Shore Bulldogs - a team without a home Local semipro football team operating at a disadvantage BY GEORGE ALBANO Staff Writer SCOTT FRIEDMAN The Shore Bulldogs are hoping to find a home field in the near future so they won't have to tackle an entire 2007 season of road games. The Shore Bulldogs semipro football team out of Middletown played its "home" opener this past Sunday against the New Jersey Wolves of Plainfield. The only problem is that the Bulldogs don't have a home field, at least not yet. The 54 players and three coaches who make up this year's team hope to resolve that dilemma sometime soon, but in the meantime the 2007 season will go on. In fact, the Shore Bulldogs made a successful debut on July 22 with a thrilling 13-12 win over the New Jersey Warriors in New Brunswick, scoring the winning touchdown with only seven seconds left on the clock. That was the first of 10 games the Bulldogs are scheduled to play this season, two against each of the other five teams in the Garden State Football League. "It's supposed to be one home and one away, but we have to play everybody twice at their field," explained Middletown resident Phil Zuena, the 24-year-old owner of the team, as well as a player. "Technically, we're out of Middletown. That's where our business is listed out of. But we're really out of nowhere because we don't have a home field." Old Bridge's Travis Gerdon works on his field goals during a Shore Bulldogs' practice on July 26 in East Brunswick. The Shore Bulldogs were started last year by Zuena, a 2001 graduate of Middletown High School North, where he was a three-year starter on the football team. A former fullback and outside linebacker for the Lions, he first joined the Garden State Football League three years ago. "I played with a couple of guys I knew in Bayonne with a team called the Jersey Cynders," he said. "But the team wasn't run very well, and they folded after only five games. "I wanted to continue to play football and there were not many options, so I decided I would start my own team. I contacted the commissioner of the league and asked him what I had to do to start my own team. He told me I had to first form a business, an LLC [limited liability company], then field a team, and finally secure a location to play that would be acceptable. "And we needed, obviously, to create a name." That wasn't difficult. Most of the players who signed up were from Monmouth and Ocean counties and, like Zuena, played in the Shore Conference during their high school days. Also like Zuena, a number of them had also played in the GSFL before. "A group of us had migrated from other teams to form this team," Zuena said. "And we all voted to call our team the Bulldogs." Thus, the Shore Bulldogs were born in 2006. They made quite a debut, too, going 10-5 and advancing to the semifinals of the league playoffs. They also entered a northeast regional tournament, the Metro Bowl, and made it to the semifinals. And they even had a home field. "We used Old Bridge Rams Field. It's a Pop Warner field, but it was home," Zuena said. "But this year the people on their executive board changed, and they requested a ridiculous amount of money to renegotiate the contract we had with them. And that wouldn't even guarantee us a field. That was just to meet with the board to discuss a new contract." The Bulldogs had no choice but to walk away from that expensive proposition and look for a new field, without any success. Then when the 2007 season was about to commence, they agreed to play all their games on the road, at least until they could find a field they could call home. That's quite a daunting task in an established league like the GSFL, now in its 11th year and made up of Triple-A semipro teams. "That's as high as you get in semipro football," Zuena pointed out. "The team we play this week, the New Jersey Wolves, is one of the top 50 teams in the nation. And then on Aug. 25 and Sept. 16 we play the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Mariners, and they're the No. 2 team in the nation out of 1,300 teams." Besides the three New Jersey teams and the one from Brooklyn, there are two teams from Long Island in the league. And not having a home-field advantage against any of them only makes the challenge even tougher - and more expensive. "With traveling expenses, it kills us not having a home field," Zuena said. There are other expenses involved, such as uniforms, equipment and referee fees. "We spend $4,000 alone just on that," Zuena noted. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs' only sources of income are sponsors and player dues. "We have a few sponsors, but nothing really big," Zuena said. "We have a few sponsors in Red Bank and some as far north at Hasbrouck Heights." "Then we charge veteran players $275 to play and rookies $325." The Bulldogs' roster features of mix of both types of players. "We have some kids straight out of high school looking to get experience so they can play in college," Zuena said. "Then we have guys my age and some guys in their mid-30s." Last year, they even had a player who was 41, Tom Zirino, who is now the Bulldogs' head coach. "Tom was actually our backup quarterback last year," Zuena said. "He was a phenomenal player in college with Maryland and he's been playing in our league for years." Jerry Nixon, last year's head coach, is now the offensive coordinator, while defensive coordinator Tom Romano rounds out the coaching staff. Then there's the general manager, Jessyca Richard. "She's actually my girlfriend," Zuena laughed. "She kind of got forced into being the general manager." At least she doesn't have to worry about meeting a payroll. You see, none of the players on the Shore Bulldogs gets paid. "A lot of semipro leagues pay their players," Zuena said. "But in our league, it's college friendly. There's no compensation allowed. The gentlemen in our league play for the love of the game." "The biggest reason is we have a lot of 18-year-olds who still want to play college football, and if they receive one dime they would be ineligible for college. So we can't compensate them." Despite all that, however, the Shore Bulldogs are still able to attract a high level of players. "We're not just a recreational-type organization," Zuena emphasized. "We're more geared to getting these kids in college. We have players who want to advance themselves and play at the next level, whether that's in college or arena football or in the Canadian league. We had four guys on our team last year who are in arena football leagues this year. "We provide an opportunity for young men to better themselves. We also work with children in the community. Every Saturday morning we work with kids ages 5 to 12 in the current flag football league in town. It's an eight-week program run through GoodSports USA." Now Zuena is hoping the community can pay the Bulldogs back by finding them a home field. "We have permit applications out all through the area," he said. "Unfortunately, as of yet a lot of surrounding towns are not very receptive to semipro football. We even have a million-dollar insurance policy to insure any damage to a field." "We had one permit application in Watchung Hills where we actually got approval and permission to use a field. They told us to get back to them with our schedule and we did, but they never called us back and it's been three months. "But I'm optimistic we're going to get something soon. We have a lot of pending applications and meetings scheduled. I'm hoping something will happen."