Bellamy-inspired Piscataway football family ready for Marisa Rose Bowl

With wings on their shoulders and passion in their hearts, players in the second annual Bellamy and Sons Paving Marisa Rose Bowl will alight at Woodbridge High School’s Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium on June 29 at 7 p.m.

The recently graduated Middlesex County high school seniors will join a growing football family which has contributed to 29 editions of New Jersey’s most successful charity all-star football game.

Formerly known as the Snapple Bowl and Autoland Classic, the contest has raised $736,000 for children in need since its inception in 1994.

The Piscataway football family has also been growing for years, with branches leading to myriad football levels.

Stunted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the perennial state power program being shut down in 2020 and a winless campaign in 2021, the Chiefs rebounded to make the playoffs last season for the first time since 2019.

This year’s Piscataway representatives in the Marisa Rose Bowl spearheaded the program’s turnaround. They are Antonio Rivera, Malachi Wyatt, Ossie Hilliard, Jalen Thomas, Keere Rawls and Corey Stone.

Part of a group of 25 seniors, the six upperclassmen helped the team triple its scoring average while cutting defensive points in half.

Piscataway went 6-3 last season, shared a piece of the Big Central Football Conference National Gold Division title and earned a berth in the North 2 Group 5 playoffs.

One of the influences on the journey was a prominent branch of the Chief Tree – the Bellamy Family.

Joe Bellamy Sr. coached Pop Warner in town for many years, helming an undefeated championship team his final year. He’s also provided camp T-shirts and Thursday pizza for the team.

Rocco Bellamy, who played in last year’s Marisa Rose Bowl and whose older brother Joey played in the 2019 version of the all-star game, helped shape several of the players on this year’s squad.

“My junior year, I looked up to Rocco,” Stone, a linebacker, said of Bellamy. “He was in my position group. He’s a good, solid football player, fundamentally and mentally. The way Rocco carries himself is something you want to be.”

Stone registered 49 tackles last season (just eight fewer than Rocco Bellamy’s 2021 senior total) to finish second on the team. Stone’s linebacker partner, Rawls, played significantly alongside Bellamy in 2021, finishing third on the team in tackles with 40. In 2022, he led the Chiefs with 52 tackles, including six for a loss. Rawls also had two fumble recoveries.

Rivera, a first-team All-Division selection, shared the backfield with Bellamy in 2021. With Bellamy helping pave the way as a lead blocker on numerous plays, Rivera averaged 5.6 yards per carry and scored three touchdowns on a team which averaged only 3.2 yards per carry for the season and tallied just six rushing touchdowns all year.

In 2022, Rivera improved to 6.3 yards per carry and ran for 10 scores. He also broke the school’s all-time kick return for touchdown mark as he finished his brief but explosive career with five return touchdowns while averaging 31.8 yards each time he returned a kick.

Another impact the Bellamy family has had on the Piscataway program, less noticeable than what you might see on game film, is the presence of a Workman. All the Bellamys are workhorses, but this is different.

For the past several years, Bellamy Sr., has loaned the program a Toro Workman 4300-D. It’s 23 horsepower of four-wheel football functionality. The utility vehicle has helped bring equipment to and from practice, served as a water station and moonlighted as a mobile filming unit, as the rear of the Toro Workman uses hydraulics to raise coaches to film practice.

Those films are invaluable teaching tools, especially with line play. They allow immediate feedback for the players, who splinter into groups immediately after practice to work on correcting mistakes. This, in turn, has benefitted all three Piscataway linemen playing in the Marisa Rose Bowl.

Wyatt, a first-team All-Division selection, who, judging from his constant motor has a seemingly unlimited amount of horsepower, was a force on defense. He finished third on the team in tackles as a down lineman. He led the team with 26 tackles for loss, almost three per game, and forced five fumbles.

The only player who may have received more nervous looks from opposing offenses than Wyatt was first-team All-Division defensive end Hilliard. Long and strong, Hilliard’s tiny waist was rivaled only by the tiny amount of time players had to decide what to do with him.

On one play against an option team, Hilliard squeezed off the edge of a down block, wrapped the fullback (to whom the handoff was faked) with his left arm and the quarterback (who kept) with his right and brought both to the ground. This was just one of Hilliard’s 17 tackles for a loss.

Hilliard also led the team with 10 quarterback pressures and tied with Wyatt for a team-leading 3.5 sacks.

Thomas had never played high school football before this year. A skilled basketball player who was second on the Piscataway hoops team in rebounds, Thomas seamlessly transitioned to the gridiron. Lined up at tight end, Thomas put his basketball skills to use. His soft hands hauled in seven passes (fourth on a team which only completed 56 all year) and his timing on jumps helped him lead the defensive line, where he was a reserve, with three tipped passes.

Each Piscataway practice is complete only when the words “Chiefs – Family – Pride” have been spoken.

“One – Chiefs – because that’s who we are,” Stone reflected, “Two – Pride – we have a lot of pride in what we do. And Family – it’s a brotherhood and that’s unbreakable.”

Unbreakable, too, was the spirit of Marisa Rose Tufaro. Born with a severe cardiac defect, Tufaro survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing to a rare form of cancer in 2017 following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old.

Tufaro was an honor roll student and regular participant in extracurricular activities, who lived a vibrant life that inspired.

Her presence as an angel will be reflected by the white wings adorning the shoulders of this year’s game jerseys.

Those wings will also serve as a reminder of the game’s purpose – playing for others and being an angel is someone’s life.

The Bellamy Family has been giving to the Piscataway Family for years and now, as the Marisa Rose Bowl’s official game sponsor, their branch is reaching out to Middlesex County and beyond; giving to the community family in need.  It’s a lesson not lost on current Piscataway players. “I want to show people I’ve improved my game,” Stone said. “But not only that, I want to support the kids [who] need it the most. They’re going through stuff I don’t really have to go through.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Bellamy-inspired Chiefs football family ready for Marisa Rose Bowl