By CHRIS CHRISTOPHER
Jamar Small’s memory lives.
The Asbury Park High School football program will honor Small, the former Blue Bishops’ standout who was murdered in the city last Dec. 20.
“We will have a scholarship fund in his name,” coach Tim Fosque said. “We will probably award a couple of scholarships to our senior players.”
Small was a volunteer assistant coach with the Blue Bishops last fall.
“He was due to come on our staff this season,” said Fosque, who is in his second season as the team’s mentor. “He was an Asbury Park kid. He was a standout football player who played college ball and earned his degree. He raised the standards for Asbury Park kids. Our kids face the challenge of not only getting into college, but completing college. All kinds of people from the neighborhood looked up to him–from the little kids through the adults.
“Jamar was a very outgoing kind of a guy with a big personality. He was a jokester with a serious nature when it came time to mentor kids. He had a serious side about him. He attended every game and every practice.”
Small was slain at the age of 24. He led the Blue Bishops to their third straight NJSIAA sectional title in 2009 and graduated from Asbury Park in 2010. He earned a business degree from Texas Southern University in Houston in December of 2014. While in school, he often came back to Asbury Park to spend time with his son and work with the Blue Bishops.
Small was Asbury Park’s starting quarterback in 2009 when it captured its third straight Central Jersey Group I championship and went 11-1. Small passed for 1,447 yards and 19 touchdowns. He rushed for 532 yards and six touchdowns. Small, who starred as a defensive back, also played basketball.
Small attended Dean College in Franklin, Mass., before transferring to Texas Southern where he received a scholarship.
Small helped Texas Southern win the Labor Day Classic against Prairie View A&M University for the first time in years. In 2014 at Texas Southern, his redshirt senior season, he passed for 904 yards and eight touchdowns and rushed for 202 yards and two touchdowns in 11 games.
