Another year of highlights in the books

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff The Brick Memorial girls soccer team put together another championship season this fall, capping one of the most celerated four-year runs in Shore Conference history. When Bill Bruno lifts his glass to toast in the New Year on Saturday night, the athletic director for both Brick Township high schools can look back on a year full of highlights, including a third straight NJSIAA title for the girls bowling team, a trip to the Central Jersey playoff finals for the second time in three years for Brick Memorial football, and a share of the Shore Conference A South for Brick Memorial’s boys basketball team.

It also was a year where the district again was a viable venue for showcase events, including the Ocean-Monmouth All-Star football game and the Shore Conference and Ocean County outdoor track and field championships last spring at Brick Township.

There also was the Shore Conference gymnastics championships for the third straight year at Brick Memorial, with Lindsay Poplaski winning the all-around title. Brick Township also hosted the Monmouth County track and field championships last spring. Brick Memorial on Wednesday again hosts the prestigious Mustang Classic wrestling tournament.

CHRIS KELLY staff Brick Memorial sophomore Andrew Brodeur continued to emerge as one of the Shore’s up-and-coming cross country stars. The township also added two sports at the two high schools — boys lacrosse and girls volleyball. The lacrosse addition is an interesting one, with a parents organization from a club program in town funding the program for its inaugural run in the spring. Girls volleyball will organize in the spring and play a fall schedule.

“One of the biggest surprises was boys basketball at Brick Memorial,” said Bruno. “They won their first-ever A South championship and made a great run through the Shore Conference and the states. It makes things exciting throughout the school.”

Certainly, crowds picked up for both boys basketball teams as Brick Township’s team won only five games but was exciting in losing six games by three or fewer points, and taking Brick Memorial into overtime in another game.

“It all begins with great cooperation with the upper administration and the grounds guys as well as the Board of Education and the athletic department,” said Bruno. “Without all that teamwork, you could not have this.”

And that includes enforcing the drug- and substance-abuse standards for the fourth year of testing. Brick is one of the few districts in the state to implement that standard, and that helped bring to the attention of the state the need to begin formal steroid testing. New Jersey acting Gov. Richard Codey and a task force conducted a study, and Codey last week signed an executive order for random steroid testing for athletes on state championship qualifiers.

“From the athletic department view, I really feel the kids know what we’re doing here at Brick and cooperate,” said Bruno. “They run the risk if they are caught, they’re done. Very few student-athletes have failed our drug-alcohol testing.

“As for steroids, I’ve been on a couple of state panels and I have no problem with testing for that in the schools,” said Bruno. “The problem is the expense, because each test costs over $100. I don’t think the board would approve that.”

The board also in recent years has approved a number of female coaches to fill vacancies in the district, including both high school girls basketball teams and Brick Memorial field hockey. Bruno says there is not a conscious effort to appoint women to coach female athletes, especially considering that Barbara Floyd recently was appointed to return as the boys swim coach at Brick Township.

“I don’t believe that,” said Bruno. “We select the best candidate, male or female. We do want females on our girls teams’ coaching staffs for the sake of locker room [presence] and they are role models. But when girls teams are coached predominantly by men anywhere, I don’t like to see that.”

There were teams that fell short, like Brick Memorial’s football team that lost on the last play of the game to Jackson in the state finals, and Brick Memorial’s girls soccer team that lost its bid for a Group IV state championship with its first loss in 20 games in the Central Jersey section semifinals. Jessica Fuccello, the team’s No. 3 all-time scorer with 95 goals, made first team All-State.

For one of the few times in its history, Brick Township’s football team fell short of making the state playoffs and had only its third losing season ever. Brick Memorial also won the Thanksgiving Day game for the third time in the past four years.

In a twist of fate, Brick Township’s baseball team also missed making the conference and state tournaments for one of the few times in recent years, and coach Tom Webber retired after the season, while Brick Memorial’s baseball team that has struggled in the past made the postseason.

There were teams like the Brick Memorial girls tennis team that had its best season in school history behind state singles qualifier freshman Nicole Esposito, and the Brick Memorial girls cross country team whose third-place finish in the Ocean County championships was the best ever. The Mustangs also qualified for the Shore Conference meet for the first time.

There also was sensational sophomore Andrew Brodeur of the boys team, who finished 23rd in the Meet of Champions and 30th in the Foot Locker Northeast regionals as well as second in the county and third in the Shore Conference meets. Brick Township’s distance medley relay also set a school record in qualifying for the nationals.

Brick Memorial’s girls bowling team finished fourth in the state championships with a young team, while the school’s boys soccer team that Bruno said “came from nowhere” overcame a slow start to surge into the postseason.

John Barrett also came out of nowhere from a third-place finish in the district tournament to a seventh-place finish in the state championships to soften the pain of Brick Memorial’s wrestling team seeing a 19-year reign in District 23 come to an end. Brick Township’s wrestling team also enjoyed a fine 12-6 season.

Also individually, Brick Memorial tennis standout Colin Przybylowski reached the county first singles semifinals as his team made the state tournament for the third year in a row.

Brick Township’s softball team started the season strong, with three impressive victories in a showcase in Orlando, Fla., and ended just as strong to make the Shore Conference and NJSIAA tournaments, while the girls soccer team missed qualifying for the postseason by a game.

There certainly were many memorable moments and standards to measure up for 2006.