Brick football players stay active in off-season
BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

The start of football practice is nearly three months away, but many players from last season's Brick Township team are very much involved with the sport in different ways these days.

Two more players have decided on colleges where they will continue their careers, including A.J. Perrotti, a wide receiver who is heading to Gettysburg, and two-way lineman Nick Cusanelli, who is joining his quarterback (Bill Winters) at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison.

Perrotti, who caught three touchdown passes for last year's 4-6 team that blasted East Brunswick, 35-13, in an NJSIAA consolation game, was among five players from the Green Dragons team honored by the Shore Conference Football Association as scholar-athletes at Gibbs Hall in Fort Monmouth.

"The thing is I'll be able to play in my freshman and sophomore years there and it's a great academic school," said Perrotti of his decision to go Gettysburg, an NCAA Division III program coming off a .500 season where he plans to major in economics. "I love the coaches and the incoming players. It was a real warm welcoming. I'm starting to train and to get in good shape over the next three weeks."

What he'll do to help his conditioning, said Perrotti, is to work as a lifeguard for the first time at Brick Beach 3.

"Speed is the No. 1 thing; you have to get faster for the next level, especially on those short pass patterns," said Perrotti, who also visited The College of New Jersey, Delaware and Hamilton as well as Penn State, and said he also was "really considering Fairleigh Dickinson [of Florham Park] because two of my teammates are going there."

He also was accepted by those schools as well as Hartwick, Dickinson and Rutgers.

Also honored from Brick Township at the Shore Football Coaches scholar-athlete event, in its 11th year, were linemen Steve Glowacki, Joe Fortino and Jeff Person, and wingback Michael Gorman. To earn the award, athletes must maintain a B average through their high school years midway through their senior year, and must be recommended by their school principal and guidance counselor. Glowacki, who also is enjoying an outstanding season on the school's first-ever boys varsity lacrosse team as the top scorer with 29 goals, plans to attend Ocean County Community College in the fall.

"It's amazing, the many boys who play the game of football, and the many hundreds in attendance at this event," said Brick Township coach Warren Wolf of the scholar-athlete event.

Three players are expected to be selected for the annual Ocean-Monmouth All-Star football game scheduled for July 14 at Middletown South High School - defensive halfback Sean McPherson, Cusanelli and Winters. Selections have not yet been completed, but players who make either first or second team All-Shore or make their all-division teams qualify.

Calvin Thompson, Point Pleasant Borough head coach who served as an assistant for last year's Ocean All-Star team, is the head coach for the team.

Many returning players in the Shore, particularly the leading players, will participate on June 10 at the Shore Conference Coaches Combine that will be run by Thompson at Shore Christian Academy in Wall Township. Unlike other combines that carry expensive fees, this one charges $15 a player. They will participate in physical tests and the results will be posted online, along with their academic assessment, to gain the attention of college recruiters.

Wolf, who goes into the 2006 season with a 345-108-11 record after 48 seasons, says many of his players are participating in other sports in the off-season, but those who are not are participating in a lifting program run by assistant coach Len Zdanowicz. There are two sessions - one at 5:30 a.m. for boys who can not make the after-school session at 2:15 because they have jobs.

"The skills the boys learn in other sports they play can be utilized in football as well, and those who do not play other sports are participating very well in the lifting program," said Wolf.

Wolf is pleased with the players' good off-season dedication in preparation for a demanding schedule this fall, which includes six teams that made the NJSIAA playoffs last season - Howell, Southern, Toms River North, Manalapan and Shore Conference Constitution Division co-champions Lacey and Brick Memorial. Brick Township again will play Brick Memorial in the annual Thanksgiving Day crosstown rivalry that Brick Memorial leads, 18-5-1, which included Memorial's 35-22 victory in last year's exciting game.

Brick Township returns to the Constitution Division after three seasons, winning the title in its last year there. It starts its season Sept. 8 at Middletown North in a division game and also plays division games against Lacey, Howell, Manalapan, Toms River South and Colts Neck, which will be the first meeting ever between the two schools. The nonconference foes include Southern, Toms River North and Brick Memorial, with the latter team reaching the NJSIAA Central Jersey championship game for the second time in three seasons.

Wolf feels his team can take on the challenge with an estimated 70 candidates expected to come out from the 10th- through 12th-graders, based on interest shown at meetings and in off-season conditioning programs.

Notes... Seven Brick Memorial players, led by third-year starting quarterback Chris James, made the NJSIAA Group III Central Jersey championship finalist team, were selected to play in the Ocean-Monmouth All-Star football game that will be played on July 14 at Middletown South High School.

James, who is headed to The College of New Jersey is joined from the 10-2 team that finished as co-champion of the Shore Conference Constitution Division by wide receiver Mike LePore, center Joe D'Amato, two-way lineman Ben Deacon, offensive lineman/linebacker John Canalay, wide receiver John Rutowski and tight end/defensive end Steve Avon.