West Orange PAL Athletic Complex

This year the West Orange Police Athletic League will be celebrating its 61st Anniversary! And we want YOU to be a part of history!

The WOPAL has been serving the youth of West Orange since 1962 founded by Officer John Bowman and a Board of six officers. In 1965 the property was donated to the WO PAL, and the field and building were built and are used to this day. Around 2006 the field was renovated, and lights were installed, allowing for night games to be possible. The WOPAL currently offers Football, Travel Flag Football, Girls Flag Football, Cheerleading, Competition Cheer, and Travel Baseball to our town residents ages 5-14. In addition to providing youth athletics, the PAL encourages players to volunteer their time in the community, which is evidenced by the number of players who participate in the Annual Special Needs Game and those who assist with practices and clinics and other community service projects throughout the town. We want our young athletes to feel pride in their West Orange community.

The WOPAL believes in the spirit of family. We strive to bring players and their families together. Whether it’s hotdogs between the games of a double header, or a pizza party on the open field of WOHS, our goal is to ensure all children have a place to call home here at the PAL; a philosophy instilled into the program through Board Directors and Members like Vincent Albanese and Dan Parisi, Sr. The bonds created during their youth continue to last a lifetime, as many former players return to the PAL program as coaches and administrators.

Each year we strive to keep registration fees and costs down. 2020 and 2021 were unprecedented years due to the global pandemic. With the generosity of our community and respective PAL networks, we were able to continue to offer our programs with help on expenses such as uniform maintenance, equipment, insurance, umpire/referee fees, ongoing field maintenance and building maintenance. With your help, we continue to build our championship Travel Baseball teams and Football & Cheerleading programs; last year, we added Travel Flag Football and 7U Travel Baseball teams. This year we brought back our Competition Cheer team and developed the trailblazing Girls Flag Football program.

Recently we partnered with Pinstripe Design out of NYC, who has graciously donated their architectural services to help us design a brand new INDOOR FACILITY! Pinstripe Design completed the Jets Training Facility, is creating a complex at Texas A&M, and designed areas of Hudson Yards, and downtown Minneapolis, just to name a few. Attached you will find the plans for the West Orange PAL Athletic Center. These designs include turfing and expanding our current baseball field to be utilized for both 46/60 and 50/70 games. This will allow more teams to play at our facility. The indoor facility will be utilized for indoor practices and clinics for football, cheerleading, and baseball. We will be able to host 7-on-7 Winter tournaments, our Baseball Winter trainings, and Cheer clinics. We will be able to share the facility with other community-based programs so that an additional space is available as the youth athletic programs of West Orange continue to expand. The new building will be placed in the currently wooded lot in left-center field. The current building will be renovated to update the concession stand/kitchen area and update the lobby and restrooms.

We would love your assistance in making this a reality – we want you on board so that your children and their children will have a place to build their athletic dreams and a place to consider home. While funding is our goal, we are looking for anyone who can donate services or offer them at a discounted rate: engineering, tree removal, surveyors, landscaping, grant writing, etc. Anything you can contribute is greatly appreciated! No amount is too small. If you work for a company or know any corporations or companies that would like to invest in this project, we would be happy to have their assistance. Our timeline is to have this completed within two years. Phase 1 will be the expansion and turfing of the field, followed by Phase 2, which will be the clearing of the wooded lot for the Athletic Center. We need your help to make this a reality. Phase 3 will ultimately be the building of the indoor facility.

“Magnificent plans succeed when they inspire people and capture what makes the community special”, Randall Morton

Should you be able to contribute to this project in any capacity, please contact us via email, and we will get you on board. We thank you sincerely in advance for your support to the West Orange P.A.L. program. You are helping our community and the youth of West Orange to be the best they can be.

As a non-profit organization, we are happy to provide our Tax ID for anyone who has companies willing to make a tax-exempt donation

More information about Police Athletic League of West Orange Inc (West Orange Police Athletic League): www.wopal.org, Facebook: West Orange PAL, Instagram: WestOrangePAL, Venmo: @WOPAL