Max Bell, left, and Kyle Sadreameli, right, join Jake Brenner, Casey Brenner’s cousin and teammate, to present Casey’s Northfield T-Bird home jersey to his parents, John and Lynne Brenner.

NORTHFIELD – Monday was the first night of the 30th annual Northfield Invitational Basketball Tournament. While the stands were filled with fans there to see the Northfield T-Birds girls and boys teams take on the Ventnor Falcons in the first round, many former T-Birds and their friends also jammed the seats at the north end of the gym.

The hometown girls won the first game and the boys captured the second, but the scores were overshadowed by the events held at halftime during the boys game.

Tonight those students who had moved on – some to Mainland, some to Holy Spirit and others to St. Augustine Prep – weren’t Mustangs, Spartans or Hermits. Tonight they were all T-Birds again, and many wore their T-Bird jersey one more time.

The friends and former players came to honor their buddy, Casey Brenner, who was a Northfield T-Bird from 2005-2008. Brenner was one of four Mainland Regional High School students killed in a car crash Aug. 20. The other three were his football teammates Dean Khoury, Nick Carter and Edgar Bozzi.

Brenner’s jersey, number 23, was officially retired Monday night with a short but emotional ceremony.

“Casey loved playing ball here, and he cared about the team even after he was gone,” said Joe Summers, his former basketball coach. “Like a lot of players who graduate and go on to play ball in high school, they will come back their first year during tryouts to see who we pick. But Casey came back his sophomore year, and he even came back when he was a junior,” said the coach.

He said Brenner loved the team, and retiring his jersey would be a fitting way to remember him.

Brenner’s parents, Lynne and John Brenner, and his brother Ryan hugged and thanked every one of the former players for honoring their boy by retiring his jersey.

“Casey really loved it here. He was at home when he was in the gym playing ball,” said his mother, an eighth-grade teacher at the Northfield Community School.

Both the blue home jersey and the white away jersey were framed and presented to the Brenner family.

Northfield T-Bird coach Joe Summers speaks to the crowd gathered at halftime to retire the jersey of former player Casey Brenner. From left are Brenner’s former teammates Ted Mazzeo, Bill Wilcox, Pat Kugel, P.J. Mussa, Alex DaNafo, Dominick Palmieri, Max Bell, Jake Brenner, Kyle Sadreameli and Joe Sutor, former coach Dan Kern and Middle School Principal Maria Caiafa.