Years fall away as girls of BMHS soccer reunite in alumni game
BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI Staff Writer
Fifty former players from Brick Memorial High School's girls soccer program were back on the field at Veterans Memorial Middle School field Saturday to play in the first alumnae game in a decade.

FRANK GALIPO Brick Memorial High School soccer alumni Shannon Plunkett (right) challenges Nicole Taulli for control of the ball at the alumni soccer game at the Veterans Memorial Middle School on June 27.

"I'm old, but I did all right. I didn't need oxygen," said Shannon Plunkett, who went on to play for La Salle University and currently is a sixth-grade language arts and social studies teacher in Haddonfield. She's looking to land a job as a vice principal after recently completing her administrative degree graduate work

"This program has always been about family," she said. "It's a big extended family with our second dad [Brick Memorial coach Bill Caruso]. It's seeing people you grew up with, who you spent your life with."

The participants ranged from Eileen Reilly-Ross and Michelle Caravella — who played in the early 1980s under Hank Handchen — to the current graduates. The June 25 reunion game was played under ideal sunny conditions.

The game pitted women who graduated in odd-numbered years against those who graduated in even years. Players on the oddnumbered team wore gold T-shirts and those on the even-numbered team wore green.

The green team won, 2-1, as Jessica Fuccello (class of 2006), who will be playing her final season at the University of Pennsylvania this fall, scored a goal in each half. Becky Burt of the class of 2003, which won the first of three consecutive state titles in her senior year, struck first for the gold team from short range.

"It was a great day," Caruso said. "The game didn't matter. It was awesome to see all the girls."

Caruso had coached most of the players who participated, having taken over the girls soccer program in 1995. "Some worried about coming, because they hadn't touched a ball. Those players had that 'kill me now' look [as they came off the field]. But it wasn't about that. How lucky I am to have this job."

"We got more players than I expected," said Sara Petraccoro, the secretary in the Brick Memorial High School athletic office, whose daughter Crystal holds the school scoring records from her playing days through her final 1998 season.

"It brings back memories," Crystal said. "It's nice to see some girls I haven't seen since high school. It was a lot of fun. Absolutely."

She said it made her feel proud to be a part of the Mustang program, where she set the bar with 36 goals in a season and 99 in a career. Both are records that still stand.

She is currently a junior varsity coach and varsity assistant for the school's girls soccer and girls basketball programs. "Look at that turnout and all the young girls in the stands who came to watch the game. And to get the younger and older players coming back in like this is great."

Credit Caruso's persistent contact emails from online Facebook files from many of the players that accounted for most of the numbers. The rest came by word of mouth and an early June article in the Bulletin announcing the game.

"Hopefully next year we'll get in contact with more of the older players," Caruso said.

A soundtrack of different songs that had been played for the teams over the years on the public address system provided a nostalgic background during the game.

After the game, the players joined Caruso and his staff and held hands around the circle in the middle of the field. They knelt and kissed the artificial turf, much as the team did last season when the team clinched its second straight Shore Conference A South title, the 11th division title under Caruso.

Ross' daughter MacKenzie is a sophomore looking to play in the program. Caravella's

daughter Jackie was a significant contributor as a sophomore last season.

"When I played, the sport was in the fall, so there was no state tournament," said Ross, the first player to make All-County recognition in her final season in 1982 and one of four players in the game who had her jersey number (4) retired, along with Petraccoro (13), Plunkett (14) and Fuccello (24). "The game is much better. More players are more talented now. They have opportunities I didn't have, with training [programs] and camps. I feel like I missed out on those things, which give a big opportunity to play in college."

"I wish I had this much excitement when I played," said Caravella, who took a lot of photographs during the game.

Ross started her high school career at Brick Township High School, but she was among the many students to move to Brick Memorial when it opened during her junior year.

"When it first opened, there were mixed feelings," Ross said. "It was exciting coming into a new program, but some felt it took away from the older high school, that it could have been stronger if that didn't happen."

But the sport caught on well from the start, finishing around .500 in its first season. It set the foundation for many successful seasons that followed, including four state titles in this decade as well as six state section championships and two Shore Conference titles under Caruso.

"I've been watching them and following the program," Ross said. "It's fun to see them out there, and now I feel old."

And Ross, like nearly all of the players, carried the intensity of a state tournament game as they played hard, despite the warm, humid weather.

"I thought this could be dangerous, because we're all very competitive and we like to win, and the girls still want to score goals," said former goalie Lauren Acosta, who graduated in 2003 and went on to play at Rutgers University. Acosta has been the goalie coach with the Mustangs.

Acosta did not play in the game because she did not want to risk being injured, she said. She was making a presentation the following day for her company, One Collective Soul, which sells military-themed T-shirts and other apparel for the Wound Warriors Project.

"We're like family, but when we're on the field, we still go at each other," Jenn Schweizer said with a laugh.

Schweizer came up with the idea to revive the game after talking to Caruso following a state tournament game last fall.

"It was awesome," she said. "It was great to see everyone on the field wearing green and gold again," said Schweizer, a 2003 graduate who went on to play at Wagner College, where she is pursuing a master's degree in secondary education. "That [playing at Wagner] does not compare to this. I got to play soccer there and made great friends who I'm still in touch with. But at Memorial we are sisters. It's family. There is nothing on Earth like it."

After the game, most of the players went to Caruso's house for a barbecue.

Some who played in the game have spent the ensuing years in faraway places.

Becky Burt was back in Brick for the past month after spending the first five months this year in Oahu, Hawaii, where the Christian ministry group she is involved with, Surfing the Nation, is based. She is heading to Indonesia over the July Fourth weekend with a group of 40 people. She also has been to Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

"I love this," she said of the game. "I didn't take it as seriously when I played as I should. You work so hard all year, and all the work pays off. This feels like a family. Once you're in it, it's always family."

Note: Brick Memorial's soccer camp still is registering players for the week of July 6. For details and to sign up, visit www.mustangsoccrcamp.com.