Popular Ocean County Sports Fixture Bob 'CZ' Czarniewski Mourned

Robert “Bob” Czarniewski, known by many as Mr. C or CZ, a fixture on the Toms River sports scene and a beloved Island Heights Grade School gym teacher, is being mourned by the community this week.

Services are set for Thursday and Friday, according to his obituary on the Anderson & Campbell Funeral Home website for the former soccer coach at Toms River East and Toms River South.

“CZ” dedicated his life to his students at Island Heights Grade School, where he had taught physical education since 1973. In 2013 the school gym was dedicated to him, named the Robert “CZ” Czarniewski Gymnasium, in appreciation for his 40 years of loyal, outstanding, and dedicated service to the students of Island Heights Grade School.

Czarniewski also coached his favorite sport, soccer, from 1973 on, at the youth levels on up to the varsity girls and boys soccer at Toms River High Schools East and South. In 1985, as head coach, he led the Toms River East Raiders’ boys soccer team to the NJSIAA Group IV State Championship title. That team, along with CZ, was inducted to the Toms River Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

He also was inducted into the Quincy College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993; he was the recipient of the 2000 Jim Ruhnke Award for his dedication and service to the WOBM Christmas Classic basketball tournament, which he worked since its inception in 1984; and induction to Ocean County College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

Kevin Williams, the sports director of Townsquare Media’s Shore Sports Network, had known Czarniewski since 1972, when Williams was the public address announcer for the men’s basketball team at Ocean County College. He said Czarniewski, the who operated the scoreboard at OCC, gladly joined in when Williams started the WOBM Christmas Classic in 1984.

“I asked him if he would work the clock and of course he said ‘yes,’“ Williams said in his Hometown View blog on the WOBM website. “He would do that for every game played over 31 years at OCC and later the Pine Belt Arena. He never missed a game and was a great asset.”

He was born in Kearny on March 6, 1949, and died of a heart attack, according to the obituary. He was predeceased by his parents Victor and Marie (nee Donovan) Czarniewski of Madison and is survived by his brother Dan Czarniewski and Dan’s wife, Kathy, of Pine Beach.

Visitation will be held at Anderson Campbell Funeral Home, 703 Main St., Toms River, from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. on Thursday. The funeral service will be held at Anderson Campbell Funeral Home beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday, with interment immediately following at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Toms River.

In lieu of flowers , donations can be made to the Robert “CZ” Czarniewski Scholarship Fund/Island Heights School, 115 Summit Avenue, PO Box 329, Island Heights, NJ 08732. Family and friends are invited to visit www.andersonandcampbell.com to leave tributes to his family.