Lacey Township HS Boys Volleyball Helps to Spike Opioid Addiction

It’s been pretty common around the shore the last few years for high school sports teams to wear pink in October as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Seniors on the Lacey High School boy’s volleyball team approached coach Joe Romayo prior to the season about doing their part for an important cause which he was very much in favor of.  Team captains Carl Bullock III, Robert Cort, Matt Perrone, and Cameron Bassford chose the opioid epidemic which is a national problem and one of great concern here in Ocean County.

The wearing of purple ribbons for this growing crisis was spotlighted during the President’s State of the Union address in January when some senators wore purple to draw attention to the growing epidemic.  With that color now connected to the opioid problem the Lions volleyball team jumped in and has used the month of April along with students from the Leadership of Humanities Academy to raise awareness in the high school by displaying posters.

Pictured Above:

Front Row Varsity from left to right are: Matthew Perrone, Robert Cort, Alex Nagy, Christopher Locha, Michael Mattei
Second Row from left to right: Taylor Coates, Russell MacDonald, Carl Bullock, Cameron Bassford, Lucas Whelan
Back Row from left to right: Kyle Priebe, Tom Horvath, Mason Waters, Dylan Mangan
Missing from photo: Quinn Baumgarten, Nicholas Festa, Head Coach Joe Romayo, Assistant Coach CJ Herdt, and Todd Serad

This effort will culminate tomorrow afternoon when they host Toms River East in a match they hope will also bring added attention to something that should concern just about everyone.

Lacey has received permission to wear special purple and white uniforms for what is their final home game of the month and they are encouraging students to wear purple to school on Thursday to show a unified approach to an epidemic that is claiming lives each and every day.

The boy’s volleyball team feels very strong about this issue and hopes that their efforts will touch their fellow students as well as the Lacey community.

The Toms River East at Lacey match begins at 3:45pm tomorrow and before the Lions take their first serve they will have already shown to be winners.