Tuesday, November 22, 2016

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Cliffside Park athletic director John Lombardo scored a goal and did not hit the post during the Ballgame For Barton played on Sunday at Dumont High School.

Cliffside Park brought a bus full of students. Fair Lawn students made their own way in varsity letter jackets. Thirty-plus coaches, some in shape, some not so much, donned the soccer cleats for a grueling 80 minutes in front of two referees who donated their time. Chuck Hogan got us a field, Joe Sutera opened and closed the gate at the entrance to Dumont High School and Mark Pieklo stood in the wind to collect donations.

Ramapo coach Evan Baumgarten offered high-end jerseys to whichever program brought the most spectators. Cliffside Park’s athletic director, John Lombardo, its former boys soccer coach Jim Fucci, its current boys soccer coach Ozgur Uyaraglu and its girls soccer coach Carmine Cambareri all took part. River Dell’s soccer booster club donated, so did Pascack Valley’s and both overwhelmingly generously. The Bergen County Woman’s Coaches association was also well represented.

How do you say thank you for that type of support?

You can’t, but I can try in the best way I know how. I write stuff down and post it on northjerseysports.com. That is how I got to know all of you and how Richie ‘Ballgame’ Barton did, too. If you are reading this then you know the struggle as Richie continues his fight against Stage 4 Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that was diagnosed less than six weeks after his marriage to Erika.

I am one of the lucky ones, one who has never had to deal with such a scary illness striking someone so close. How do you handle it? The only way I knew how was to get the word out and hope that someone would ride to the rescue. But it wasn’t just someone, it was a long list of someones who threw themselves right into the battle that is now all of ours.

We set up a go-fund-me page and the donations have now topped $13,000 in just 10 days. The calls and texts came in in droves to Richie for encouragement in what we know will be a long, but ultimately successful fight and to me to ask what they could do, what we can do, for Richie. To try to name everyone that has offered everything from money to logistics to facilities to simple thoughts and words of good will is not possible. The list is too long, my emotions still too unsettled to remember everyone and I do not want to leave a single soul out.

To guys like Bergenfield head coach Mike Papapetrou...thank you!

Let’s just say that in the last three weeks I have heard from just about everybody that Rich and I have forged relationships with over the past 15 years and that is how Sunday morning happened on a blustery pitch behind Dumont High School. The ‘Ballgame for Barton’, organized in less than two weeks, was a sorry display of soccer, but the best game I have ever covered since founding this website just in time for the fall season back in 2000.

Two sets of teams comprised of coaches from across North Jersey, young ones, middle aged ones and, well, Roy Nygren, got after it, half in T-shirts emblazoned with ‘Team Rich’ and the other half sporting ‘Team Barton’ across the front. There was trash talking, there was huffing and puffing and there was Ozzy tripping over the 18 yard box, but what there was mostly was a sense of community that blew me away. I didn’t even know everyone who turned out to play in the game, but I will find out (and I promise to cover you next season). And, for the record, I do not agree with the assessment of Old Tappan head coach Mark Torrie, who named himself the game’s MVP.

How many times after covering a game has a coach said to Rich or myself, ‘Hey, thanks for covering us. I appreciate it.” The answer is hundreds, maybe thousands by now, but what we never realized was that by saying that, you meant “We really do appreciate it.” We get it now. You are there in this fight, too, and, you know what? Rich appreciates it.

As I sit here writing this, I probably should just be getting in my car and heading home from the Fiesta where the Bergen County Soccer Coaches Association was meeting for its year-end celebration. The association wanted to honor us with some type of award for our contribution to high school soccer in North Jersey, to accept your appreciation on behalf of Richie and myself.

I couldn’t go. I run NorthJerseySports.com and just because your season is over, doesn’t mean mine is. I had to write stuff down and post it. The work goes on and we are down a man, a good man, over here, but with your help we know it will not be for one day longer than necessary

And while I apologize that I could not be in attendance to thank you in a formal setting, just know that Rich and I never need to be ‘honored’ for anything that we might have contributed to high school soccer. You honored us with your presence at the ‘Ballgame for Barton,’ you have honored us with your thoughts, your prayers, your generosity and your genuine humanity in a way that it would have been impossible to craft into a proper thank you. Plus, I don’t even have a suit that fits.

We are privileged to call you our friends and, really, what else is there?