Longtime Brick football club locked out of BTHS snack stand
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
Members of the Brick Township High School Dragons Football Club have been running the snack stand at the football field for more than half a century, starting when the high school opened in 1958.

But 51 years of grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, ringing up Cokes and potato chips have come to an end. Club members found the locks on the door to the snack stand had been changed last week and the door padlocked.

"I think this is just a continuation of Board of Education antics," club president Richard Kight said.

Club members last had access to the stand on July 2, when they went to retrieve some items used for fundraising at the first night of the township's SummerFest event last week. The following morning, the locks had been changed, he said.

Board of Education President Daniel Woska said Monday the board had nothing to do with changing the locks to the snack stand.

"That's not the case," he said. "The board would not order something like that. Administration made some decisions."

School Business Administrator James Edwards said through district spokesman Dina Silvestri that the locks had been changed for security reasons.

"Mr. Edwards said nondistrict employees had the keys to the building," Silvestri said. "It's a district building. He's taken precautions to secure the content."

Silvestri said that Edwards found out on July 2 that "many people" had keys to the building.

"It was his decision at that point to lock up the building until he can get a lock and cylinder," she said. "It sounds more like a security issue. He's securing district buildings. It's just that."

Now the football club has no access to the items they purchased or had donated to the club for the snack stand, including ovens, soda cases, grills, tables and just about anything else needed to feed visitors at the games, Kight said.

The Brick Dragons Football Club is a 501(C) nonprofit corporation that runs fundraisers, mans the snack stand at the games, buys jackets and trophies for the players and raises money for improvements to the Warren Wolf Sports Complex.

Kight met five weeks ago with new head football coach Patrick Dowling to discuss the football club's future role in Brick football.

He's still waiting for an answer. Kight said he had the impression that Dowling felt only active parents or players should be in the football club. Dowling declined to comment on the matter.

The Brick Dragons Football Club is open to anyone who wants to help the team, Kight has said.

The club in its current form dates back to 1982. Prior to that, it existed as a booster cub for all Brick Township High School sports.

"I don't believe for a second Mr. Dowling had anything to do with changing the locks," Kight said. "I really need to know who initiated it and why. This club has done nothing but good for the high school."

Kight was one of many who objected to Dowling's controversial appointment to succeed longtime football coach Warren H. Wolf.

Wolf announced his retirement on Dec. 7 and urged the board and administration to pick a Brick assistant coach as his replacement.

The board instead settled on Dowling, who came after a year as coach at Allentown High School, and a number of schools prior to that. Wolf rescinded his resignation after he learned a non-Brick coach had gotten the job, but the board and administration turned him down.

Wolf, who presided over Brick football for 51 years, since the high school was built in 1958, can't say enough about the Brick Dragons Football Club.

"They have been outstanding," he said. "They have really just been tremendous for our boys."