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Beloved Ridgefield Park Football Coach Opens Deli

Things have certainly come full circle for Ridgefield Park's Ted Tabasco.

Ted and Kathy Tabasco of Coaches Corner Deli in Ridgefield Park.

Ted and Kathy Tabasco of Coaches Corner Deli in Ridgefield Park.

Photo Credit: Cecilia Levine

The youth football coach and retired North Bergen police officer grew up inside of his parents' shop, Meadowview Sweet Shoppe.

Before he and his wife Kathy had kids, they owned Village Deli on Teaneck Road.

Now that the Scarlets youth football coach has retired and his kids are grown, he has found himself yet again at the helm of his own deli: Coaches Corner Deli on Euclid Avenue.

"It's like an old hat for him," said his wife, Kathy, a Scarlets cheer coach. "The kids he used to coach come running in -- they adore him."

And Tabasco loves them right back.

The drive to help youngsters is what pushed him to become a football coach, and later a police officer.

"If I save one kid from a bad deal," he said, "then I'm doing my job."

"We believe extracurricular activities are just as important as a core curriculum," Kathy added. "It gives them a purpose, you reward what they do and make everyone feel important as the last.

"That's why we still coach."

Coaches Corner Deli, 67 Euclid Ave., Ridgefield Park.

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