Rick Forte, the president of the township's vibrant Mountain Top League, has served in just about every capacity possible.
He's been an assistant coach, a head coach, a commissioner, a vice president and now president of the organization, which is made up of many youngsters and adults who serve in many different roles.
The organization, started in 1959, sponsors baseball, basketball and soccer. Versatility is the core of the programs.
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The league had its first week of summer camp from July 19 and 23 and will have its second camp from Aug. 23-27.
The camp is broken down into two groups — the summer kickers between 3 and 5 year olds and player development between the ages of 6 and 14. Forte's children came through the program, which also has fall in-town and travel teams and a spring program.
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"It's about learning to play as a team, having good sportsmanship and the philosophy that everybody plays,'' said Forte of the programs. "It's about socialization and being outdoors.
"With all the talk of childhood obesity and talk about kids going home to sit in front of their computers, this has been a great program. It's really multi-purpose. It's instructional as well,'' he added. "We go right around the year.''
Anne-Sophie Whitehead said that the summer camps will have British soccer coaches to help instruct.
"They're learning to love the game, it's not as much technical part of the game," said Whitehead. "You see the sport growing with the children. The kids keep on learning and the parents keep on learning about the game. Everybody learns to love the sport.''
The Aug. 23-27 camp will be held at Stagg Field and runs between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. It's $75 for the first week for the summer's kickers program and $85 for those who sign up after Aug. 11. The player development camp is $105 for the week and $115 if you sign after Aug. 11. The player's development camp runs between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Children receive a T-shirt, soccer post and evaluated. There also are coaching sessions for parents after the camps.
Forte said that the fall travelling and in-township teams are made up of 1,000 youngsters and are between 80 to 85 teams. Registration for the fall programs end Aug. 15.
For more information, please call Whitehead at (973) 698-4861 or Dave Willoughby with Challenger Sports at (443) 844-3033.
