Annual Adam Taliaferro Foundation football game changes format

The annual Adam Taliaferro Foundation all-star game at Rowan University in late June has been a part of the South Jersey football landscape for many years.

But times change.

The foundation has announced its intention to replace the all-star game, which has featured just-graduated seniors in a full-contact showcase at Rowan for the last 27 years, with a seven-on-seven tournament involving high school teams from the tri-state area.

“It was a tough decision,” said Taliaferro, the former Eastern High School star who suffered a severe spinal injury during his freshman season at Penn State in 2000.

Taliaferro made a remarkable recovery and has become an attorney and New Jersey state assemblyman. The foundation that carries his name has raised millions to support people who have suffered spinal-cord injuries and their families.

Taliaferro said the annual all-star game had become increasingly difficult to run because of growing insurance costs as well as the demands on coaches.

Under its old format, the annual game would be preceded by a three-day overnight camp at Rowan, a major logistical project involving close to 100 players and more than a dozen coaches and support personnel.

“This event really is run by the South Jersey Football Coaches Association,” Taliaferro said of the all-star game. “They’ve been fantastic. But it’s been getting more and more difficult for the coaches to be away from their families for four days. It’s a big commitment.

“Plus, our insurance costs have been going up. It’s been a combination of things that have led us to look at other options.”

The new event will be called the Coach Larry Ginsburg ATF Classic, named in honor of Taliaferro’s former coach at Eastern who has been a longtime supporter of the foundation.

The seven-on-seven touch-football tournament will include as many as 64 teams that will compete in pool play on June 24-25, with championship rounds set for June 26.

“This opens things to players in the lower classes, even youth teams,” Taliaferro said.

The event will feature a sports-festival atmosphere with athletic competition and vendor tables. The culmination of the week will be the annual South Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame banquet on June 27.

This year, for the first time, the foundation will honor 12 student-athletes at the banquet who have overcome adversity with Adam Taliaferro Courage awards. One individual will be selected as the winner of the Adam Taliaferro Courageous Athlete award and will receive a $2,000 scholarship.

Taliaferro said the growing popularity of seven-on-seven football, which has become an increasing part of the offseason landscape, inspired officials to create a tournament to replace the annual game.

“When we looked around nationally, we saw how much seven-on-seven has grown,” Taliaferro said. “It’s the next wave and we wanted to try and see if it works.”

Taliaferro hasn’t ruled out a return of the annual all-star game.

“I love the game and would love to see it come back,” he said.

The game will be played this year on Friday Sept. 6.

“It really came from the coaches,” Kingsway athletic director June Cioffi said. “With the gap between the first playoff game or the consolation game, sometimes you had to wait 20 days to play the Thanksgiving game.

“It became really hard to keep the team together.”

Cioffi said both school administrations and school boards agreed to the change. “We haven’t heard many complaints,” he said of fan reaction.

Kingsway-Clearview joins West Deptford-Paulsboro and Penns Grove-Pennsville, both of which moved to opening day last season, as annual holiday games that now will serve as season kickoffs.

With recent changes in the playoff format, other schools could be looking to move games from Thanksgiving weekend as well. Delran and Cinnaminson, which have played on the holiday weekend since 1991, are considering moving their annual game to opening day, although officials have not yet finalized plans.

“This will still be our annual game,” Cioffi said of Kingsway’s clash with longtime rival Clearview. “We’re just going to play it on opening day now.”