Members of the Saint Joseph varsity gridiron team will battle a squad from the high school’s intramural flag football league in the Marisa Tufaro Bowl, which kicks off at The Brenner Family Field on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
The winning team will receive a commemorative one-and-a-half-foot tall championship trophy, which Ron Mazzola of Prestige Imaging in Old Bridge is donating in honor and loving memory of the flag football game’s namesake.
Students from the high school who purchase or have already purchased specially designed Marisa Tufaro Foundation T-shirts will be permitted to wear them during the school day on Friday in lieu of their regular school attire.
All proceeds from the sale of those T-shirts will benefit The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to help pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
Marisa’s father, Greg, a 1985 graduate of Saint Joseph, will conduct the opening coin toss, using his daughter’s special souvenir coin from the Tufaro family’s 2013 vacation to San Antonio. The coin and the vacation held special meaning to Marisa and her father.
Greater Middlesex Conference Executive Director Frank Noppenberger, who serves on the Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s board of trustees, will present the championship trophy to the winning team.
Patrick Quigley, of Saint Joseph’s intramural flag football league, promoted the game on Tuesday in a video the school posted on its social media channels. Justin Monahan and Corey Neves of the intramural flag football league and varsity football players Martin Greene and K-Shawn Schulters joined Quigley for the video announcement.
Since its inception just over two years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated more than $100,000 while fulfilling its mission of helping pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
Our nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food, winter jackets, baby supplies and other items upon which we have placed no monetary value.
Saint Joseph High School has been among The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s biggest supporters.
Marisa, who would have been a junior this year at Edison High School, was born with a complex cardiac defect that required six open-heart surgeries. Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, she lived a vibrant life that inspired. After her sixth surgery, Marisa developed two life-threatening conditions that necessitated a heart transplant. A postoperative complication developed into a rare form of cancer that riddled her brain and body. Marisa succumbed to her illness following a valiant battle on Jan. 30, 2017. She was just 13 years old.