Woodbridge named MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl XXIII host in 2016!
by WoodbridgeFootball.com / MyCentralJersey.com / NJ.com on 04/22/16
Greg Tufaro, @GregTufaro 2:28 p.m. August 23, 2015
Woodbridge High School’s recently renovated Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium has been selected as the host site for MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl XXIII, a charity all-star football game that has raised more than $530,000 for its beneficiaries.Marcus
Borden, the game’s founder and director, said he selected Woodbridge
for the July 21, 2016 contest because he believes the school district
and the township’s officials “are going to do everything and anything to
make this a success in their own backyard.”
The
event, which on July 17 raised a single-game record $50,000 for
Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside and the Edison-based
Lakeview School, a program of the New Jersey Institute for Disabilities,
pits the top recently graduated scholastic seniors from Middlesex and
Union counties against one another.
“We
are just thrilled to have this opportunity to host Snapple Bowl XXIII,”
Woodbridge High School Athletics Director Joe Ward said. “We think it’s
a wonderful event that provides funding for two great institutions. I
think it’s great for Woodbridge High School and the Woodbridge
community. I’m excited to have football players and cheerleaders from
Middlesex County and Union County see the first-class facilities we have
at Woodbridge and for us to be a part of the Snapple Bowl tradition.”
Woodbridge
Township used $9.89 million in property-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT)
funding to upgrade facilities for athletics and extracurricular
activities district-wide including, but not limited to, the installation
of synthetic turf football and baseball fields at J.F. Kennedy and
Colonia high schools and a complete overhaul of Priscoe Stadium.
Improvements
to the stadium, originally built in 1948, include the demolition of the
white concrete home stands, which were replaced by red and black metal
bleachers that reflect the school’s colors, a larger athletic trainer’s
room, a revitalized coach’s office equipped with ceiling projectors and
white boards, a beautified locker room, new public restrooms, wheelchair
ramps for handicap access to the venue, a new press box and internet
access.
Woodbridge
Principal Glenn Lottmann said the district and the township will work
together to ensure that accommodations for spectators, including parking
and bleacher seating, will be more than adequate.
“Everyone
wants to make a great event even better by hosting it,” Lottmann said.
“Everyone is on board and wants the same thing. It’s such a great event,
anytime you can get involved in something like that, you should jump at
the opportunity.”
Borden
said Woodbridge’s school spirit, which ranks among the best in
Middlesex County, also factored into his decision to choose Priscoe
Stadium as MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl XXIII’s host.
The
school’s mascot, Johnathon O'Halloran, a rising senior, won the
inaugural Snapple Bowl Mascot Challenge on July 17 after raising an
individual record $2,500-plus for the game’s beneficiaries and placing
first in online voting with 8,620 of the more than 21,000 votes cast for
the nine competing mascots.
Woodbridge
and Colonia hosted Middlesex County All-Star practices in 2014 and
2015, respectively. Borden said the district’s generosity factored into
his decision to select Woodbridge as a first-time host.
The
game, which alternates being played at a Middlesex County and Union
County venue annually, has previously been contested in Middlesex County
at Sayreville, South Brunswick and East Brunswick high schools.
