Players aren't the only ones hustling

It's the busiest month of the entire year at the athletic departments of Brick Memorial and Brick Township for their postseason tournament qualifiers and football teams, which are still playing this week, and for preparing for the winter season where practices have begun for hockey, bowling and swimming.

The rest begins on Friday, including new Brick Township boys and girls basketball coaches — former Howell head coach Kevin Gardner with the boys and longtime girls basketball and track and field assistant Kristi McCullough with the girls.

It's a job at both athletic departments made a bit harder in a month interrupted (and also enhanced in football) by this week's Thanksgiving break.

While both athletic departments agree that it's the busiest time, both athletic directors feel their efforts would fall short if not for the supportive day-to-day efforts by the two secretaries in the departments, Sara Petraccoro at Brick Memorial and Margaret Reddan at Brick Township.

"Absolutely," said Brick Township Athletic Director Rick Handchen, who initially recommended saluting the efforts of both women in a story in the Bulletin and getting an enthusiastic endorsement from colleague Bill Bruno at Brick Memorial. "I couldn't do what I do on the job without Margaret."

It means handling the medical and academic paperwork for about 350 different athletes at Brick Township, many playing more than one sport, according to Handchen, whose team has an NJSIAA Group III classification.

Bruno looks at it in terms of roster spots and his larger school, which as a Group IV enrollment accounts for 877 spots.

"If the fall teams are successful, as it has been for my seven years, going into the tournaments, the longer we play into November. And we're handling bids for the athletic programfor next [school] year now," said Bruno. "Sara and Margaret are instrumental in so many ways, starting with the pleasant and professional way they take so many phone calls every day to the work that they do."

Bruno knows about the efforts at both schools, since for five years he oversaw both athletic departments until the Board of Education divided the responsibilities a year ago.

"Fall is our busiest season just because of the sheer numbers of athletes playing football," said Petraccoro.

Ask both women about the measure of their contributions, and they humbly deflect the question.

"It's really not about what we do; it's the students and what Rick and Bill do," said Reddan. "They're the ones that make sure everything is run right."

But it is both women who put everything into place, including making sure all athletes are academically eligible and medically cleared by their doctors for physicals and inseason injuries, being sure all of the necessary equipment and uniforms are supplied, being sure the playing fields and gyms are ready and that postponements are properly handled, arranging the buses for away games, and ensuring that officials for home games are set. And they help gather paperwork from applicants for coaching positions that open, and help athletes recruited by colleges in any way they can with the process. They also help freshmen and transfers get familiar and comfortable with their new surroundings.

It's work that extends for many hours each school day — and many long days — and goes into the summer months as both women carefully select their brief summer vacations for when the workload is not as heavy.

"We always work a season ahead," said Petraccoro, which explains the heavy burden of responsibilities these days as athletes for winter sports are checked and cleared to play while fall sports are concluded and equipment is packed away.

But both will tell you they don't do it alone, and that their offices exemplify the same focus on teamwork that the coaches stress to their student-athletes.

"It's not just what we do here at Brick but what we do with Memorial as part of the same district," said Reddan. "We have to stay in touch with our coaches and the assistants. Within our office and with both schools, it's a team effort.

"Even though we are in separate schools, we work together and hopefully we are helpful with each other's problems we may come across. And we share our resources. For example, we send our gymnasts over to Brick Memorial to work on their spring floor at times. We keep a good relationship with the student-athletes and coaches at both schools."

And it is their work in assembling the rosters that go toward the district's substance abuse monitoring program that randomly selects per cycle 3 percent of student-athletes and students who drive to school, a program that has become a model around the state.

For Reddan, her free time also is divided in following her three children, who are in college — two of them playing sports. Erin excels in cross country and distance running for the indoor and outdoor track and field teams at Virginia Tech, where Margaret Reddan and her husband graduated, and son Dan is the captain of Rowan University's basketball team. Son Tim has started his college career at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, which is near many of his relatives, and Margaret traveled with him in August to help him move into his campus room.

"I get down to Virginia Tech and go to at least one meet [each season] and to some basketball games [for Dan]," said Reddan.

But those travels will be lightened, since Erin and Dan are completing their college athletic eligibility this school year.

It's no wonder there are times the staffs at both offices may daydream about the more relaxing spring cycle, when it's one season of work and a cushion of a few months of time to prepare for the next fall season when the frantic pace of athletic events begins again.