Rebecca Delbert had the fortune to meet Bill DeFazio right before the legendary high school girls’ basketball coach lost his battle to pancreatic cancer last November.
“I went to a basketball camp and I met Coach DeFazio there,” said Delbert, who will enter Marist High School as a freshman in the coming weeks. “He was a really good guy.”
But Delbert had no idea that she would be selected to keep the legacy of DeFazio alive after his passing.
Last week, Delbert was presented with the first-ever Bill DeFazio Memorial Scholarship. It will be presented in perpetuity to the applicant who is active in community and extracurricular activities, embraces the Marist spirit of selfless dedication to others and receives recommendations from the student’s grade school teachers and administrators.
“It’s a great honor,” said Delbert, who does not plan to participate in athletics at Marist, but was once a basketball player in grammar school. “I was so excited and ecstatic when I got the call that I was receiving the scholarship. I know it’s a huge responsibility being the first recipient, but I’m ready for the challenge. I know I have to keep Coach DeFazio’s name going. There’s a first for everything and I’m glad to be the first. I hope I can keep it going.”
Alice DeFazio, the athletic director at New Jersey City University who this season will take over the coaching position at Marist once held by her late husband, was glad to present the scholarship to Delbert.
“Rebecca Delbert typifies the spirit that Bill DeFazio had,” Alice DeFazio said. “She’s family and community oriented and does a lot of volunteer work and mentors young kids. She’s also a good student. I think she’s going to be a great ambassador of Bill’s legacy forever.”
Alice DeFazio said that Delbert’s mother, who is a nurse at Bayonne Hospital, was one of the first nurses to treat Bill after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February of 2010.
“This scholarship couldn’t go to a better kid and a better family,” said Alice DeFazio, who organized a series of fundraisers to collect the money for the scholarship.
Another contributor was Bill DeFazio’s nephew, Louis Campisano, Jr., who has an insurance company in Kearny.
“My uncle was a great man and I wanted to be able to contribute to the scholarship in his honor,” Campisano said. “It was something I was more than happy to contribute to. This is going to be an annual thing for me. The main goal was to help this young lady out and we’re glad we were able to do so and keep my uncle’s name alive.”
Marist President Robert Slaski was excited to be able to present the scholarship to Delbert.
“As a Catholic institution, we’re all about community and spirit and that’s what Billy represented,” Slaski said. “Rebecca has some of Billy’s qualities and traits. She’s definitely deserving of this scholarship. She gives back to the community and understands the importance of giving. That was what Billy was. We wanted to be able to keep that spirit alive.”
Alice DeFazio said that she plans on presenting a scholarship to a worthy recipient every year.
“As long as I’m alive,” she promised….
When news first leaked of the possibility of Weehawken and West New York actually hosting a Formula One auto race through the streets of both towns, it seemed a little too absurd to be true.
So we went to one of the most reliable sources around, the mayor of Weehawken, Richard Turner, who always loves to be quoted in a sports story.
Turner confirmed the rumors. He said that he and West New York Mayor Dr. Felix Roque met with Leo Hindery Jr., who was the initial force behind the YES Network owned by the New York Yankees.
“The interest came from them,” Turner said. “They called us saying that they were searching for places to hold a Formula One race.”
Formula One racing is very popular in Europe and South America, using existing roads in metropolitan areas for their race courses. In recent years, Formula One has looked to expand into the major markets in the United States and hosting a race with the New York skyline as a backdrop was very appealing to Hindery, now involved with organizing Formula One races.
“We had two meetings on what they thought they would need,” Turner said. “We gave them the green light to proceed with state officials, who have to approve anything before we can move forward.”
Turner reiterated that the discussions are still in the preliminary stages, but it is a possibility.
“We don’t want this to cost us a penny,” Turner said. “We want them to take on every cost, to fix everything and then put it back to the way it was.”
Turner said that the organizers definitely seemed to be very serious. They want to use Boulevard East from Pershing Road to 60th Street in West New York, then down the hill to River Road and Port Imperial Boulevard and back up Pershing Road to Boulevard East.
“Two-thirds of the route would be in low occupancy areas,” Turner said. “There would only be slight inconvenience to the community, but we would work on ways to make sure that it was totally safe.”
Turner said that the race, which would first take place in 2013, would provide hundreds of jobs for local residents and would be an economic boon for the entire county in terms of hotels, restaurants, shopping, etc.
“It would be a three-week event and we were assured that anyone hired would be local,” Turner said. “It would give the area a big economic boost. It seems to be moving forward. There are still a lot of obstacles. There are two municipalities, the county, the state, [and] all have to get together to see if it works. The first concern is always the safety of the residents. But the economic benefits are outstanding. The capital improvements the race people will make will be tremendous. It will offset the inconvenience.”
Turner said that the race officials assured him that all infrastructure improvements to the roads involved in the course would be assumed by the organizers.
“We have to look at the total package,” Turner said. “If it doesn’t seem to work, it’s not going to happen.”
Turner assured residents that the race is of the Formula One road race variety and not NASCAR.
“We received instances from all over the world how this racing works,” Turner said….
The high school football season will be upon us before we know it. We started with some previews this week and will continue with more in-depth team views in the weeks to come, filled with names, heights and weights, projections and predictions. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.