Jack Del Rio scores for community with bocce tournament
FREMONT, Calif. — On a court sporting banners for such company sponsors as Bud Light, Lincoln Financial Group and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, a bocce ball match designed to blend philanthropy with fun inevitably added a third element Tuesday.
It became competitive.
Jack Del Rio’s six-man team called The Breakfast Club, composed mostly of fellow Raiders coaches, needed a win to stay eligible for advancement from its tournament pool group. Their opponent hailed from nearby Hayward High, Del Rio’s alma mater.
“Coach (Justin) Redemer, I told him, ‘If you make this next throw, I’m gonna have to take back that check I’m about to give you,’” Del Rio said of the school’s varsity football coach. “He was like, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘No, just kidding.’”
Nearly 200 tournament participants and other attendees filled Campo di Bocce, a South Bay restaurant with indoor and outdoor bocce courts, to raise money for local causes. Such an event is the sort that one day will benefit the Las Vegas community when the Raiders relocate to Las Vegas. That is currently scheduled to occur in time for the 2020 NFL season.
This event benefited the athletic programs of all three public high schools in Hayward — Hayward High, Mt. Eden High and Tennyson High — as well as the NorCal Special Olympics and the Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Athletic League. Tickets were sold out for the first-annual event.
A live auction was held, too, and donations were accepted. Among the auction items, dinner with Del Rio and wife Linda went for $10,000.
A couple dozen Raiders players, including quarterback Derek Carr, defensive end Khalil Mack, kicker Giorgio Tavecchio and largely the entire rookie class, appeared at the event. So did celebrity chef and renown Raiders fan Guy Fieri. He and former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci were teammates on a squad named “Da Salames.”
Overall, the day was regarded a success. But The Breakfast Club must wait until next year.
Offensive coordinator Todd Downing, assistant head coach/defense John Pagano, linebackers coach Sal Sunseri and offensive line coach Mike Tice helped form Del Rio’s squad. They opened with a 4-2 loss to Barons Legacy and ceded a late comeback to Hayward High in an 8-7 defeat. Mack stepped in and took some quality turns in the final match, an 8-3 win over Cordella RV Center, but Del Rio’s team needed to win a previous match to continue play beyond then.
The Jack Del Rio Foundation-hosted tournament never was about winning.
“This particular event was about raising money locally and giving it away locally,” Del Rio said.
The exact total of proceeds was not immediately available, a Raiders spokesman said.
Contact reporter Michael Gehlken at mgehlken@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GehlkenNFL on Twitter.