By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Connor Barwin took a big swing – and missed.
He groaned in frustration, but also smiled while looking at his wife, Laura, who shook her head in amusement and laughed at her husband’s flub.
During his 10-year NFL career as a linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles and three other teams, Barwin spent a lot of time chasing down opposing quarterbacks.
Although his NFL career has ended, he is still showing off his athletic skills these days – in this case, chasing after plastic balls that he swats at with a paddle while playing pickleball with his wife.
On a sultry Saturday at the shore, Barwin was in Sea Isle City for a second year in a row to host a fundraising pickleball tournament benefiting his Make The World Better Foundation, a nonprofit organization that builds recreation centers and playgrounds in distressed neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
The tournament was expected to raise $70,000, more than double the amount from last year.
“I think it speaks about the generosity of the people here and the fact that they want to be part of something so positive,” Barwin said in an interview just before he took to the pickleball court with Laura.
Barwin’s competitive drive was still evident Saturday. He roamed the pickleball court like a linebacker hunting down a quarterback. However, not all of his swings with the paddle connected with the ball. The misses elicited some laughs and some groans from both Barwin and his wife.
All of Sea Isle’s seven pickleball courts on 42nd Place were filled with players for the tournament. Reflecting the success of the event, it sold out of slots for individual teams and also attracted 30 sponsors.
Mary Corcoran-Pomichter and her granddaughter, Pratigya Hornik, got to spend some quality time together while playing in the tournament. They are from Philadelphia and have a summer vacation home in Sea Isle on 47th Street.
“It’s good. We get to do something unusual together,” Hornik said of having her grandmother as her pickleball partner.
“It’s the best part of being a grandmother,” Corcoran-Pomichter added. “We’re doing great things together in this beautiful town.”
Adding star power to the tournament, several former and current Philadelphia Eagles were on hand, including retired safety and fan favorite Malcolm Jenkins, retired defensive end and linebacker Trent Cole and placekicker Jake Elliott.
Barwin spent four seasons with the Eagles from 2013 to 2016. He is currently working in the Eagles front office as the head of football development and strategy.
Barwin, raised in Detroit, is passionate about giving back to the community. He credits his giving-back sensibilities to his family upbringing.
MTWB, short for Make The World Better, is an acronym inspired by his parents’ names, Margaret and Thomas William Barwin.
When Barwin came to Philadelphia to play with the Eagles, he and his mother founded MTWB. Barwin met Jeff Tubbs, who had an organization called Urban Roots, and they decided to merge their efforts to develop recreation facilities and playgrounds in underserved areas of Philadelphia under the MTWB umbrella.
MTWB “believes that all communities prosper when all people have access to high-quality, accessible, fun places to gather,” according to the charity’s website.
One of MTWB’s centerpiece projects is the $21 million Vare Recreation Center under development in Southwest Philadelphia.
Vince D’Ambrosio, a Sea Isle resident and owner of the consulting firm Castle & Associates, is supervising the contractors and overseeing details of the Vare Recreation Center project.
D’Ambrosio spoke of the importance of the pickleball tournament and Sea Isle’s role in raising money for the Vare Recreation Center and other MTWB projects.
“Every dollar we raise goes back into the community, and that’s great,” he said.
Barwin, meanwhile, is not the only former Eagle who relies on Sea Isle as a fundraising venue. Jason Kelce, the newly retired former All-Pro and Pro-Bowl Eagles center, will hold his annual fundraiser next Wednesday in Sea Isle at the Ocean Drive bar and sister property O’Donnell’s Pour House to benefit the Eagles Autism Foundation.
