Secaucus welcomed the entire state of New Jersey last week, when the town hosted the New Jersey Little League 12-year-old All-Star championships to Buchmuller Park.
It marked the first time since 2001 that Secaucus was awarded the state championships. The winner of the four-team tourney advances to the East Region with the hope of then moving on to the famed Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania next month.
According to league president Guy Pascarello, hosting a tournament with such distinction and magnitude took a community grassroots effort, one that went from Mayor Michael Gonnelli and his council all the way down to the volunteer parents who served as tour guides to the visitors.
“We made a Power Point presentation to the state committee, showing everyone why Secaucus should host the tournament,” said Pascarello, who has been the president of Secaucus Little League for the past seven years. “Mayor Gonnelli even put a blurb in our proposal, talking about great things in Secaucus. He pledged all the support we would need.”
Gonnelli promised to get the Secaucus Parks Department on call for proper presentation, like cleanup after games and field prep (although it’s a pretty easy job now that the field is constructed of FieldTurf). Gonnelli also vowed to give the tournament the proper security detail from the Secaucus Police Department, even if it means paying for overtime.
The tournament also received a commitment to provide shuttle bus transportation from off-site parking lots, because, as anyone who has driven past the Buchmuller Park complex lately, parking is an absolute nightmare.
But there were shuttle buses provided to get fans from their cars safely to Buchmuller.
“It was an incredible commitment from the town,” Pascarello said. “It’s the type of commitment we needed. I think everyone wants to make sure that Secaucus is presented in the best light.”
Part of the presentation included showing the town’s 20 different hotels for visitors to stay at. Some of the hotels offered discount rates for the tournament, which was also a major component.
“There are other things going on in town while we had the tournament,” said Pascarello, mentioning an event at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, but didn’t see it as a major conflict.
Secaucus Little League had to host a welcoming banquet for the four teams and needed to get a guest speaker for the dinner, which was held at LaReggia in town.
Usually, the state tournament brings out a baseball celebrity to be the speaker and Pascarello’s past associations enabled him to get former Major League Baseball infielder Mark DeRosa to come and speak to the youngsters. DeRosa, a native of neighboring Carlstadt, played 16 years in the major leagues for eight different teams and incredibly hit exactly 100 home runs in his career.
DeRosa, who now is part of MLB Network’s very popular morning show MLB Central that is produced at the MLB Network’s facility in Secaucus, is the cousin of a player that Pascarello once coached in Rutherford Little League. DeRosa was a football and baseball star at Bergen Catholic and went on to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where he graduated in 1997.
“Mark couldn’t have been better about it,” Pascarello said. “He’s someone that the kids all know and had the credibility to stand up there and address the kids. For me, it was a no brainer, a kid who played Little League nearby and did everything the right way. All he had to do was tell the kids what he did as a multi-sport athlete.”
Pascarello credited the amount of people who chipped in, all of whom were volunteers of course. No one collects a salary in Little League baseball.
“That maybe gets lost a little that everyone is a volunteer,” Pascarello said. “What’s really incredible is that we still had our season to run while preparing to host the state tournament.”
Secaucus Little League has 23 teams, ranging in age from 4 to 16. We’re just trying to teach the kids the fundamentals of the game.”
One of Secaucus Little League’s teams, the Secaucus Junior League All-Stars (ages 13 and 14) just competed in the Section 2 tournament after winning the District 7 championship.
The coach of that team, John Young, who has become a close friend of Pascarello’s, marvels at his ability to get everyone out to help.
“Without Guy’s strong leadership and tireless efforts, we would not have been awarded the tournament,” Young said. “I really don’t know how he did it. He ran with this from the get-go to make sure Secaucus got it.”
Because of Little League Baseball’s pledge of being self sufficient and not searching for outside contributions, a state tournament can become costly to host.
“But our volunteers did a lot of fundraising,” Pascarello said. “The businesses in town wanted to contribute and help out any way they can. We had about 40 civilian volunteers who all chipped in. We also received help from other leagues in our district [District 7, coordinated by the incredible Carmine Conti, Jr., who is as dedicated to his role as District 7 Administrator as anyone in organized sports on any level anywhere] like Hoboken Little League and Elmora Little League [of Elizabeth]. They all came and offered all kinds of assistance.”
So putting all of this together was a complete chore.
“Yeah, my hourly rate isn’t very good,” Pascarello laughed. “As long as the kids enjoyed themselves and had fun. They’ll all remember Secaucus for the rest of their lives.”
Another person who deserves credit is the father of baseball in Secaucus, namely John Bueckner, the former member of the Secaucus Town Council. Practically every single baseball playing youngster in Secaucus was coached by Bueckner on some level.
“He just wanted to make sure that we didn’t lose sight of where we came from,” Pascarello said of Bueckner. It’s great to have someone like him to look up to. I hope someone might say that about me some day. This was a community event and everyone got involved. It was definitely an exciting time for the town.”
We will have more about the state tournament in Little League in two weeks…
The Roberto Clemente Little League and Hoboken Little League All-Star softball teams went to Massachusetts to compete in MLB’s great RBI program and we’ll have more on their exploits in upcoming issues.
EXTRA INNINGS focuses on the best stories that come from local baseball and softball leagues throughout the area, from Little League action through travel leagues.
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