Field named for PAL program coach and mentor Tome

Snapshot%202009-07-13%2010-12-17.jpg
Officer Bill Tome has been the director of the Boynton Beach Police Department’s Police Athletic League program for more than 22 years, coaching children in basketball and football.

Tome has planned to retire next May.

Last week, during the PAL Football Camp with the Pros, the Ezell Hester Center’s football field and scoreboard was renamed the Bill Tome Sports Complex, 1901 N. Seacrest Blvd.

Boynton Beach Police Officer Rick Lauture initiated and sought approval from the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission for the dedication.

Lauture said Tome went into the community, took children off of the streets and put them in a place that allowed them to grow and develop.

Tome began his career with the Boynton Beach Police Department in 1987, serving five years as a road patrol officer before being assigned the task of creating Recreation Athletics and Police, which later became the Police Athletic League.

Mike Rumph a retired NFL defensive back played on PAL’s inaugural football team and started a camp seven years ago as a way of giving back to the program that helped him achieve his dream of playing in the pros.

Rumph said that Tome was more than a friend but that he showed him there were more to life than what they saw on the streets.

Mike Rothman can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com.

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

To help keep spam off our site, please enter the letter "b" in the field below:

About This Blog

Mike Rothman
Mike Rothman graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Management. He grew up in South Florida and has been back working here since July 2006. Mike wrote for numerous publications previously including the Gainesville Sun, GatorBait Magazine and Inspin.com, where he was the NBA Expert.

When Mike is not hitting the streets of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach looking for stories, he can be found playing sports or spending time with friends.

He also enjoys provoking his fellow Hometown Downtown columnist, Dave DiPino, for the sake of good stories, of course. He can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com or at 954-871-1233.