The South Brunswick High School baseball program’s Diamond Club has made a generous donation to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation for the sixth straight year.
South Brunswick ballplayers and coaches, including former mentor C.J. Hendricks, who is now the high school’s athletics director, and current head coach Tim Sweeney, who recently returned for a second stint with the program, have a long tradition of giving back to the community.
The Vikings participated over the weekend in the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge. Designed to heighten awareness about autism, the event also serves as a fundraiser for Teamwork Unlimited, an Edison-based nonprofit whose mission is to help those in need.
South Brunswick, currently ranked No. 8 in the Home News Tribune/MyCentralJersey.com Greater Middlesex Conference Top 10 rankings, owns a deceptive 4-6 record including four losses by a total of six-runs.
The Vikings reached the conference tournament final each of the past two years the tournament was contested (the coronavirus pandemic canceled the entire 2020 season). Earlier this month, Sweeney recorded his 100th career victory.
Ace Joey Tuttoilmondo hurled his second career no-hitter, blanking fifth-ranked East Brunswick last week with a 13-strikeout masterpiece. The senior has fanned 36 batters and allowed just five earned runs in three complete games. He yielded four runs in a loss to St. Joseph of Metuchen, which the Star Ledger ranks third in the state.
Ethan Fantel paces South Brunswick with 13 hits and is tied with Ryan Kessler for the team lead with three home runs. The duo has combined for 14 RBI. Teonis Pimentel leads the Vikings with nine runs scored, five stolen bases and is tied for second on the team with Pete Cortez with 10 hits.
A perennial conference power, South Brunswick’s charitable contributions are on par with its success on the diamond.
Hendricks commenced an annual tradition of helping others in 2016 when his program supported baby Shane O’Donnell, the son of former Middlesex High School head baseball coach Mike O’Donnell, who was engaged in a life-threatening battle with high-risk nueroblastoma.
In addition to wearing “Shane Strong” shirts during warmups before a game against Middlesex at TD Bank Ballpark in Somerset, South Brunswick made a donation to the GoFundMe page created to raise money for the O’Donnell family.
Just as South Brunswick players stood in solidarity with counterparts from Middlesex, they did the same in 2019 against Old Bridge during an emotional pregame ceremony in which the jersey number of former star Zach Attianese was retired. Attianese tragically died along with his loving father Jude in a six-vehicle car crash on Father’s Day weekend nearly three years ago. In addition to once again wearing specially designed shirts, this time in honor of Zach, South Brunswick contributed to a scholarship fund the Old Bridge school-community established in the former ace’s loving memory.
South Brunswick players have assisted the township’s youth baseball program on Opening Day and participated in free clinics for youngsters. Independently, players in the baseball program engage in other community service projects.
Hendricks spearheaded a disaster relief effort in 2017, collecting supplies for survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where his father lived for more than a dozen years and where his maternal grandparents were born and raised.
Last year, Hendricks joined his peers in organizing the first annual Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association charity golf outing, a wildly successful event that raised $8,000 for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Through the generosity of South Brunswick and others, who have donated or participated in fundraising events, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which was established in 2017, has donated a quarter of a million dollars to fulfill its mission of assisting pediatric patients and other children in need.
The nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, baby supplies, winter coats and other items upon which it has placed no monetary value. In addition, the foundation has awarded academic scholarships totaling $21,500 to 31 high school graduates.
Three years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation sponsored 70 South Brunswick student-athletes, covering their registration fees to participate in a charity kickball tournament benefiting Ray Fantel, a courageous student in the school district living with an incurable disease and the younger brother of current Vikings baseball star Ethan Fantel.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation was recently honored to pay forward the kindness of Hendricks, jumpstarting his own fundraiser last year with a $1,000 donation that benefited Fantel and South Brunswick Public Schools’ Special Olympics Unified programs.
Hendricks raised money for the two special causes through his participation in the 49th annual Long Beach Island Commemorative 18 Mile Run.
South Brunswick baseball players and their families also supported Hendricks’ fundraiser.