Warren Townships Recognizes 2018 Volunteer of the Year Awards at Sports Recognition Dinner
The Warren Township Recreation Department held its annual Sports Recognition Dinner at the Chimney Rock restaurant in Bridgewater on March 13, 2019. The event was well attended by the Warren Twp. Committee and other elected officials, coaches and administrators from Watchung Hills High School, and keynote speaker Chris Ash, Head Coach of Rutgers University Football Team.
Coach Ash gave an inspiring speech on Youth Sports and today’s athlete. Joe Passaro, Director of Sports and Recreation, hosted the event and was thrilled to honor so many volunteer coaches. He quoted Billy Graham, “A coach will affect more people in one season, than most people do in a lifetime,” and stated “our youth coaches have a huge responsibility and are priceless.”
During the dinner, each township sport recognized a volunteer of the year. Following are the volunteers that were honored.
(above) President Andrew Marion with Watchung Hills Pop Warner Football and Cheer Volunteer of the Year Shawn Grabko.
Shawn Grabko – Watchung Hills Pop Warner Football & Cheer Volunteer of the Year
Entering his 8th year in the program, there are not too many things our Volunteer of the Year, Shawn Grabko has not done. He became involved when his son Will, and later, daughter Ella joined the football and cheer programs respectively. On game days, he arrives at the WHPW Complex at sunup and does not leave until sundown; no one spends more hours there than he does. What Shawn is probably most known for is as co-manager of the Snack Shack, WHPW’s most profitable endeavor year after year. But he doesn’t stay behind that counter for very long, here is a list of just some of the things Shawn is continually busy with:
game day field set up; recruits at every recruiting event; WHPW Board Member; grilling, BBQ-ing, cooking and ordering Snack Shack supplies; assisted with new website design and implementation; built new apparel store in Squad Locker, which sends 10% of sales back to the program; football coach Shawn willingly lends a hand whenever and wherever needed and Pop Warner could not produce the professional product that they do without him. For all these reasons and many more, Shawn is Watchung Hills Pop Warner Football & Cheer Volunteer of the Year!
(above) Recreation Director Joseph Passaro with President Frank Sena of the Watchung Hills Soccer Association. Unfortunately, Volunteer of the Year Chris Larsen was unable to attend the dinner.
Chris Larsen – Watchung Hills Soccer Association
Chris Larsen has been on the board for 8 years and has owned the scheduling role for most of that time. WHSA has 1,500 players and Chris is in charge of scheduling the 75+ teams, which play in 3 different leagues for WHSA, 7 different locations with 19 different fields. Depending on the age of the teams, WHSA has 4 different team configurations (5v5, 7v7, 9v9, 11v11) and 3 different referees assignors. Based on all of these variables, he sets an initial schedule where he tries to keep consecutive games to accommodate the referees. Then on top of all of the variables, Chris has to deal with hundreds of game change requests that are sent in. He has to put the schedule together for the Fall and Spring. WHSA had to buy him an IBM Watson to help him keep up! On top of all of this, Chris has two children of his own who have been in the program and he still coaches and managers one of the teams. Chris is a true friend, a fantastic board member and he is fully committed to developing soccer within our community. Unfortunately, Chris was unable to attend the dinner but was conferenced in to be told of this honor.
(above) Board Member Jon O’Sheal with Volunteer of the Year, Warren Baseball/Softball Inc. President Michael Ohlson.
Mike Ohlson – Warren Baseball/Softball Inc.
For the past 10 years, Mike Ohlson has been a trusted and steady leader of our town’s Baseball & Softball Program. Mike is always available to players, parents, coaches and fellow board members. He puts the kids first and has a tremendous commitment to ensuring our program and facilities are in good order. Just a few examples of Mike’s selflessness include:
- He spends hours on the fields preparing them for 6 p.m. games, leaving work early regularly; he is often seen on the tractor grooming the field and running around the snack shack to make sure it is operating smoothly. He has pulled on knee high boots and pumped water from the field for a chance at making them playable. Just this past season he showed up after torrential rain to help make the field playable for the 8u District Championship game. He never bows to pressure, including at district or state tournaments and the occasional insanity of screaming coaches and fans. Mike makes practices and games fun for the kids. Such as his famous sliding drills with refrigerator cardboard boxes or his personal Slip N Slide. These have become a hit throughout the league! One year, because the league being short on coaches and parents were not stepping up, Mike coached a team, for an entire season, on which he didn’t even have a child playing! As a leader, Mike has navigated a time of shrinking enrollment and has placed more focus on bolstering enrollment and retention with our youngest age groups, who are the future of our program. Mike seems to have an endless supply of energy and sacrifices his time that could be spent with his job, family (including 3 kids). Mike is supremely focused on providing the boys and girls of Warren with a great baseball and softball experience.
(above) Co-President Gina Blekicki with Volunteer of the Year Rich Burton of the Hills Lacrosse Club.
Rich Burton – The Hills Lacrosse Club
The Hills Lacrosse Club would like to thank Coach Rich Burton for his dedicated service with the 2019 Volunteer of the Year Award. Rich has been an essential part of this lacrosse club and has helped develop it into the program it is today.
Through his many years of unselfish service, Rich has helped the children in our town by providing them with the best possible training in an effort to advance their lacrosse skills. As a board member, he has fulfilled many roles, from running the beginners clinic to ordering equipment, to putting up signs, and assisting coaches with practices wherever and whenever requested. As a coach, Rich has always tried to provide the most insightful and skills based training possible.
Co- President of the Hills Lacrosse said, “as a parent, I can tell you my boys didn’t realize Rich had actually given them girls lacrosse sticks to use (which are actually quite different from boys sticks), but they didn’t care as long as they got their lollipops at the end of class. His infectious laugh and uncanny way of making the drills and learning fun kept the kids engaged and asking to play year after year. Stick skills were taught but life lessons were also emphasized which included the importance of sportsmanship, teamwork, and kindness towards others.”
The Hills Lacrosse Club would like to thank Rich Burton for years of dedicated service on the board and as a coach. They hope that they will be fortunate enough to continue to benefit from his experience, dedication, and love of lacrosse.
(above) President Matt Richardson with Watchung Hills Wrestling Association Volunteer of the Year Walter Lee.
Walter Lee – Watchung Hills Wrestling Association
Walter Lee has unselfishly stayed involved and continues to stay involved with the Watchung Hills Wrestling Association even after his sons no longer wrestled in the program. He has stayed for the love of the sport, and the love of the program. He has coached youth wrestling for over 10 years and has held the Executive Board positions of Trustee, Recording Secretary, Vice President and President during his tenure. Walter has held almost every job within the program, including running the concession stands and the ordering all of the wrestlers uniforms.
Walter was a key part in the construction of the Wrestling building. As an Executive Board member and a construction committee member, he was instrumental in our fundraising, planning and ultimately the construction of the new building. Not only did he help behind the scenes, he also donated his own time, money and resources as a general contractor, during the construction process. Without Walter’s contributions, the Wrestling building may not have happened.
Walter is a huge advocate for the sport of wrestling and has left an extraordinary imprint on the Watchung Hills Wrestling Association and the sport he loves; and for all this, they would like to honor Walter Lee with the 2019 Watchung Hills Wrestling Association Volunteer of the year.
(above) President Vance Gillenwater with Warren Basketball Association Volunteer of the Year John Grunstein.
John Grunstein – Warren Youth Basketball Association
The Warren Youth Basketball volunteer of the year is John Grunstein. He has been the WYBA equipment manager for many years. He orders, warehouses and delivers our uniforms each year without a fuss. It is one of the more necessary, yet unsung jobs on the board. He lives in Warren, and continues to serve on the board even after his last son was finished with the program.
(above) President Vance Gillenwater with Bruce Levin who was awarded the Outstanding Charity and Service to Warren Youth Basketball.
Bruce Levin – Warren Youth Basketball Association
Bruce Levin was awarded the Outstanding Charity and Service to Warren Youth Basketball
Over the years, Bruce has been a big part of what makes the WYBA a success. He was president of the WYBA for many years. He also coached Warren Travel basketball for many years, and is beloved by his players. He has been a great mentor, and his leadership has been instrumental in keeping basketball in the lives of Warren Youth.
His charity work is legendary. Through the support of the WYBA and his love of basketball, Bruce ran an annual fundraiser called “Baskets for Bama.” Each year Warren kids and adults played in 3 on 3 tournaments and shot 3 pointers to raise over $215,000 to help cure brain cancer. A very impressive accomplishment indeed.
Submitted by Warren Township Recreation
Photos by Warren Township Recreation
