LITTLE SILVER – With Labor Day behind us, the high school sports fall season is here. Before any of the Red Bank Regional athletes suited up for the first game on the schedule, there was a full month of preseason practice in August, when the work is put in to get ready for the upcoming season. There are no school buses on campus during the height of the summer and a lot of athletes need a ride to get to practice. Enter RBR athletic director Louis “Del” Dal Pra.
Twelve years ago, Dal Pra noticed a void of athletes from Red Bank’s West Side playing fall sports. After a successful pick up of athletes to basketball tryouts during Thanksgiving weekend, the August tradition of a Bucs carpool began.
“Our first fall we used our own two minivans and we could see we needed a bigger boat,” Dal Pra said. “Luckily I was and still am on the Red Bank Recreation Board and asked then-director Memone Christian if I could use their van. After some training and licensing courses, we were off and running.”
It’s mostly freshmen and sophomores who are on the Bucs caravan to campus, but the spirit of doing whatever it takes to get the practice fields filled has extended to the upperclassmen. Many RBR junior and senior football players do their part picking up younger players to and from practice.
“I guess one of my main goals at RBR is to eliminate roadblocks keeping kids away from playing sports at the high school level,” Dal Pra said. “I know the RBR building is far from some of our athletes’ homes but we also provide food and advice to kids we drive.”
The community has done its part to help Bucs athletes get a chance to thrive in August. From the Bagel Station donating two dozen bagels each day to make sure the athletes had some fuel prior to workouts to Slurpee Saturday’s at the 7-Eleven, the van is filled every day with Dal Pra at the helm.
“Picking up and getting to practice is very peaceful and quiet,” the RBR athletic director said. “But bringing the athletes home is the best since they are awake and alive and love to talk about everything in their lives.”
Besides the trips to practice, Dal Pra has helped get kids to get physicals, made sure they have the proper gear and even helped arrange part-time jobs at local businesses. Current Red Bank recreation director Charlie Hoffman has helped keep the Bucs practice caravan rolling along with recently retired principal Risa Clay.
“I think my proudest moment happened this August,” Dal Pra said. “I was picking up a freshman football player and his neighbor ran out with his 1-year-old son in his hands. That young father was a football player I used to shuttle to practice 10 years ago and he wanted me to meet his young son.”
An athletic director wears many hats. In the constant quest for athletic programs to have the numbers to compete in every sport, Dal Pra has gone and above and beyond to ensure everyone at Red Bank Regional gets the chance to experience high school sports.
