Decision On Thompson MS Fields Affects Middletown Flag Football

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A vote this week by the Middletown Board of Education to go ahead with the planned rehabilitation of the fields at Thompson Middle School has resulted in the upcoming fall season of Lincroft-Middletown flag football league possibly being cancelled.

As an alternative, Middletown school district proposed two other fields for the kids to play on, Bayview elementary and the old fields at Bayshore middle. But those have been rejected by a parent who runs the league, who says they are too small, don't have enough parking and are too far away.

"I am incensed the board voted the way they did this week, and I urge them to vote again and reconsider," said Kevin Settembrino, a Township Committeeman who has only been Middletown's mayor for a few weeks. "We need to support recreation opportunities for Middletown kids. I was very disappointed with how they voted."

For the past 25 years, the Lincroft-Middletown flag football league, which has about 500 kids — 70 percent of which hail from Middletown — has played on the fields at Thompson Middle School. Games are every Sunday at Thompson and the season is supposed to run from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

However, earlier this year the Middletown school district decided Thompson's fields were badly in need of being rehabilitated, and would have to be taken offline this September to be aerated and reseeded. This is part of a larger plan to reseed the fields at all three middle schools, and Middletown's two high schools.

Nearly everyone agrees Thompson's fields are in bad shape and need to be cleaned up. Unfortunately, that meant the flag football program would be kicked off.

"We started talking about this back in January," Middletown school superintendent Dr. Bill George told Patch on Friday. "These three fields at Thompson are in significant need of work. They are at a point now where they are a safety concern for students because of such overuse for a significant period of time."

Dr. George said the district presented the two other schools as alternatives, and was rejected.

"We are giving them two other schools, both of which are on Leonardville Road and are 1.4 miles apart," said Dr. George. "We really want this program to continue and we gave them two viable alternatives."

The Bayview/Bayshore idea is totally unfeasible, said Pete Cohen, a Lincroft Dad who helps run the league. In fact, Cohen sent out an email to all the league parents on Thursday telling them the season would very likely be canceled this fall due to them being shut out of Thompson's fields.

"I welcome Dr. George to wake up at 6 a.m. with me on a Sunday and drive 14 miles across town and set up all our equipment on two different fields. And there is a lot of equipment," Cohen said. "The fields are too small, there is not enough parking and what if you are a parent who has kids with games in two different places? The way they handled this is the opposite of fair. If they had told us six months ago, maybe we could find new fields."

The Middletown Board of Education voted 7-2 Tuesday night to go ahead with the plan to rehabilitate the fields. John Little and Jim Cody were the only Board members who voted against it.

Cohen also said he was notified in late May/early June that Thompson would not be available, which he also said did not give him enough time to find a new space.

"So that's the biggest problem — the late notice to the league ... If they're saying they're pressed for a little bit of time, I'm just saying maybe we can come up with something, a compromise," said Cody at Tuesday night's meeting, one of the two members who voted in the league's favor. "It's a lot of kids."

Settembrino said he is currently trying to find field space for the kids at Brookdale Community College.

Cohen said he appreciates that, but just wishes they would be allowed back onto the Thompson fields. He said he doesn't understand why they can't delay the field maintenance.

When contacted by Patch, at least one Board member, Nick DiFranco, explained his vote.

"We are very disappointed that the Lincroft flag football league made the decision to not play football this fall," DiFranco said. "The Board also offered to transport the league’s equipment shed to Bayview at no cost to the league. The league chose to decline this offer and asked the Board to consider deferring field maintenance ... After lengthy discussion we voted to continue with the planned maintenance, and to offer Bayview and Bayshore to the league. We learned the next day that the league decided to cancel the season rather than accept the offer."

Cohen said they have about 10 days left to still order uniforms for the fall season, and he implored people to email the seven Board members and ask them to change their minds. Watch the Board debate the issue at their meeting Tuesday night, July 17:

Photo from past seasons of Middletown-Lincroft flag football team taken from their website.