Shore Conference Taking Look At Thanksgiving Game: Toms River BOE

TOMS RIVER, NJ -- The abrupt call to end the Toms River South-Lakewood Thanksgiving football game has been sent to the replay booth for further review.

"The Shore Conferencehas indicated the circumstances will be reviewed," said Russell Corby, president of the Toms River Regional Board of Education, in response from a plea by Toms River South alumnus and Beachwood resident Renee Godino, who started a petition to urge officials to reverse the decision to scrap the 98-year-old tradition.

"In two days, 1,001 people have signed the petition," Godino said, including members of the Lakewood coaching staff and the Lakewood mayor. She urged the board and administration to read the comments on the petition and see the passion for continuing the game, which was first played in 1920.

"The message was heard loud and clear," Corby said.

News that the game between the two rivals that has been played every Thanksgiving since 1920 broke on Saturday, when the Shore Conference released the 2018 high school football schedule to media outlets. That schedule is tailored to the new NJSIAA football playoff structure, which added another round to the playoffs.

The schedule also reflects new division alignments. The divisions underwent significant changes for the coming fall as the Shore Conference tried to address issues of competitiveness. For years, the football divisions had been arranged according to both geographic and enrollment lines. This year, the teams' strength over the past three years played a part in deciding the divisions, according to an Asbury Park Press report.

In the process, the three Toms River schools were split between two divisions. The schedule includes eight regular-season games and teams will get a ninth game if they are not in the playoffs. Teams had the option of requesting a specific opponent for either Labor Day weekend or Thanksgiving as one of their eight games, and those teams have bye weeks during their schedules. Middletown North-Middletown South and Wall-Manasquan both retained their Thanksgiving games, for example.

The Lakewood coaching staff told the Asbury Park Press they had wanted to maintain the Thanksgiving game and had asked for it.

On Tuesday, Toms River South Principal James Ricotta sent an email to parents and guardians explaining the reasons behind the Toms River South decision to not request the Thanksgiving game with Lakewood be maintained.

Tops among those reasons was the uncertainty about Lakewood's football program. The Lakewood district has been facing an unyielding budget crisis and nearly dropped all sports — including football — for the 2017-18 school year as a result. Additionally, the Piners had just 24 players by the end of the 2017 season.

The Toms River South-Toms River North game, played under the banner of the Great American Rivalry for the last few years, has drawn big crowds. The event has included award presentations — Ron Signorino Sr. and Bob Fiocco were jointly honored at the 2015 game — and scholarship awards to players.

Ricotta's letter also cited falling attendance at the Thanksgiving game and increasing difficulty finding staff members willing to work at the game as chaperones on the holiday.

"We are seeing diminishing attendance at the games," said Gus Kavakas, president of the Toms River South Alumni Association. "That's a fact."

Kavakas told the board the district should ask the players how they feel about continuing the Thanksgiving game, noting that with the new NJSIAA playoff structure, where the first round of the playoffs begins Nov. 2, there is a lengthy layoff between the end of the regular season and Thanksgiving.

"That's challenging," Kavakas, who graduated from Toms River High School in 1970 and played in the 1967, '68 amd '69 Thanksgiving games. Practice isn't the same intensity as playing games regularly, he said.

"Unlike a dinosaur like me who loves the thought of the Thanksgiving game and the tradition it represents, if they (the current players) don't see the significance of the Thanksgiving game, then why go fighting for it?" Kavakas said. "Do they feel passionate about continuing the game ... or do they feel they would rather not?"

Making a change in the schedule to accommodate the Toms River South-Lakewood game on Thanksgiving would not be easy and will have ripple effects.

Toms River South (along with Toms River East) is in the Freedom Division, with Red Bank Catholic, Long Branch, Red Bank and Ocean Township. According to the Asbury Park Press, Toms River South's 2018 schedule includes games against Red Bank, Red Bank Catholic, Toms River East, Long Branch, Ocean, Toms River North, Jackson Liberty, and Barnegat.

The nondivision games are the last three weeks of the regular season, against Toms River North, Jackson Liberty and Barnegat. Lakewood, in the Constitution Division, has its last three regular-season games against nondivision teams Rumson-Fair Haven, Manchester, and Brick, in that order. Jackson Liberty, Toms River South's Week 7 opponent, already is scheduled to play Manchester in Week 8, so the option, should officials choose it, would be to pair Brick and Barnegat. However, that would result in a Week 8 bye for both Toms River South and Lakewood and would extend the layoff between the last regular-season game and the Thanksgiving game — a less-than-ideal situation if neither team qualifies for the playoffs.

Corby said the district wasn't left with a real choice in the scheduling; it could not make requests designating more than one nondivision opponent.

"Shouldn't there be discussion?" he said. "Shouldn't there be a say?"

"We are all Indians," Corby, who represents Pine Beach on the board, said to Godino when she thanked him for signing the petition. "There are generations of Indians in Pine Beach, and several families have traditions around this Thanksgiving game."

"Tradition is very important at North, South and East," board member Chris Raimann said, "and we as a board are listening."

"If the time has come for the game to go because of the new playoff structure, that's sad, but if that's inevitable, that's inevitable," Kavakas said.

Corby said there was no indication from the Shore Conference of how quickly a decision might be made.

Family members pose for a photo at the 2014 Toms River South-Lakewood Thanksgiving game. Photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff