a lot (while I was at work) and my wife would send pictures to assure me that everything was fine.” Coach LaSasso said he and his family have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from both com-
Just like his dad, young Frankie has a big-time passion for football, and one of his favorite things to do is to suit up on fall weekends for the Hammonton Hawks. munities. Both towns and school communities have been trying to find ways to raise money, including from the sale of apparel with #fightlikefrankie screen printed on. “The game was put together by both athletic directors before I even knew about it. Marni Parks, the athletic director at Hammonton, was my gym teacher when I was in high school, and she’s one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. She’s sent jerseys, gifts, games to the house ever since he got diagnosed. Both communities, really, have been wonderful,” he said. “My wife and I both graduated from Hammonton High School and when I got a job in Ocean City, I had no real connection to that community. But I got that job right out of college.
People wondered how long it would be until I came back to teach or coach in Hammonton, but we’ve had a ton of success in baseball since 2010, and with football it has been such a process to build the program to where it is now. It was already a family atmosphere with me and Ocean City — it’s become a second home — and with everything that has happened, the support from Ocean City has been overwhelming. The school district has been understanding with everything I’ve been going through, the families of players I’ve coached in the past have reached out and sent gifts. I’ve had past players bring over PlayStation games for Christmas. And Hammonton is Hammonton — I don’t work or coach here but it still feels like I’m active in
the high school. I’m close with Jim Raso, I’m close with Gregg Silvesti, my dad has coached baseball and softball. And just being the tight-knit community it is, the support here has been just as impressive as Ocean City.” It will be a long road ahead for young Frankie, but his mother said he is very involved in his treatment plan. In fact, he’s his own best consultant when dealing with doctors at CHOP. “When we go to the doctor they hand him the paperwork right away and he knows what numbers are important, he looks over the sheets and memorizes them. He knows the names of every medication he takes,” Tiffany said.
See Frankie, page 17
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July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 17 Frankie, from page 15 “He’s very involved and always has good questions for the doctors. He asks about every cancer in general. We’ll be at home and he might hear a news story about somebody who has brain cancer and he’ll ask us about that. He’ll ask doctors about that. He wants to know everything. He’s not scared to be involved.” “I don’t know that he knows the magnitude of what the possibilities could have been had we not caught this as early as we did. But he certainly knows everything that goes on in that doctor’s office,” Frank added. “He knows what it means for his hemoglobin to be low; he knows what it means for his ANC counts — he’s really on top of all his medications. He’s just as good at reminding us when he has to take medicine as we are of reminding him. He’s very responsible, beyond his years, with how he’s handling everything.” That day throwing out the first pitch was extra special for Frank because the Hammonton Lake Park field is named after his grandfather, Frank LaSasso Jr., who passed away in November, just a few weeks before Frankie was diagnosed. It was a happy moment and a brief respite from the worry and strife that has filled the lives of the LaSasso family since last
“When we go to the doctor they hand him the paperwork right away and he knows what numbers are important, he looks over the sheets and memorizes them. He knows the names of every medication he takes.”
Tiffany LaSasso on 7-year-old son Frankie, who was diagnosed with leukemia in December
winter. Frank and Tiffany both said they have a new perspective on what is important in life, and they try to have as many good days as possible, focusing on the here and now. “The first month we were living, literally, from one hour to the next. Then it was living day to day, now we’re just living a week at a time. We have no idea what next week is going to look like. We can’t plan for anything because everything can change at the drop of a hat,” Frank said. “Our expectation is that he’ll be back in school full time in the fall. There won’t be any football for him and maybe not basket-
ball because he has a port in his chest and he can’t have any kind of contact in the chest area, so it might just be baseball for the next two years.” “Most of the time, when people look at him, they don’t even know he’s sick. He doesn’t act like he is,” Tiffany said. “He’s active and it’s hard to keep him down, but that’s what keeps us going. When he has good days, that gives us good days. This has changed our whole perspective on life.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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SOFTBALL
‘We’re living our dreams because of him’ John Biasi had a huge impact on the South Jersey softball world By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer hen somebody has a passion for something, that drive and determination lives on long after they are gone from this Earth. John Biasi had an unending passion for softball, and helping young women throughout South Jersey achieve their dreams of playing at the collegiate level. Many years ago he launched the New Jersey Gators travel program and it has become one of the top softball factories in the region, placing dozens of players in NCAA programs. Biasi, a Haddon Township resident and native of Pennsauken, left some huge shoes to fill when he passed away suddenly on March 28. He was only 53 years old. Not long after, on April 6, an outdoor memorial service was held at Lions Lake Softball Complex in Voorhees, Camden County. The event nearly filled the entire field with former players, parents, fellow coaches, friends — and just so many other people who were impacted by the life of John Biasi, who was known as a fiery, boisterous coach who demanded the best from his players, and so often got just that. “I played for John for about two years. He was tough on us, but in a loving way, and he really was a great coach. He helped us all reach our best potential and made us feel like we could reach our dreams. I cried when I found out. It was mostly shock. We had just seen him on (the previous) Thursday. But we just have to keep on trucking, that’s what he would want us to do,”
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Coach Biasi’s daughter, Katelyn “K.B.” Anthony, is consoled by a friend during an emotional memorial service held in Voorhees in early April. Biasi, founder and president of the New Jersey Gators softball program, died suddenly at age 53 in March. said Allison Amadio, a freshman at Cedar Creek who helped lead the Pirates to a South Jersey Group 2 championship this spring. “He started this program, he built it from the ground up, he ran it. This was a full-time job for him, it was 24/7. Nobody knew when he was able to sleep. He was such a big factor in the success of all of this.”
What makes Biasi’s passing even more heartbreaking is that in short order he would have become a grandfather for the first time. His daughter, Katelyn “K.B.” Anthony, of Glassboro, is pregnant with her first child. “To me, he was always ‘Dad.’ He was never just an average dad, and everyone who knew him, knew that. He
strived to be the best dad he could be and did everything he could for me, likewise, the same love and dedication went into his coaching and players. He started coaching me in T-ball and we both got to know who would become some of my lifelong friends, and their
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Page 20 w Glory Days Magazine w July 20, 2021 Biasi, from page 19 parents. I remember spending weekends with him at local fields, just the two of us having a blast. He was my best friend,” K.B. said in a prepared statement at the memorial service. “He was my hero, my idol; I always thought he was invincible.” The New Jersey Gators website (newjerseygators.com) had this testimonial posted after John passed away: “For years, he championed the sport as well as his individual players. He challenged those around him to be the best they could be in all aspects of life. He has inspired so many excellent athletes. But beyond the fields, he has inspired so many more to be excellent people; to serve others, to seek to do what’s right, to make the most of every opportunity, and to shoot for the stars The softball community has lost a legend, a leader, and an inspiring & empowering coach and friend that can
never be replaced. John spent countless hours coaching our children. There wasn’t a day that passed that he didn’t think about what was next. He poured every ounce of his energy into making us who we are. He wanted everyone to know who the NJ Gators were. His passion was unparalleled. “John loved to win, but more importantly he loved to make our girls bigger & better, stronger & more powerful. Not just physically, but emotionally too, and that’s what made the difference. John was tough. He never settled for less than the best. Our children have strength and knowledge that is beyond the norm. John drove them to be best. John never let anything go. He never gave up. He was outstanding at developing our children physically and emotionally. Gator Nation will never be the same.” Devin Coia, a Vineland High School graduate and rising sophomore at Monmouth University, credits Biasi with
helping her achieve her goal of playing Division I softball. “I played for the Gators since I was 12, so for six years. It was an amazing six years. I came back this winter to work with the team and that’s something I’ll always do. He’s the best coach I could have asked for. I wouldn’t be at Monmouth if it wasn’t for him. My best memory was at nationals and I was catching — and he was a catcher, so he was always hard on catchers — and I remember we played this one team that liked to steal, but every runner that tried I threw out, and he was so proud of me. He hugged me after the game, he was so excited. All of us, that’s all we wanted to do was make him proud and I felt like I made him proud that game,” she said at the memorial event. “The training here helped make me the player I am today and I attribute a lot of the reason I’m playing at school right now to him. I think the reason I was successful in high school
had a lot to do with him, and during the recruiting process you can’t ask for a better coach. There are so many colleges coaches (interested in this program) because of the relationship John had with them. He did everything to make sure we got a chance to go off and play at school.” Coia was, understandably, emotional at that event when remembering a man who meant so much to her and her family. “I’m very proud, and emotional, too. Looking back, he had such an impact on us and got us all to where we wanted to be,” Coia said. “We’re living our dreams because of him. That’s why I’m so emotional. He impacted so many people’s lives and if he were here he’d be so happy to see all his past players.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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Stangs hoping they’ll get Rich in future Torie Rich guided Mainland’s girls volleyball team to a solid season in her rookie campaign By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer orie Rich didn’t have any volleyball experience before taking over the Mainland girls’ program at the start of the 2021 season, but she knows how to coach. And that was a big factor in her getting hired for her first head coaching position. She’s been around Mainland for a long time as an assistant in field hockey and softball, and her ability to relate to her players and get the most out of them showed, as the Mustangs put together one of the best seasons of any CapeAtlantic League team. In fact, nj.com had Mainland ranked as the No. 1 team in the CAL in its postseason evaluations. It looks as though the future of this program is bright, and Rich said she intends to dive into this coaching position, learn all she can about the sport, and said she plans on being with this program for the foreseeable future. “I’ve probably learned the most of anyone out here,” Rich said following a state playoff victory over Lacey Township in mid-April, the first home playoff victory in program history. “I’m just super proud of this group and excited for what they can bring to this program.” In 2019 the Mustangs went 12-10, 4-4 in the CAL American conference, but this year — in a season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic — Mainland posted a 10-4 record, including 8-1 in the newly formed CAL East division. The Mustangs scored some big wins over the likes of Pleasantville, Middle Township and Lower Cape May, and even took down perennial CAL power Absegami, 2-1, in the final match of the season.
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Rookie head coach Torie Rich helped lead Mainland to a 10-4 record this season and the No. 1 ranking in the Cape-Atlantic League, according to nj.com’s final league rankings. “The coaches are great, I love them. We have so much fun at practice and in our games. We have a great team,” said freshman outside hitter Sydney Booth, one of several rising stars on the Mustangs’ roster. Another breakout star this year was junior Olivia Leap, who developed into one of the best net players in the league throughout the course of this season, and Mainland will have its setter back
next year in junior Cadence Fitzgerald. They’ll also return top outside hitter Bella Canesi as well as juniors such as Laziah Wilson, Caroline Moyer, Julia Thornton and Amaya Perez. “All our coaches have come in and done well. They really listen to the players and everyone works well together. I know they didn’t necessarily play volleyball but they are good coaches all around. They obviously
researched the sport, they watch film, they study and they come in and communicate very well with the players, which is nice. We do a lot of drills and watch a lot of film, which is something we never really did before,” said Fitzgerald. “I love (Rich’s) attitude. She’s so encouraging. She always says,
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July 20, 2021 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 23 Stangs, from page 22 ‘I need you guys to believe in yourselves as much as I believe in you.’ She knows what we’re capable of, so it’s been nice (to have success) to show all our hard work and what she’s taught us at practice.” “Cadence is a natural born leader. She brings positivity that is infectious, 100 percent. Having her out there and having her spirit and attitude helps this team tremendously,” Rich said. “We’ve moved some people around since the beginning of the season and kind of found what works best for us.” Fitzgerald said she was thrilled to be able to experience the girls volleyball playoffs, considering there was no postseason for basketball this year. “We’ve had a lot of firsts this season, like we beat Pleasantville for the first time in Mainland history, and having a home playoff game was so exciting. But I know we’ve been capable of this all season, and it was nice to see everyone work so well together. I knew we had this ability, and I think (during the playoffs) we really showed what we can do,” she said after the win over Lacey. “With basketball season, I was very disappointed that we didn’t have any playoffs, so to have them for volleyball, and to have a home playoff game, I’m just so happy with this opportunity.” There certainly is some excitement surrounding this program after the type of season the Mustangs put up in 2021, and that will only serve to bolster the confidence of some of the younger varsity players as well as the junior varsity players who will try to fill the roles of departing seniors Francesca Pilli, Emma King and Nicole Faragher. “At first, I was very nervous being a freshman,
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Mainland will lose just a handful of seniors next year while returning some key players such as setter Cadence Fitzgerald, a junior. but it’s gotten easier as we’ve played more games,” Booth said after that playoff win over Lacey. “It really helps (having experienced teammates) because they can teach me so much more than I already know and can really help me improve. It’s so fun to have playoffs and to play for something important. This season has been great and the girls have been great.
It’s been so fun. I feel like I have learned so much being with these girls and I’m a lot more confident. I haven’t played volleyball in a while, but I started getting into the groove of things.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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BASEBALL
Absegami tabs new leader Longtime A.C. assistant coach Mejia takes over By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer ne of the hallmarks of the Absegami High baseball program is consistency. There’s only been a handful of coaches in the history of the program, most notably Brian Wastell, who coached for a long time before handing the reins off to former Mainland standout pitcher and Absegami assistant Mike DeCicco three years ago. DeCicco coached the Braves to a couple of state playoff berths before stepping down following the 2021 season to pursue a career in the baseball private sector, and the Braves are replacing him with one of the Cape-Atlantic League’s most recognizable assistant coaches — Junior Mejia of Atlantic City. DeCicco was 19-19 in three seasons at Absegami, including a big first-round playoff win over Mainland two years ago. Mejia, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Atlantic City, made a name for himself as a star player in the CAL for the Vikings and went on to lead Tampa University to an NCAA Division II national championship in 2007. He was born in the Dominican Republic, moved to the United States as a 10-year-old and after college spent many years as one of the top players in the Atlantic County Baseball League. This summer he help launch the Galloway Mustangs program in the inaugural season of the South Jersey South Shore Baseball League, a league designed to attract players ages 16 to 25. “I felt like going in that I had a good shot at getting the job. You never know what to expect because there were other candidates who were prepared, just like I was, for the job. I wouldn’t say I was shocked, but I was surprised, you could say. This will be the first time (as a head coach) for me. Part of why I decided to go for this job is because I am walking into a pretty good situation there at Absegami. Absegami has a pretty good draw in that community, we just have to continue to do our best to keep players going to Absegami High School. That’s my goal going in there, keeping the players we need to be able to keep
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and keep things going in the right direction,” Mejia said. “I haven’t really thought about the challenges, I’m really just soaking in this opportunity. If there is a challenge out there it has to be the changes in the school system with choice schools and everything else that is going on. That’s going to be the biggest challenge, keeping these kids at Absegami. And I’m going to do my best by surrounding myself with a nice coaching staff, people who know the game and who can coach the game the right way, and also teach these kids how to be respectable young men on and off the baseball field.” Mejia said he believes he is ready to lead the Absegami program because of the vast experience he gained working with Atlantic City coach Brent Bean, who has been able to consistently put together competitive teams despite a lack of feeder programs in the city. “I learned a lot from coach Bean. I have to give coach Bean and the coaching staff in Atlantic City a lot of credit. Atlantic City has a limited number of baseball players to draw from and that’s always been a challenge, but coach Bean does a great job in keeping that program together and keeping kids interested in playing baseball,” Mejia said. “For a lot of those kids, high school baseball is their first shot at really playing baseball, so coach Bean deserves a lot of credit for keeping that program together and doing the job he does. Atlantic City competes. They may not win a whole lot of games, but Atlantic City competes.” Mejia said his first order of business will be making attempts to turn Absegami’s field into more of a ballpark rather than just a campus baseball field. He eyes a new press box as well as other improvements on and around the field.
“I have some plans and I’ll set up a meeting with (Athletic Director Steve) Fortis in the near future to talk about the things I’d like to put in place,” he said. “One of them is possibly putting in a press box and really making the field attractive to the players. I want that place to be a place where players can take pride in playing there. I know Absegami has a rich history when it comes to baseball and we want to continue that.” Mejia has always had a passion for baseball and was known during his playing days as a guy who played hard every day, and played smart. He said he hopes that style will become infectious among his players in the brown and gold. “My coaching style will be similar to how I played the game. I joke around with friends that I need to stop playing the game because my mind is telling me one thing but my body is telling me a completely different thing. I play hard — I only know one speed when playing this game; I go hard when I play the game, even at my age now. When I’m out there I leave it all on the field. My brain thinks I’m still in high school but my body is at a different stage, but that’s my style. I want to teach players how to play the game the right way, and play hard. That’s the way I’m going to teach the game, just the way I played it,” Mejia said. “I want to leave my mark and show that I can also coach the game. It’s not just being able to play the game, but coach the game at a high level. And if everything falls into place the way I think it will, I think we’ll be very successful. My goal is to go in there and make Absegami baseball one of the top programs in South Jersey, if not the state.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays