By Ken Downey | Correspondent

Hands clapping, with sweat dripping down his face, Nick Werkman stands in the middle of an asphalt basketball court and cheers on young athletes.

With a big floppy hat atop his head, he’s dressed in a dark green shirt with a white dog on the front and the word, “Huskies” scrawled across the top. On the back, the words, “Coach Nick” race across his shoulders. He stands in the middle of roughly 20 kids of all ages, races and genders as they battle in separate basketball games around him.

This is the scene at the Skyview Park public park in Toms River every Friday evening.

Photo Gallery: Community basketball game

“They are dedicated kids, I mean dedicated. They play every single day,” said Werkman, 75, of St. Justin the Martyr Parish, Toms River. “A kid last week made me the happiest I ever was, he came up to me and said, ‘Coach Werkman, I had fun!’ That’s all I’m looking for here. I don’t want pressure on the kids, I want them to have fun.”

Every Friday night throughout the months of July and August, Werkman invites children and youth of all ages and faiths to play basketball. He is joined in this community outreach effort by Deacon Earl Lombardo of St. Pius X Parish, Forked River.

The two men met a few years back, and Werkman invited the deacon to check out his league, made up of youth from the local community. Deacon Lombardo took the opportunity to bring a league from St. Pius X Parish and his area of Ocean County to join Werkman’s Friday night games. The St. Pius X league has now been participating for the past two years.

“Kids are always on their gadgets, tucked up on their computers,” Deacon Lombardo said. “When we were kids … we grabbed a ball and went to the schoolyard and played. That’s what Nick wanted to recreate for kids.”

Trained by the Best

Werkman was once one of the most well-known names in the state when it came to basketball. Nick ‘The Quick’ Werkman led Trenton Catholic High School for Boys to four out of five state championships, and in his three years at Seton Hall University, South Orange, he scored more than 2,000 points and 1,000-plus rebounds. He was later drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1964, and was the first coach of the Stockton College (now university in Galloway Township) basketball team in 1972. Now he spends his days giving back to the community, especially considering today’s cost of organized sports.

“Today, the kids, to me, pay too much,” he said, reflecting back on his youth. “If I [had] told my dad how much it was to join a league, he’d tell me to get a job. We were poor. So, I said I wanted to do something down here like we used to have.”

Hence, Werkman has been providing kids and teens with a place to have fun for the last four years. The weekly games are free, and parents provide water and juice as well as rides for the youngsters. Shirts were donated for the Huskies by a local pizzeria, and some of the older kids help referee games for the younger children.

There is no pressure to win; it’s strictly for having a good time. “It’s like the old days … it was all playground ball,” Werkman said. “We never had any pressure playing. I think these kids [today] are expected to do too much.”

To ensure the athletes go home happy, Werkman switches the teams around, that way “if one team is getting killed at the half, I’ll switch their game against an easier team, so at the end of the day, no one is going home saying, ‘We beat you.’”

On a particular warm, sunny evening July 21, parents and grandparents lined the outside of the basketball courts, sitting in lawn chairs with large umbrellas to block the sun.

Mary Granahan of St. Pius X Parish watched her two grandsons intently. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the kids to play and learn skills,” she said. “It’s all for fun, and they’re doing a great job.”

A Place to be Yourself

One group that’s helping give these youngsters the opportunity to play ball is the Forked River Knights of Columbus. Those who come from St. Pius X Parish are sponsored by the Knights. They fulfill all the team’s needs and even throw a banquet for the entire league at the end of each summer.

“The Knights of Columbus of Forked River take care of everything,” Deacon Lombardo said. “Shirts, medals, you name it. So the parents don’t have to pay anything.”

The league is created for both boys and girls, no matter one’s religious beliefs.

“We don’t care who or what you are, just come on out and have fun,” Deacon Lombardo said. “That’s is what we do as Catholics.”

“Whoever is interested in just getting out there and having fun, playing the game, learning the game, but more importantly, learning how to socialize together,” he added.

One such person is Conner Lothrop, a teenager with autism, who says he would not have an opportunity to play on a basketball team without the Friday night league. He has been playing basketball with Werkman and the Huskies for the last three years.

“It’s pretty nice here, and it gives everyone an individual purpose,” Lothrop said.

There is time, however, to talk about God, Deacon Lombardo said. The players meet Wednesdays for a group practice.

“As they practice, we have three or four guys teaching the kids the value of faith through the game – appreciating each other as children of God, and helping each other,” he said.

Other Forms of Teamwork

In addition to the games, Werkman and Deacon Lombardo have ensured that each of their players has a way of practicing when they don’t formally meet. The two friends searched for old baskets that people were going to throw away and make them usable again. By the end of their project, each kid on the team had a basketball hoop in their driveway to practice with every day.

“There is no reason for them not to practice,” Werkman said. “The main thing is you have to practice, and if you don’t have a basket, how are you going to do that?”

Werkman’s daughter, Dawn Ward, who is a practicing Catholic in Point Pleasant, also attends every Friday night with her father and helps coach the teams. Ward, who grew up playing tennis at Skyview Park, said she feels right at home when she brings her son to play basketball every week.

“I think it’s great because I feel we live in a generation that, as parents, we are almost forced to put these kids in travel leagues that are so expensive,” she said. “The opportunity is for everybody, regardless of whether or not you can pay $500 to play basketball.”

Not only did Werkman create this league for an equal opportunity but he also made it to bring young people closer to God.

“One of the reasons why we try to do this is, when I played, we won four out of five state championships for Trenton Catholic [High School for Boys], and it pulled kids then to the Catholic Church and religion,” Werkman said, lamenting that sometimes after the Sacrament of Confirmation, young people fall away from the Church. “So, it’s nice to see St. Pius bringing a team over and sharing in this.”