Recognizing An Ocean County Breast Cancer Survivor

Often on a Friday during the football season I will talk about the games coming up over the weekend and I will get to that in a moment.

First though I want to mention that this morning's NBC’s Today show featured a story with local ties and it does relate to high school football. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month the weekly “Together We Make Football” segment will shine on Brick’s Laura Sclafani and her family.

If the name sounds familiar to football fans it should.  Her oldest son Carmen quarterbacked the Brick “Green Dragons” to a 2013 State Sectional Championship and is now a freshman baseball player at Rutgers. Younger son Joe is a senior linebacker and fullback on the current Brick squad.

The feature chronicles the story of Laura’s diagnosis with breast cancer in 2012 and how she coped with incredible support from her family and friends. In the fall of 2013 despite undergoing radiation and chemotherapy she was in the stands cheering on her sons for every Brick game culminating with the state title. That was a great victory but not nearly as the one that came a few months later when she was told she had won the fight against her cancer.

Watch The Entire TODAY Show Segment Here:

In an unrelated story and one that did not have such a joyful ending Bayville resident Margaret Tuminski Scarcella lost her long battle with melanoma last month, leaving behind her husband and two sons 14-year old Shane and 11-year old Kyle. To honor the way she lived her life and battled her illness and most of all to help with medical and family expenses a benefit spaghetti dinner will be held tomorrow night at the Berkeley Little League Volunteer Community Center on Moorage Avenue. The benefit will also include door prizes and raffle prizes and tickets are just $10 per person or $25 for a family of four.

The fifth full weekend of the high school football season finds our Shore Sports Network at Toms River North as the Jersey Mike’s Game of the Week features the Mariners and Jackson Memorial Jaguars. Both teams have a loss in Class A South so the loser can pretty much forget about the divisional race. Other big games tonight include Point Boro at Central, Ocean at Middletown North and Raritan hosting Red Bank. For more check out shoresportsnetwork.com