Voorhees, NJ youth football league was adult party playground
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The leaders of a New Jersey youth football program called a Hail Mary Jane.
The Eastern Junior Vikings Football and Cheer program of Voorhees Township decayed into a cesspool of financial malfeasance and adult debauchery — including pot use on the sidelines — according to a lawsuit filed in New Jersey Superior Court.
Charles Foulke III is suing former board members claiming they diverted $100,000 worth of funds, failed to file taxes and “wrongfully hijacked control” of the organization, which serves hundreds of children ages 5 to 14.
Foulke charges that president Troy Brocco, vice president Ron Librizzi and treasurer Danielle Fifthian turned the program into “an adult party playground” where the defendants and/or their spouses drank alcohol or marijuana-infused beverages and ingested edibles around children.
“Witnesses saw people drinking, eating edibles, brownies, things like that, on the field, during games,” attorney Laura Ruccolo, who filed the suit on behalf of Foulke, told The Post. She also claims to have photographs of parents ingesting alcohol and edibles during games.
“I worked 12-hour shifts sometimes at the concession stand,” Fifthian told NJ.com. “Afterward, we’d have an occasional drink or two, but nothing in front of children and nothing inappropriate occurred.”
She also denied marijuana use on the field or in the clubhouse, the report states.
The defendants “are being ornery and not cooperating,” Ruccolo said. All three were sanctioned on Friday for failing to comply with court orders.
Foulke, a father and prominent businessman who manages Cherry Hill Dodge, claims he’s been involved in the football and cheerleading program for 18 years and that he lent and provided funds to support an array of needs, including team signage, equipment and clubhouse repairs.
He filed the original claim in November seeking financial recovery for the program and to oust the board members. Financial restitution is yet to be made, but a court-appointed custodian took control of the league in March.
That appointment merely sparked a new dispute, this one between the football program and local officials, after Township Committee member Michele Nocito launched a new organization called Voorhees Flag Football, which was given the field permit normally allotted the Junior Vikings.
Foulke filed a follow-up federal lawsuit in April against Voorhees Township, Mayor Michael Mignogna, Nocito and other civic officials alleging the upstart league misrepresented itself to the NFL to obtain one of its coveted NFL Flag Football licenses, which then in turn was used to obtain field permits. The failure to grant permits to the Vikings caused “irreparable harm” to the football program, the suit alleged.
The federal claim was settled on Friday, with permits being reissued to the Junior Vikings, which will allow them to play flag football again this spring.
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