Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

LOCAL TEAMS DEFECT FROM POP WARNER

rumson-dawgsThe Rumson-Fair Haven Bulldogs in action against Manalapan. (Photo courtesy of Pim Van Hemmen Visuals. Click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

When gradeschool-aged football players from Middletown, Red Bank and elsewhere suit up for the gridiron later this year, it may be hard to tell any difference on the field. The uniforms will look the same, the team names will remain and the players are, for the most part, the same that have been on the field their entire recreational careers.

But there will be one major change from decades past.

The Rumson-Fair Haven Bulldogs will be the only local team left in the 50-year-old Jersey Shore Pop Warner League, facing teams from places such as Asbury Park and Brick Township. The others will play for a league that’s supplanted Pop Warner as the leader in recreation football — one that bills itself as “the largest youth football and youth cheer organization on Earth.”

Citing “issues” with Pop Warner, 30 Jersey Shore teams, including the Red Bank Buccaneers, the Middletown Eagles and the River Plaza Chargers, defected last month to American Youth Football and Cheer, a league sponsored by athletic clothing company Under Armor.

“The rules of Pop Warner weren’t working for us anymore,” said Craig Karahuta, who is still listed on the Jersey Shore league’s website as the organization’s president.

As a result, this football season will fracture local tradition, as Rumson-Fair Haven, which voted to stay with Pop Warner, will play the remaining seven Pop Warner teams, while the other 30-plus teams from the Jersey Shore league match up against each other in the American Youth league.

Why Rumson-Fair Haven decided to stay with Pop Warner is unclear; phone calls and emails to team president Jay Clark were not returned.

As for the defectors, practice schedules that start two weeks earlier in the summer and a retooled playoff system that includes more teams appealed to them, and they cast their votes to switch to American Youth, a national league that started in 1996 but made a big push for growth this year by bringing on about 80 percent of Pop Warner’s Jersey Shore teams.

Whether the move has caused, or will, cause any confusion at the local level is hard to gauge. The season doesn’t start until the end of summer, and Karahuta said while most people seem happy with the switch, there has been a degree of tension among parents and coaches aligned with the leagues.

“There’s been a lot of mudslinging, a lot of people defaming others,” he said, “but at the end of the day the numbers don’t lie.”

Red Bank Head Coach Scott Navitsky said he doesn’t understand why the remaining several teams affiliated with Pop Warner didn’t follow suit and go to American Youth. After hearing what the league had to offer — more focus on safety and a fairer playoff system, he said — the decision to break away from Pop Warner was simple.

“(American Youth) didn’t push us that way, but they felt it was a good opportunity for us,” Navitsky said.”They brought it to a vote, so they all decided to go.”

Navitsky said he hasn’t heard many complaints among parents, but acknowledged that breaking off decades with Pop Warner has been divisive.

“Everybody’s making such a huge deal of it. It’s the same for the kids, and I think that’s what really matters,” he said.

Karahuta, who was with Pop Warner for years, said for a long time there wasn’t any other option, that “it was just Pop Warner, Pop Warner, Pop Warner,” and now that there is another option for youth football, Pop Warner’s lock is breaking.

“It’s just like if you’ve been driving a Chevy for 20 years and a new Ford comes out and you want to buy that. It’s America. It’s free enterprise,” Karahuta said. “The teams found they could find something better.”

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
PILGRIM BAPTIST MEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
  (photo by: Shanikquya Jackson) On Sunday, June 22, Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank hosted its annual Men’s Day Celebration a ...
THREE GENERATION PROCLAMATION
Mayor Billy Portman presents the Borough of Red Bank’s Independence Day 2025 Proclamation to Arleen Brahn (second from right), grandmo ...
STEW THE BUTCHER COSPLAY
On the occasion of the retirement of Stewart Goldstein, longtime proprietor of Monmouth Meats, we thought it apt to present this photo from ...
NAVESINK FISHING
A kayak fisherman tries his luck under the NJ Transit train trestle across the Navesink River in Red Bank. (Photo by Partyline contributor A ...
RED BAKE
As the temperature hit 100 degrees Tuesday, Tom Sevison, Red Bank High School Class of 1973 and in town briefly on his way back home to Virg ...
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.