Although it is the largest youth football organization in the country, Pop Warner football has yet to reach many local areas in the United States. Several years ago, Mario Romano noticed Colts Neck, New Jersey was one such place. “I knew Pop Warner Football was a great opportunity for the kids of Colts Neck,” Mario Romano explains. Oftentimes, it may only be practical to develop a new team for an area. In this case however, there was enough interest to begin developing a new league. In Colts Neck, Mario Romano walked through the process of starting up a Pop Warner Football league.
As he educated Colts Neck parents about Pop Warner Football, Mario Romano was called upon to explain how the association is divided into eight national regions. Within the regions, leagues are divided into associations. Mario Romano knew Colts Neck had enough interest to generate teams in various age and weight divisions. “We couldn’t start an entire Pop Warner Football league without a wide variety of shapes and sizes in Colts Neck,” Mario Romano admitted. It may seem that this type of depth is unrealistic for some areas, but with a high level of quality, a program will grow.
When Mario Romano decided Colts Neck was a great location to host a new Pop Warner Football league, the first thing he did was to complete a charter application. For the Colts Neck league, Mario Romano had to pull together a board of directors for the entire league as well as a board for every association. These boards then drew up by-laws and determined the physical boundaries for each association. In Colts Neck, Mario Romano learned meeting with local community officials was a great way to establish credibility and locate available football fields. A home field for league play needed to be chosen, and Mario Romano had Colts Neck High School offered immediately.
Eventually, coaches had to be trained at a Pop Warner Football clinic and volunteers were required to complete background checks. But even before those steps could be addressed, funds had to be raised. “The Pop Warner Football organization recommends incorporating a league as a nonprofit in your state,” Colts Neck’s Mario Romano informs. As he soon discovered, Mario Romano’s Pop Warner Colts Neck league would require various types of funding. Pop Warner Football leagues are expected to pay for equipment, officials, insurance and also their own administration. However, reports Mario Romano, when the job was done, the process was well worth the effort.
Mario Romano of Colts Neck, New Jersey, began his career on Wall Street in 1982. Studying under some of the most prestigious financial professionals of our time before moving to Colts Neck, Mario Romano graduated from St. John’s University well ahead of his class. Relocating to the Colts Neck area, Mario Romano continued serving as an executive with a select group of Wall Street institutions. From Colts Neck, Mario Romano co-founded Wealth Engineering and Development in 2005. Currently residing in Colts Neck, Mario Romano brings over twenty-five years of Wall Street experience to his mission of providing financial education to the masses worldwide. Mario Romano lives in Colts Neck with his wife Gina and their three children. In the community of Colts Neck, Mario Romano is known as a key proponent of youth sports and education for the instrumental role he played in bringing Pop Warner Football to the area.
Mario Romano Supports Pop Warner
Cheer
and Dance Squads in Colts Neck
When people in Colts Neck hear the name “Pop Warner” they most likely think of football but Mario Romano, cofounder of a startup Pop Warner Football league in Colts Neck, New Jersey, knows that cheerleading also plays a huge part in the Pop Warner organization. Mario Romano helped raise funds needed to buy equipment and find a practice facility for the Colts Neck league. However, when it came time to organize the Pop Warner Little Scholars Cheer and Dance Spirit Squads in Colts Neck, Mario Romano was stumped. “I had absolutely no experience with the Pop Warner Football’s Cheerleading divisions,” Colts Neck’s Mario Romano admits, “but I learned fast!” First, Mario Romano had to find some people in Colts Neck who knew about the sport.
Although Pop Warner Football has been around since 1929, Mario Romano says the Cheer and Dance Squads weren’t officially introduced until the 1970s. According to Colts Neck’s Mario Romano, Pop Warner Football was originally named the Junior Football Conference. The Junior Football Conference, Mario Romano of Colts Neck explains, was started as a way to curb vandalism that had been plaguing local factories. “After an incredible banquet appearance by the legendary coach, Glenn “Pop” Warner, the league was renamed,” Colts Neck’s Mario Romano elaborates. The organization, as Mario Romano describes it, had exploded to over 3,000 teams by the 1960s, and girls were feeling left out.
This set up the introduction of Cheerleading in the 1970s, says Mario Romano of Colts Neck. As Mario Romano explains it, the new branch grew rapidly once it was incorporated into the Pop Warner organization. Today, not only are there traditional cheerleading squads in Pop Warner, but Colts Neck’s Mario Romano points out that a number of different types of performing groups have been adopted as well. According to Mario Romano of Colts Neck, there are majorettes, pom squads, dancing boots and pep squads. “The first National Cheerleading Competition took place in 1988,” says Colts Neck’s Mario Romano. These days, it is an event that is as highly anticipated as the Pop Warner Football Super Bowl and, according to Mario Romano, they both take place in Disney World.
Colts Neck resident Mario Romano says that author James Michener once referred to the Pop Warner organization as “organized juvenile sports at its best.” Mario Romano only hopes that Colts Neck people will continue to support the girls in their endeavors like they have supported the Colts Neck boys in the past. Although the cheerleading program has thrived, Colts Neck’s Mario Romano believes it has yet to reach its potential – in part due to stereotypes and misinformation. Many people still refuse to accept that cheerleading is a sport, but Pop Warner is doing its part to change that, concludes Mario Romano of Colts Neck.