By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
June 29: Usually, after a team loses by 17 points and its offense commits five turnovers, the players are pretty bummed out.
But Nottingham’s Devion Stokes and Hamilton West’s Reidgee Dimanche were all smiles after their East team fell to the West, 24-7, in Thursday night’s Sunshine Football Classic sponsored by Fisher Capital Corp. LLC at The College of New Jersey.
They were two of 17 players representing Hamilton Township in the game, which was won by the West for the third straight year. But Stokes was all over the place from his defensive tackle spot, stuffing runs and getting penetration on the quarterback. And Dimanche became a full-time kick returner after a standout career at linebacker and tight end.
“I’d like to thank my teammates,” said Stokes, who politely did not pile drive Fish4scores after we mistakenly referred to him as his teammate, Kadier Nelson. “Without them doing their parts I couldn’t be where I was to make the plays.”
Despite the long night on the losing side, Stokes was enjoying every minute of his final high school game before heading to Glassboro to play for Rowan University.
“The whole time, I was just thinking in my head ‘This is for charity,’” he said. “So, I’m gonna go out there and have fun. (Losing) didn’t matter, we’re just having fun out there.”
Despite just “having fun” Stokes looked like a man on the mission with how active he was in the trenches.
“I kind of got really into the game mentally,” he said. “I just started getting into it.”
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Just like Dimanche got into returning kickoffs, as he brought back three for nearly 100 yards, although one got shortened due to a personal foul penalty.
“At practice they said ‘We need some returners’ so me and Mark (Bethea of Hamilton) ran back there and it felt good running around with the ball in my hands,” Dimanche said. “I did a few in high school, but it was in the middle of the season and the coaches just threw me back there and I went.”
Much like Stokes, Dimanche enjoyed the fact that the game was helping the Sunshine Foundation, an organization that pays for terminally ill children to visit Disney World, among other things.
“It was really exciting to get everyone from all these schools around, get them together and cool to see how we were able to work together so well so quickly,” Dimanche said. “It was a lot of fun, we were always laughing, having a good time.
“They told us about the Sunshine Foundation, and it made us all feel really good, knowing what we’re doing this for.”
Dimanche has one week left before he reports to Stony Brook to start his collegiate career.
“Yeah, summer’s over for me, and I just started,” he said with a laugh.
Other notable plays turned in by township players included a 19-yard reception by Steinert’s Conner Braddock from Bordentown’s Dominic Dabronzo after Dabronzo fumbled the ball around in the backfield and appeared ready to get sacked; and a 9-yard run by Nottingham’s Jon Jacobs that originally looked like a touchdown until it was ruled Jacobs stepped on the sideline.
