Joe Cappello, one of our softball members and a dedicated coach going back to 2012, has served on the board of directors for the last three years and has taken on ever-increasing roles regarding the management of the program.
Jen Gioia is one of our newest board members. An interested parent since the League introduced softball, in 2018 she stepped up to coordinate numerous aspects of fund-raising as well as making sure the annual awards dinner went off smoothly.
Melody LaRossa, our Auxiliary coordinator, and Jim Fecanin, our field guru, are both repeat recipients of the Volunteer of the Year award.
Both are well deserving for having pulled many times their weight in service to the League. We wouldn’t be anywhere without these two.
Mike Finan was a baseball guy who grew up in Essex County and played college ball. But when his son joined our League for his Tee Ball season in 2009, we had no idea how much he would wind up contributing to our program, especially over the last few seasons. He stepped up so many times, both financially and with contributions of time.
Melody LaRossa took over one of the most thankless jobs in the League this year, helping to get things under control and actually making it work. Under her leadership, our concession stand turned its best profit in quite a while.
Tom Bloomer has been honored before, but continues to perform beyond the call of duty. We have had a few issues with our main baseball field, and this volunteer has been at the forefront of trying to get everything back in shape. At the same time, he took over the operation of our successful fall ball program this year.
Mark O’Connor has been an absolutely vital part of our program since Little League got involved with Recreation softball five seasons ago. Besides having served as a vice president and player agent, he has announced league championship games at the softball field, and he’s done countless other things to keep the program on an even keel.
Lorraine Fecanin and Denise Goumas are the 2014 award recipients. Along with the games and the friendships that are made, the greatest memory that many people have of Rutherford Little League is the concession stand. It’s been in operation since the 1950s, and it’s always been a hassle to organize. Even the team parents who recruit other parents to work in the stand don't know how much goes into making the stand run profitably, helping to offset the costs of operating the League. With that in mind, it is a privilege to be able to honor two individuals who are the latest to make the stand run as smoothly as it can.
Tom Prince, our American League honoree, is someone who has worked both sides of the aisle over the last three seasons. Not only has he assisted with a Major Baseball team, he's run around like a headless chicken on numerous occasions to ensure that the softball program runs smoothly. He's been a tireless advocate for our 281 softball players.
Jim McCarthy, our National League award winner, performed in a relief capacity in game operations during many of the two dozen sectional and state tournament softball games the League hosted. He earned his third volunteer citation in five years by stepping in to coordinate and often perform press box duties such as scoreboard operation and public address announcing.
Jeff DeLucia, our American League honoree, has shown that he truly believes in the development of our younger players, and so he has worked tirelessly to ensure the success of our Minor League and Tee Ball Baseball programs even though his son has moved up to a Major League team.
Kara Weist earned the National League honor by taking over one of the League’s most thankless jobs, the operation of the concession stand. Her great job was evidenced in the smiling faces of everyone who bought a slushie.
Paul Cuccinelli, our American League honoree, was in line for an award before someone named Irene blew through in late August and complicated matters. Already, he was busy handling the uniforms and equipment at Rutherford Little League, a job made more difficult with ever-changing safety regulations. As a result of the storm, he's working even harder to make sure our players are properly outfitted and safe for the 2012 season.
Jim McCarthy earned a well-justified repeat citation in the National League. Our League found itself attacked on several fronts during the spring, and McCarthy skillfully defended its honor, while at the same time shifting his attention to the 274 newest members of the League by becoming actively involved with the Softball Committee. He is a loyal board member and a former Major Baseball manager turned softball coach.
Mark Vogel was honored from the National League. He started pitching in during the regular season, providing weekly specials at the concession stand. He kept that up during the tournament, as well as supplying refreshments for the umpires and staff, along with spending time in the stand during the state finals. Going forward, he plans to look at ways to make our concessions more efficient and profitable.
Suzanne Murphy received the American League honor. She took a look at the League’s kitchen operation in late 2009 and promptly embarked on a program which is best referred to as “Extreme Makeover: Concession Stand Edition”. During the off-season, she coordinated a complete renovation of the stand, making it a more efficient and more pleasant place for our volunteers.
Nick Russo is the American League honoree. He has come to the fore over the last few seasons, mainly after his first son finished playing in the League. In recent years, he’s taken charge of the Minor League as well as our fall program, and this year he started managing a Major League team as well.
Jim McCarthy received the National League honor. He started managing a Major team when his oldest son turned 9. Not only is he still there, with three kids remaining in the League, but he's also become the League’s “legal eagle”, helping guide us through some thorny situations both internally and in negotiation with the Borough of Rutherford.
Corey Gallo was instrumental in establishing the capital campaign which is enabling the League to make major improvements to its facilities by the start of the 2009 season. Some people doubted that he could do it, but he proved them wrong, and work at the field will start shortly.
Bob Simone, a repeat award winner, got involved in the League when his son was playing, and he has stuck around for another 11 seasons, until after that son was out of college. He ran the fall program for a good number of years, and he led several tournament teams as well. In 2007, he made personal sacrifices to stay at the helm of a club that went to the state finals in Clayton, Gloucester Co.
Frank Von Cappeln received the American League awward. Cheeburger, cheeburger, who wants a cheeburger? The Rutherford Little League added a grill at selected games this season, and we started adding cheeseburgers, shish kabobs, and other variety to our standard concession-stand fare. Someone had to man the grill, and Frank was willing would stand out there and cook for us, as well as selling 50/50 tickets and other “grunt work” that helped us make ends meet.
Andrew Okula was honored from the National League. For a period, the Scoreline was out of commission. It would work for a while, and then it would quit again. That was the case for about half the season, until Okula, who was instrumental in hooking up the electrical wiring for some major kitchen improvements this season, took a quick look at the phone lines leading to the Scoreline, and got it working like new.
Dennis Van Dyk received the American League award. He was already making significant contributions before he was elected to the board of directors for 2006. He’s a go-to guy if we ever had one, the sort of person you ask for help and he’ll give it if at all possible. This year’s contributions included, among other things, painting the dugouts practically by himself.
Dan Mariano was honored from the National League. One of our most faithful members, he has maintained his involvement since 1974 despite some other significant obligations. He helped design the league’s safety certification course, and he continues to teach it every season.
Margaret Scott was honored as the National League Volunteer of the Year. She stepped up to take over as chair of the Auxiliary in the weeks leading up to the season, filling a void in the league structure.
Jim Fecanin was honored from the American League for the second time, for his tireless work in maintaining the Major League playing field as the 2005 section tournament approached.
Prior to the announcement of this year’s honorees, the League dedicated the new Joe Principe Memorial Award plaque. Principe, a dedicated league volunteer through the 1990s, died earlier in the month. His wife Kathy and son Mike were present for the dedication.
Jeff Cassella was named the American League Volunteer of the Year. Cassella has served the League for thirty seasons as a manager, coach, secretary, player agent, and vice president. In addition, he has prepared the game and practice schedules for the Major League since the 1980s.
Sharon McCallum received the National League honor. McCallum has served on the board of directors as secretary and vice president. She has also been responsible for securing practice fields, as well as recruiting workers for the concession stand for playoff and tournament play.
Joe Zurla received the American League honor. Despite being busy with a retail business on the busiest Little League day of the week, he has found time to serve the League in various capacities, including equipment manager and treasurer.
The National League award went to Walt Caufield. With his children out of the League now, he still has found time to serve on the board of directors and assist in such mundane tasks as the tournament ground crew.
Jim Fecanin was honored from the American League for jumping in and doing the job that is probably most dreaded, least recognized, and least appreciated, the job of head groundskeeper. The payoff was in all the comments about how good the field looked down the stretch.
Larry Weinbrecht earned the National League award for doing a lot of little things. Among other tasks, the locksmith by trade handled a lot of the security issues for the League in the previous few years.
Donna Kolich received the American League honor. Over the last four years, she has accepted two of the most thankless jobs in the League, equipment manager and treasurer, with style and a smile.
Tom McCallum was the National League honoree for becoming Mr. Fix-It this season, handling odd jobs from repairing fences to weeding out the Memorial Garden behind the first-base bleachers to cleaning refrigerators.
Tom Bloomer received the American League award. This season, besides managing a Major League team, he also took over as equipment manager, organizing the ugly details of ordering uniforms, collecting Minor League pants, and all the rest.
Bob Simone earned the National League award. He did a bang-up job not only organizing his own Major League team and the Minor League, but taking over the League's fall program after a one-year hiatus.
Steve Mazzaro received the American League award. He stepped up out of nowhere and took on the immense responsibilities of building and field maintenance. The work he did throughout the year saved many a game that would have been lost to the weather otherwise.
Ronnie Cahill and Sue Giordano shared the National League award. The co-leaders of the Auxiliary took time out and made the concession stand run smoothly. It's a thankless job, and it's enough work for two, so the League broke new ground in 1999 and honored both.
Joe Zurla received the American League award. In his years in the league, he has had responsibilities on all three levels of play – Major, Minor, and Tee Ball – yet has found time to help out with numerous league projects as well.
Phil Giordano is the National League honoree. Despite having other important responsibilities in the League – manager of a Major team, member of the Board – he has donated more than his share of time to the likes of printing projects and organizing fund raisers, both independently and with the Auxiliary.
George Fecanin received the American League honor for an exceptional year in which he served as liaison to the Auxiliary, worked as a co-chair of the equipment committee, and still found time to manage an 8-year-old tournament team.
Jack Dunn picked up the National League award for stepping into the vacant position of groundskeeper, helping to save numerous games on the Major League field from being rained out over the course of the year.
Roy Lochheed, the American League recipient, was honored for a two-year body of work, having served as Minor League coordinator in 1995 and then volunteering to paint all the outfield advertising signs prior to the 1996 season.
Bill Metts, the National League honoree, stuck around after his children were out of the League, bailing out a harried manager many times. More than that, though, he takes the time to recondition all the League’s catchers’ mitts every season.
Mike Ervelli, despite claiming time problems and stepping down from his manager's post this season, came through with an awful lot of field work time and basically did whatever the League needed him to – an extension of all the time he put in during the 1993 state tournament.
Dan Van Dyk was one of our less visible volunteers, a behind-the-scenes worker who kept on the Recreation Department's back until they fixed up Wall Field and then went down to the field to paint the backstop and make that facility useful for us once again.
Joe Principe who took charge of the photo sessions for Minor League and Tee Ball, put down new tile in the refreshment stand, took a Tee Ball team – but was probably best known for brightening those weekends at the field when he dragged out the grill and cooked up those marvelous sausage and pepper sandwiches.
Dan Van Dyk was a man who, besides juggling a big family, somehow found time to work on the roof, clean the exhaust vents in the refreshment stand, constantly kept the soda machine filled – and served as secretary of the League for a couple of years.
Frank Marsico was already involved with three sons in our program over the last few years and another coming up in the not-too-distant future, but he opted not only to manage a Major League team, but to take over the office of League Treasurer. That's a position that can give anyone headaches, but he's handled it quite capably.
John Baluk, a Major League manager, also tackled the daunting job of equipment manager. It’s a tough position, thanks to the varying requests that can come in from 36 teams, but he managed the post wonderfully. Not only that, he kept the equipment bill within the budget – and that's a feat and a half.
Pete Schiro has been involved with our Minor League operation since 1988, shortly after Rutherford Little League took over from the Baseball Council. He has remained active with the Minor League ever since, even though his first son graduated from the Major League this year, and his second son has just completed his first Tee Ball season. In addition to all that, he has served for the last two years as the League's equipment manager.
Bill Edwards has been around the League since the mid-1960s. Back then, he got involved because his son was playing in the National League. He continued to coach, but not manage, until 1980, when he was finally named a manager. In his 13 years managing, his teams have won two league championships and a couple of divisional titles. He was out of the dugout for most of this year for health reasons, but it didn't stop him from supporting his club and the League.
Sante D’Arduini, despite having to juggle a full-time job with the responsibility of caring for five children, still finds all kinds of time for our League. Not only did he offer to serve as Treasurer in 1991, he was also the primary source of fresh soda in the machine at the field – on top of numerous other contributions.
Tom Kane was our “invisible volunteer”. Sure, he was visible when his son was playing ball, but he was at his best when no one was looking. For at 7:00 on a Sunday morning, when most of us were rolling over and catching a few bonus winks, he was out on the field, turning the infield over, raking the field, drawing new outfield lines.
George Egbert and Wilkie DeHaas were honored together, as they were responsible, in a large part, for allowing our Major League to finish its season. Many times, when we got deluged by spring storms, these guys were at the field in an instant, running the pumps, sweeping and raking the field, turning the infield over, and doing everything in their power to assure that a game would be played as soon as possible.
The Volunteer of the Year award was introduced by Little League Baseball Inc. in 1989, as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the worldwide Little League program. Local leagues are encouraged to present the award to a volunteer who “has contributed a spirited and dedicated volunteer effort toward the development of children participating in Little League Baseball.”
The Good Sport award, also inaugurated by Little League in 1989, was suspended by the Rutherford Little League after the 2006 season. The Andrew J. Ortega Sportsmanship Award was first given in 2011 to honor Andrew Ortega, who died in August 2010. It is presented annually to the player who shows the best qualities that Andrew demonstrated to us during his time in youth sports in Rutherford. This is the League’s way of keeping Andrew’s spirit alive in the years to come.
The Don Richmond Good Sportsmanship Award has been given annually to a Rutherford Recreation 8th-grade softball player since 1975. It was first presented by Rutherford Little League in 2011, the first season of partnership between the League and the Department. Don Richmond was instrumental in starting Recreation girls’ softball in the mid-1960s.
The Heather Sartori “Love of the Game” Award was introduced in 2012 and is awarded to a first-year Junior level softball player who shows the passion for the sport exhibited by Sartori, who had been drafted onto the Lions team in Junior Softball, but died suddenly two days before Opening Day of the 2012 season.