Nastase Left His Signature On High School Basketball

By Chris Christopher

LAKEWOOD - There were cheers, tears and numerous fond memories in the Lakewood High School gymnasium. Its floor was named the Robert J. Nastase

Court in honor of the Piners’ head boys varsity basketball coach. He died March 13, 2022, at the age of 86 of natural causes. Markers in his handwriting are on both sides of the court. He helped design the facility. An estimat - ed 100 fans, including nearly 40 of his former Lakewood and Toms River players, attended the ceremony, which took place on a recent Friday afternoon.

Jay Nastase, one of the family’s five children , (Nastase - See Page 4)

The meeting will take place at the same location – Toms River High School North’s auditorium – at 6 p.m. on March 13. Additionally, the public comment period on the settlement has been extended another two months.

The purpose of the meeting is to provide information to the public and to take questions, the DEP said.

“We hope that this extension of the comment period and opportunity for direct engagement with DEP officials will provide members of the public with additional opportunities to learn more about the assessment and proposed restoration of injured natural resources, and to ask questions about the proposed settlement,” said DEP Deputy Commissioner Sean D. Moriarty.

Ciba-Geigy opened in 1952 and closed in 1990. It manufactured dyes and other chemicals, dumping the waste into the river and the ground. Many people attribute the area’s cancer cluster to its

(Ciba - See Page 11)

Commissioner Vicari Will Not Seek Another Term

By Bob Vosseller OCEAN COUNTY

– He has always taken pride in being the longest serving County Commissioner (formerly, Freeholder) in the state, but all good things come to an end as Joseph Vicari announced that he will not seek re-election in the fall.

Vicari, who is serving as Commissioner Director this year, said in his letter to all Ocean County Department heads that after much soul searching, “I am announcing that I will not seek re-election to the Ocean County Board of Commissioners. After more than 43 years of public service, I have decided to retire and devote more time to my family.”

“I am forever thankful to the people of Ocean County, who have seen fit to return me to office time and time again since 1981. Thanks to their enduring support, I will leave office as the longest serving Freeholder/Commissioner (Vicari - See Page 22)

Nastase:

Continued From Page 1 and Kevin King, who starred at center on Lakewood’s 1974-75 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Group III state championship team, unveiled the markers to cheers and tears.

The Nastase family posed with a plaque listing the accomplishments of the coach - a taskmaster’s taskmaster and an old schooler’s old schooler who believed that anything short of perfection from himself, his players and coaches was a failure.

Ex-Lakewood football player Steve Peacock, a Lakewood High School faculty member, emceed the event. When Nastase was in power, “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the Harlem Globetrotters’ famous theme song, was played prior to the Piners’ home games at what is now the nearby Lakewood Middle School and the current gymnasium. Lakewood performed jazzy layup drills in which several of the hands of its players soared above the 10-foot high rim as the Piners’ fans roared their approval, intimidating many an opponent. The song was played after the ceremony. A one-hour alumni social preceded the ceremony.

King spoke before Nastase, stating, “Coach Nastase meant so much to me as a player and especially when I was in college (King competed for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte). He coached me when I was a senior in college. He was an assistant coach. We talked about life in general, but he always got back to basketball.

“I thank his family for bringing me into their family. I appreciate all of you. One of the biggest supporters we had was Carol Frank-Brown (a 1974-75 team aide under the name of Carol Frank).”

One of the 1974-75 team’s managers, Nastase, at times fighting back tears, said from notes, “Thank you for coming out and celebrating this moment of my dad’s accomplishments. I could never fill his shoes, but I am wearing his sport coat. Dad coached Lakewood from 1965-78 (and Toms River High School, now known as Toms River High School South, in 1964-65). A lot of his input was used in the designing of this gymnasium. The first game here was played in 1972. Some of that team’s stars are here today. We had a capacity crowd of 1,000 (fans). The game was against Brick Township. We trailed through three quarters, but won 61-57.

“In dad’s first year here, we lost in the Group III semifinals of the state tournament. Harold Sutton (a team member) said, ‘Coach, we demand a state championship. You are not working us hard enough.’ That group had such conviction and want and drive, we became the first Ocean County team to win a state title in 1967. Dad’s games were community events. He said, ‘I will never lose a game because the other team out conditioned my team.’ If one player missed a time goal in the sprints during practice, everybody ran.

“Dad treated everyone with respect. He never cut a player from the team. You earned that uniform. I think they outran our track and field teams. His teams ran, played aggressive in your face defense and ran some more. Dad was one of the first coaches to have videos taken of his team’s practices and games. He went over everything. Thank you Larry Bushman for being our team’s cameraman.

“Dad was very enthusiastic about education. He and mom privately tutored the players. He was a life coach before it was a (popular) thing. His players listened to motivational cassette tapes on the bus. He worked with intensity. He had strong faith in Jesus Christ. He emphasized defense, dedication, discipline and desire (the mention of Nastase’s beloved Four Ds drew a cheer from the crowd). He emphasized to his players that if the Four Ds were applied they would be successful in life.

T-shirts saluting the Four Ds were sold at the event for $10 each. Lakewood athletics director Oscar Orellana was the man behind the idea. Proceeds will go to the Piners’ athletic program. (To obtain a shirt, email Orellana at oorellana@ lakewoodpiners.org)

Coach Nastase’s 1974-75 team edged East Orange 72-71 in the Group III state championship game on two free throws in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter by Kelvin Troy, Willie Troy’s brother, who starred for the Piners, Rutgers University and at the professional level in Ireland after being released by the Milwaukee Bucks of then-coach Don Nelson. Lakewood wound up ranked first in New Jersey by the New York Daily News.

Jodi Nastase, one of the family’s children, wept as she said, “Dad’s players loved and respected him. This (event) is overwhelming. The most precious thing is time and all of these people came out to honor our dad. Today is special, very special. You don’t get time back and here people are here spending their time to honor us. It is just overwhelming.”

Agnes Nastase was the recipient of kisses and embraces before, during and after the ceremony.

The couple was married for 61 years.

“I am pleased at the turnout,” she said. “I am pleased that so many people remembered him… The markers honoring Bob are wonderful. I have to say he certainly did work at it. He’d leave the house at seven in the morning and be home at 10 at night. His players became our family members. He yelled at his players the way he yelled at our own kids.”

The Piners often gathered at the family’s home on Toms River for dinners that lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

“The players always said, ‘Dinner at coach’s,’ “ Nastase said. “There was spaghetti. There was garlic bread. There was dessert. Man, they sure loved garlic bread. The boys stayed for as long as they needed to. Bob took some of them home. Our home was an open door.”

Cara Nastase, one of the couple’s children, said her dad was a fierce competitor.

“He just had a competitive nature and he worked hard at everything he did,” she said. “He had a very good high school coaching record. He basically taught himself how to coach. He worked at something until it was the way he wanted it.”

Perhaps best known as the Piner Palace because of its beauty, the current Lakewood gymnasium was dedicated the John “Pott” Richardson Gymnasium on Feb. 7, 2013. Richardson starred on the 1966-67 team (24-3 overall) and was an assistant coach under Nastase from 1973-78. He coached the Piners from 1985-2007, producing a 401-152 record and leading Lakewood to numerous championships, including the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III title in 2002.

“Coach Nastase played the kids who had the (Nastase - See Page 5)

Nastase: Continued From Page 4 best attitudes,” Richardson said. “His family and myself are intertwined. With no Bob Nastase, there would be no John Richardson. He taught us hard work. He taught us not to quit.”

Nastase guided the Toms River High School

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Black man claimed his life three days later. While sitting at home with his two teenage daughters and watching the horrific events unfold, Billhimer felt their emotional response. The younger of the two girls became so distraught she fled the room before even the worst of the videos appeared on the screen.

Ocean County’s chief law enforcement officer said he couldn’t begin to justify the lack of humanity he witnessed. Just about simultaneously, Billhimer took in an additional picture from another father’s perspective.

Anthony “Tony” Carrington serves as the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Chief of Detectives. Billhimer and his chief exchanged text messages as they witnessed the first release of the body cam footage.

The following day the two connected by telephone – after Billhimer suffered a restless night of sleep, spurred further by the haunting acknowledgment that a traffic stop could be a life or death situation for a Black person.

North Mariners to Class A South titles in 1995, 1996 and 1997 and a berth in the 1996 Shore Conference Tournament championship game in his first of two tours of duty at the school. Nastase also aided North’s girls team, according to former North player Sandy Bisogno. The Mariners’ head coach was Ray Cervino, who died recently. The Mariners’ gymnasium was named in his honor after his death.

“Coach Nastase was so passionate about educating his players about the game,” she said. “Coach Nastase and coach Cervino worked so well together. They worked together to assemble North’s patented fast break offense, Yankee. During my junior and senior years of high school, I would go to his house on Sundays. He would make pasta and we would spend hours watching old game films from when he coached in North Carolina.”

Another coaching legend, Ron Signorino suggested to then-Toms River High School athletics director Bob Hawthorne that Nastase be hired as the school’s boys coach. He guided the Indians and served as an assistant coach under Signorino.

“There is no greater boys basketball coach than Bob Nastase,” Signorino said.

“I could tell from our text exchange the night before this affected him (Carrington) in a different way than it affected me,” shared Billhimer. “It affected him as a Black man, as a father, and as a Black man in law enforcement. He felt a certain way that I can’t necessarily 100 percent relate to because I’m not a Black man.”

Billhimer decided to fast-track a candid conversation with community members and faith leaders. The prosecutor credited several individuals for a six day turnaround in arranging the two-hour Town Hall style forum at Ocean County College.

The room’s set up was purposeful; Billhimer wanted the public and law enforcement to have a conversation while looking one another in the eyes.

Police leadership from all 33 Ocean County municipalities attended, as well as heads of state and county law enforcement agencies. The state’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, sat center stage amongst the others who pledged their lives to maintain law and order.

Carrington was one of two Black men representing law enforcement at the head tables. Weldon

Powell, who serves as the Chief of Detectives for the NJ Division of Criminal Justice was the other. Both men acknowledged that working in law enforcement didn’t overshadow their concerns when it came to their roles as Black fathers.

Powell recalled the time his college aged son decided to go to the park and take some photographs. Sometime after, Powell’s son called to say his car wouldn’t start, and the Chief set out to meet him.

When he didn’t come across the car, Powell called his son back to determine a more exact location. His heart began beating faster when his son told him he was back down off the path in the park. As a father, Powell worried that his son had taken the car off road and someone would think he was doing something illegal.

“I’m thinking that if someone was thinking he’s up to no good,” Powell said. “Something’s going to happen.”

His heart rate intensified when Powell located his son and the car. A police car had arrived on the scene.

“When I got out of the car, the officer walked up to me and said he thought it was just the car’s battery,” shared Powell. “My heart stopped pounding as I realized the officer was more geared towards service than suspicion on that day.”

Carrington said the incident in Memphis really moved him as the father of three sons, two of whom have careers in law enforcement.

“These were just street thugs in a police uniform,” Carrington said. “It doesn’t matter what level of training you have, there’s a level of humanity…You don’t need to go through a police academy to know you don’t stand a young man up and restrain and beat him until he has no life in him.”

The Attorney General was the first to review some of the reforms put into place in New Jersey. Many came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, another death that left the nation senseless.

“Law enforcement is obligated to value and preserve human life,” stressed Plotkin. “That’s the premise of our use of force procedures.”

According to Plotkin, New Jersey also plans to implement the strongest police licensing programs in the country. Surprisingly, the state is one of only a handful of other states that don’t currently license individual law enforcement officials.

(Tyre - See Page 6)

Tyre: Continued From Page 1

Bystander intervention and de-escalation training represent another critical aspect of the state’s attempts to facilitate good policing.

“We launched a program that I’m working to bring statewide in the not too distant future that pairs mental health professionals with law enforcement officers,” Plotkin said, “Building on the great work done in our communities like Stafford Township under Chief (Thomas) Dellane.”

The program has resulted in the diversion of people to mental health care rather than getting arrested or injured.

Dellane, who currently heads up the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, said that he viewed trust as something developed through communication. He stressed the importance of officer training and touched upon one that really hit home in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death.

The Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) project trains officers that it’s okay to step in if they notice another officer having a bad day.

“Let’s prevent other people from making mistakes,” explained Dellane. “Let’s have the courage to step in and do things.”

Keith Germain, Chief of Barnegat Police and President of the Ocean County Chief’s Association, said New Jersey ranks high when it comes to its use of force policies. However, Germain also acknowledged that didn’t mean that people weren’t confident that what happened in Memphis couldn’t happen here.

“If the people that we are responsible to protect are afraid when they see us,” Germain said. “We’re just not doing it right…we can say we have this program and that program. It doesn’t matter if the message isn’t getting delivered to the person receiving the service.”

Billhimer said that Ocean County law enforcement agencies have been making a strong push to increase diversity pursuant to a directive from the Attorney General’s office. The goal is to ensure the agencies reflect the communities they serve. Recruitment efforts have been tenuous despite the search for qualified individuals. According to Plotkin, the data on demographics indicates there’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to diversity in law enforcement.

“Despite what happened in Memphis, I don’t want to say that diversity in law enforcement doesn’t matter,” said Plotkin. “Because we know it does.”

Germain said part of the issue goes back to his original premise of delivering the message and making the community confident that being a police officer was not being part of a racist institution.

“If I were a Black man with a Black son or daughter and believed that this institution is full of these problems and intractable racism, the last place I’m going to steer my children is in law enforcement,” he said.

The idea of recruiting people of color involved changing the perception of law enforcement agencies as racist institutions.

One audience member disagreed with the concept that diversity had any role when it came to hiring police officers. The man, who said he grew up in Albania and was a Muslim, claimed he was “famous” and had worked for John Gotti. “I’ve spent 20 years in prison because I did the wrong thing,” said the man. “I’ve been beat up as a white man by police. My son’s in jail.”

Rodney Coursey, a young Black man identified what he saw as an issue.

“The gentleman spoke about being a criminal,” Coursey said of the previous speaker. “A lot of these things happen to young brothers because of the stigma of the color of their skin. We’re talking about people who aren’t necessarily criminals who are being brutalized and victimized by law enforcement.”

Coursey also asked the members of the panel if they intended to engage in community policing. Plotkin said he believed that cops should be out interacting with residents outside of a context of a stop or arrest.

“I grew up in Lakewood basically my whole life and my relationship with law enforcement started when I was 10,” said Carrington. “I was 11 or 12 years old when the beat cop used to come by my house and joke with my dad. I can tell you 100 percent that I never had an adverse relationship with law enforcement – and that’s because there was communication. There was trust.”

Justin Jacobs of Toms River thanked the various law enforcement officials who acknowledged they had no idea what it was like to be a Black man. He figured he’d offer some personal insight as his voice shook with emotion.

“Five Black police officers were witnessed on camera beating another man,” said Jacobs. “You used the word inhumane – they were arrested and fired almost immediately.”

“Meanwhile, you have people like Chauvin, who knelt on someone’s neck for almost ten minutes,” continued Jacobs. “And, it takes months, almost years for anything to happen…so that’s the question, does this become the new template?”

Billhimer said he believed the action from Memphis top cops would become the new template. The public should expect law enforcement agencies to act quickly and swiftly, while also preserving the rights of the officers.

Jacobs confessed that he had a hard time trusting an organization he said was founded in racism by rich white people. He spoke of moments in history when Negros were rounded up for not “acting right.” Jacobs admitted he doesn’t want to experience fear if a police officer pulls him over. But the truth is - a traffic stop can put Jacobs in fears for his life.

Surf City Police Chief Jack Cassella had been nodding his head throughout much of the commentary from Black audience members who described their concerns about interacting with law enforcement. Jacobs’ revelations moved Cassella to the point he wanted to offer some reassurances.

“I think the problem is we’re trying to approach a problem that’s been around for a hundred years with a very complicated answer,” said Cassella. “I think the most easiest answer we can come to is officers approaching people should treat them humane. That’s my hope for law enforcement.”

Asaiki Simon of Jackson, a Black woman, said trust in the police was difficult for her. She feared for herself, her sons, her daughter, and her husband.

“It’s really unfortunate that we as Black people can only feel comfortable in our own town if we get to know the police,” Simon shared. “That this needs to happen in order for our children not to experience what Tyre Nichols felt.”

“I’m hoping that this can come to our own neighborhoods so that we can have a community experience,” continued Simon. “And that we can have a dialogue about our children ...it would be very helpful for me to take my children to a meeting to get to know the officers in uniform and out of uniform.”