South Seaside Park To Remember One Of its Own

He spent his boyhood in Seaside Park. He fished off the docks in Barnegat Bay, swam in the ocean and walked the boards.

He graduated from Central Regional High School and went on to earn two college degrees from Rutgers, one in political science, one in Latin. Then John Lyons enlisted in the Army.

And when he came home in late October, his friends lined the streets to watch the hearse circle slowly around the town he loved, bearing the body of the young man killed in Afghanistan.

Township Council members voted unanimously at the April 24 meeting to honor Lyons by naming the 24th Avenue basketball courts in South Seaside park after him.

Friends have already organized a 5k memorial race for Lyons set for June 2. Jennifer Padovano, who spearheaded the event, asked township officials to rename the courts after Lyons, Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said.

The courts are in poor condition and need to be repaired before the dedication, he said.

"Let's plan to refurbish the courts and make sure all the work gets done prior to June 2," Amato said. "We'll dedicate the courts before the race."

Lyons - a 2003 Central Regional High School graduate - died on Oct. 26 of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 8th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas, according to the Defense Department.

Berkeley Township police, New Jersey State Police and Seaside Park police escorted Lyons' body home from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday.

Lyons was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, NATO medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star and the Overseas, Army Service and National Defense ribbons, according to his obituary on Legacy.com.