Hopatcong Warriors Raise About $6,000 in Fundraiser for New Football Field

Chris Anderson died almost three years ago, but his wish still lives.

Anderson, a former Hopatcong Warriors president, always wanted the youth football program to have its own field in the borough. On Thursday, some of his friends, family and Hopatcong residents helped raise money for the cause.

The Chris Anderson Memorial Golf Outing attracted about 70 golfers to Farmstead Valley Golf Course in Lafayette for 18 holes under an overcast sky and through light wind. Current Warriors President Dan Titus said the program raised about $6,000—more than he expected.

"It was definitely a good day," he said.

But Titus and General Trustee Dave Barella, who helped organize the event, according to Titus, knew it might be years before the Warriors have a field to call home.

"Right now, it seems far-fetched, but it will happen sometime," Barella said.

The Warriors have for years discussed using town property or donated land to create a football field, but to little success. Titus said the program would need at least 5 acres of flat land. Hopatcong doesn't have much leftover land, he said, that isn't listed as preserved and, thus, untouchable.

Titus said he believes the Warriors could turn some land at the Wayne L. Threlkeld Hilltop Sports Complex near the Civic Center into a football field for approximately $50,000 if borough construction companies pitched in.

"We have people who would put there time in," Titus said. "There are people in town who would do it."

He also said a turf field could even be feasible, considering the economy's downturn and the willingness of some contractors to reduce rates.

Titus said the program has grown steadily over the years and needs space. He said often teams would practice at fields throughout the borough, causing the program to feel "a little too spread out, like we're a bunch of different programs." The Hopatcong Warriors cheerleading squad falls also under the program's umbrella.

"Our kids are all over," Titus said. "You get the varsity in one location, then the clinic in another location. The goal was to get everyone together. The goal was to get the program to act like a program.

"That was [Anderson's] vision," Titus continued.

Anderson was in the program for just five years. His son, Christopher, and daughter, Danielle, each went through its ranks.

Titus said Anderson had a knack for recalling children's names.

"The unique thing about Chris," Titus said, "he knew every kid by their first name. I don't. I just call them 'buddy.' That's unique. I don't want to replace him. He knew everybody, man. He knew everybody and he treated everybody the same."

Titus said Anderson started the golf fundraiser three years ago as a way to provide the program extra money for equipment. But after he died on Nov. 21, 2007, in an accident, the program's board members decided to start a fund in his name for a new field.

Barella said if the field gets built, it wouldn't bear Anderson's name.

"He wouldn't want that, the family wouldn't want that," Barella said. "It's about the Warriors, and that's he we would have wanted it."

Titus said the program had discussions last September with Peter Kellogg, owner of the 3,000-acre Hudson Farms hunting preserve in Andover, about using part of Kellogg's land for a field. But it proved too rocky and rough.

"The ultimate goal is to get a field," Titus said. "We're going to keep plugging away."