'Storm' Gathering Over Strip Club Ads in Travel Softball Book?

Anonymous criticism of a West Deptford youth softball team over the content of its ad book seems to be just the latest example of political gamesmanship in a town preparing to enter the long summer before a local municipal election.

Earlier this week, an anonymous Patch user posted photos of the West Deptford Storm softball club ad book, highlighting ads paid for by Champagne and Cheerleaders Gentlemen's Club.

One reads, "Good Luck to the West Deptford Storm Softball Teams"; the other simply lists its address and contact information.

The poster offered comment—"Love to know who had the guts to go in these places and ask for an ad  in a young girls softball ad book!"—but declined to sign his or her name to the accusation.

Whatever the implication behind that remark, the message would seem to be a shot fired along party lines, said West Deptford Storm co-founder Michael Angelini.

As a former Democratic leader in the township, Angelini said he's no stranger to political hardball. But he bristled, however, at the anonymous attack.

“People can disagree about policy,” he said. “[But] if you disagree, they blast you anonymously. They say you’re corrupt and this and that. It is a sick environment. It almost reminds me of the era of Joe McCarthy.

“I wish somebody would have the guts to put their name to it so we can have a debate about what we do for our girls,” Angelini said.

'A safe, competitive, fun environment'

Angelini, who formed the Storm more than a decade ago with fellow coach Tom Sullivan, said the club was designed to get some competitive experience for their softball-playing daughters in “a safe, competitive, fun environment."

ASA, or the Amateur Softball Association of America, “is the level where a lot of colleges recruit players from,” Angelini said. Tournaments are designed to pack in a lot of activity in a single weekend, with players from a variety of towns and school systems gathering in one place for scouting.

“College coaches like to go to these games to get a sense of the players they’re looking at,” he said. “We have a 10-year-old team, 18U teams, a 23 year-old team. Our goal is to have good, competitive softball, to teach them the game. That’s how we try to do it.”

But traveling to these tournaments can cost hundreds and thousands of dollars per player, from registration fees to lodging to equipment, he said.

To that end, fundraising becomes “a necessary evil” to help offset the price of participating in the league.

'A good revenue source'

The Storm are independently funded, nonprofit, and receive no outside dollars other than what their players, their families and supporters contribute, Angelini said.

One of the biggest fundraisers is the league ad book, he said, which is “a good revenue source” and “something that we’ve used almost from the beginning.”

Angelini said that ad book revenues are mostly generated by players’ parents, who are encouraged by the Storm to cold-call local businesses for support.

He said that the league endeavors to keep the administrative cost of the book “very, very low” to retain as much of the money raised as possible for the players' needs.

“I commend them for being innovative and industrious and working hard to raise money for their daughters,” Angelini said.

Moreover, he said, gentlemen’s club sponsors like Champagne and Cheerleaders advertise in other outlets, like radio, newspapers and television, “so they’re taking their money to advertise their product" anyway.

“All these folks were doing was trying to help out the softball team with meeting its expenses,” Angelini said. “I thought the ad was tastefully done.

“The point is nobody’s exposing our kids to any of this stuff,” he said. “If a parent felt that to further their child’s ability to play they’re going to solicit an ad from what I understand to be legitimate businesses, what’s wrong with that?”

Moreover, Angelini said, anyone who questions his position on the issue should recall that as the solicitor for West Deptford, he led the charge to more tightly regulate the operations of gentlemen’s clubs in the township.

“When the people tried to open Champagne, we fought them,” Angelini said. “We went to court. We wound up enacting restrictions that would have been more severe [than] had we litigated it.”

“I don’t know what to suspect regarding who’s making a mountain out of a molehill out of this, but to suggest that my organization is doing anything to harm these girls is ridiculous,” he said.

Costs going up

West Deptford Little League parent and organizer Dorothy Ponto, whose daughter is standout WDHS pitcher Sydney Ponto, said that the Little League stopped allowing bars to even advertise on its signs for fear of encountering similar issues.

“I just try and keep that away from the younger kids,” she said.

However, Ponto acknowledged that the cost of keeping a child—or multiple children—in extracurricular sports can be expensive. Fundraisers like an ad book can bring in a much-needed revenue offset.

“I know it’s difficult because my daughters played travel softball and the travel teams can range from $500 to $5,000 a year,” she said.

“The cost of everything’s gone up."