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ABOUT THE COVER
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here is nothing more devastating to a high school student than losing a parent to a sudden death. Something like that can emotionally crush a teenager, and some student-athletes who lose a parent during their high school days never recover from such a tragedy. In the case of Holy Spirit sophomore K.J. Sherman, he used the death of his father, Ken, in January as motivation, and went on a thrilling postseason run that ended at Atlantic City’s famed Boardwalk Hall. Sherman is the only child of Ken and Jeanette Sherman, their pride and joy, and when Ken unexpectedly passed away the first week of January, suddenly K.J.’s father, mentor and best friend were gone. But he didn’t give up, winning two dramatic bouts at the Region 8 Championships at Egg Harbor Township High in late February to punch his ticket to the NJSIAA Championships. Flip over to page 10 to read his story. Dave O’Sullivan, Publisher
GLORY DAYS MAGAZINE General contact: 609-788-4294/advertising@acglorydays.com Dave O’Sullivan, Publisher: sully@acglorydays.com On Twitter: @GDsullysays Giuseppe Ungaro, Managing Editor: gungaro@acglorydays.com On Twitter: @GDgisepu Amy D’Adamo, Graphic Design: advertising@acglorydays.com Bill Lynskey, Director of Advertising: bill@acglorydays.com STORY IDEAS/ADVERTISING: Have a story you’d like to see told in Glory Days Magazine? Want to get your business noticed with a marketing campaign at glorydaysonline.com? Call us anytime at 609-788-4294. Volume: 7 Issue: 10 Overall Issue Number: 144. Cover Photography: Dave O’Sullivan 2020 Glory Days Magazine. All rights reserved.
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MAKING HEADLINES Sully takes a closer look at the athletes, coaches and teams who are generating news and highlights in the Cape-Atlantic League and throughout South Jersey.
u Pause button: The NJSIAA basketball state championships and
Tournament of Champions were canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and now the fate of the spring sports season is in limbo. Most schools in the Cape-Atlantic League have closed until at least April 20, and the NJSIAA recently put out a statement that it will do everything possible to save some portion of spring sports. For now, the entire South Jersey high school sports community is in a state of flux, with athletes having to work out on their own in the hopes that something of a season can be salvaged. u One of the best: Ryan Smith, health and physical education teacher at Egg Harbor Township High, followed up his 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year award with another honor this week, as he was named to Atlantic City Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40 list. Smith, a three-time Press of Atlantic City boys track coach of the year, has built the Eagles’ indoor and outdoor track teams into one of the best in South Jersey. Congrats, coach!
glory days digital Want the best high school sports coverage every day of the week? Visit glorydaysonline.com for game coverage, features and more! You can also like us at facebook.com/acglorydays/, and follow Sully on Twitter @GDsullysays. Get the best. Every day.
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VELOCITY IS KING In the world of college recruiting, guys who can throw the ball hard move to the top of the list By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer aseball purists like to wax poetic about watching former Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux paint the corners with wizardry and spin complete games in less than 100 pitches. The realists of today’s high school baseball recruiting understand, however, that pitchers who throw 82 milesper-hour and get a bunch of ground ball outs simply aren’t in high demand. These days, velo is king. Velo, meaning velocity. College coaches are, more and more, looking for guys who can light up the radar gun. It’s simply the evolution of the game of baseball. The downside of this new trend in the sport is the dramatic increase in arm injuries, particularly ulnar collateral ligament, or Tommy John, surgery. In Major League Baseball, as of 2018, more than 25 percent of the league’s pitchers had undergone the surgery, and in 2017 nearly 87 percent of all games played featured at least one pitcher who had the surgery. High school pitchers between the ages of 15 and 19 are even more susceptible to arm injuries. “Twenty or thirty years ago, you might have had 10,000 guys across the country throwing 90, and now we have 40 guys within 30 miles, so you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of guys throwing that hard,” said Mike Adams, a former Holy Spirit star who now runs Baseball Performance Center in Pleasantville, along with former St. Augustine Prep outfielder Ed Charlton. “The numbers are higher, so obviously the injuries are going to be higher as well. When you are throwing a baseball you’re always at a risk for injury, so our goal is to minimize that risk as best we can. People think (injuries) might just be a problem in their area, but MLB organizations have the best staff, the best doctors, trainers — the best everything — and they have 25 guys a year getting Tommy John surgery. There is no answer to it, but it’s just trying to take whatever steps you can to stop it.” What people don’t understand about Maddux, Adams said, is that when he first came up to the big leagues he was a power pitcher. He mastered his control and became so good at fooling hitters with
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Glory Days file photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Mainland’s Chase Petty, who began to throw in the low 90s as a sophomore last spring, parlayed his newfound velocity into a scholarship offer from the University of Florida last fall. spin and location, that’s what he became known for throughout much of the latter half of his career. “People always talk about Greg Maddux and Bartolo Colon. Greg Maddux threw 97 in his prime and Colon threw 100. Those guys threw hard and learned how to pitch like that, they didn’t get (to the majors) by throwing 82, which is something I think people miss. Velocity is not the only thing that’s important. Velocity is important and command is important, we’re not saying one is more important than the other, you need both. But velocity definitely matters,” Adams said. “If you look up Bartolo Colon in the 1999 All-Star Game, he was throwing 100 miles per hour. He learned how to pitch like that after 15 years in the bigs. He didn’t get there by throwing 83. “When you get to college you have to be close to a finished product,” Adams continued. “They’re not going to give a scholarship to a kid who is going to
be a project. If you’re a kid who spots the ball up well but only throws 83, you’re not going to get a scholarship offer and hope to turn into 93 with good command. Colleges are looking for tools. Sometimes you get a guy who throws hard but is wild, and they get to college and get 40 games under their belt and figure out how to pitch and throw strikes.” Charlton agrees. He said BPC’s goal when it comes to pitchers is to get them to throw harder, but also to accomplish increased velocity in the safest ways. “This is the direction the game is going. Everything is faster, guys throw harder, so what are you going to do, just not throw hard? We deal with it with the college guys, their coaches want guys who throw harder, so what are we supposed to do, not allow guys to throw harder because it might put them at
See Velocity, page 9
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 9 Velocity, from page 6 risk? That’s why you just take all the precautionary measures you can. It’s just the way the game is going. Everything is faster. Watch a big league game, every guy coming out of the bullpen is throwing 95-plus. It’s insane. Before, you might have had 10 guys in the league who could do that, now every team has 10 guys who can do that. It’s just the way the game is going. It’s not that we’re pushing it, but guys watch the guys on TV and they are like, ‘wow, this guy throws gas. I want to throw hard,’” he said. “That’s the way to get your foot in the door now. It’s not can you go out and throw a complete game and get guys out. That will get you somewhere, maybe, but to really get your foot in the door you have to show you can throw it.” It may not be what parents of high school players want to hear, but being able to throw hard is huge when it comes to college recruiting. College baseball teams typically have only around 10 full scholarships to divide among 25 rostered players, and a good portion of that scholarship money — just like in college softball — is going to pitchers. “For college coaches, it’s easier to teach a guy command and how to pitch. You only have four years and a limited number of days to work with him, so they are like, OK, let’s get this guy who is big and throws hard and work with him from there instead of saying, OK, let’s get this guy who throws 82 and hopefully we can get him up 10 miles an hour in a year. That’s a big ask. It takes time to build velocity,” Charlton said. Baseball Performance Center is doing everything it can to educate high school pitchers on how to stay as healthy as possible, and to that end they have brought on Dr. Ryan Buccafurni, a physical therapist who operates Integrity Physical Therapy’s office in Northfield. “I know injuries are going to happen, and we’re taking an objective, scientific approach to try to minimize it. That being said, injuries are going to happen. The biggest predictor of elbow surgery is velocity. If a kid throws hard, there’s a chance for UCL surgery. We’re trying to take the best research we know to help minimize that risk. Unfortunately, injuries happen and they are not 100 percent preventable,” Buccafurni said. “Using science and the research that is out there, we’re using data and we’re making plans based on data and science. In the old days they were using their gut and what they thought was right. Real vs. feel, we talk about that all the time. As long as we’re using the data and making the best choices we can based on science. That’s where Mike takes the lead. I’m trying to make sure they have the shoulder and spine mobility to be able to get them to do what Mike wants them to do.” Buccafurni said training facilities like BPC have to deal with backlash from parents who sometimes may
Glory Days file photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Jack Leiter, currently a freshman at Vanderbilt University, was throwing in the mid- to upper-90s last spring when he helped lead Delbarton to a win over St. Augustine Prep in the Non-Public A state championship game.
“For college coaches, it’s easier to teach a guy command and how to pitch. You only have four years and a limited number of days to work with him, so they are like, OK, let’s get this guy who is big and throws hard and work with him from there instead of saying, OK, let’s get this guy who throws 82 and hopefully we can get him up 10 miles an hour in a year. That’s a big ask. It takes time to build velocity.”
Ed Charlton of Baseball Performance Center
be quick to blame the facility if their child does end up with an arm injury. But Buccafurni said that reaction is misguided. “I think there is a myth that if a kid gets hurt they look at the training facility like it’s their fault. But nobody looks at how the kid was managed since he was 6 years old to age 16, and if a kid has to get Tommy John surgery at 17, oh, it must be because of the fa-
cility he trains at. I think it’s very simplistic to blame the facility and I don’t think that’s fair,” he said. “I know that goes on in the community because I hear it, but it’s not fair. There are so many factors that can contribute, it’s not a facility that’s trying to take all measure possible to keep these kids safe.” The reality of the future of high school baseball recruiting, Charlton said, is that college coaches will be looking more and more for guys who can throw the ball hard. That’s evidenced by a kid like Mainland junior Chase Petty, who last fall, after he starting hitting close to 95 miles-per-hour this past summer, received a scholarship offer to the University of Florida, and is now squarely on the radar of every Major League Baseball team. “We talk about where the game is going, as a hitter, if you stand in the box and have a choice between two guys to hit off of — a guy who throws 100 or a guy who throws 88 — who are you picking? You’d rather hit off a guy who throws 88 every time no matter how much his ball moves or how much he pounds the zone,” Charlton said. “It’s still a way more comfortable at-bat rather than facing a guy who throws 98. Coming from that side of it, velocity matters.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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VIC’S SUBS COVER STORY
Never count him out
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Less than eight weeks after the sudden death of his father, Holy Spirit’s K.J. Sherman won two miraculous bouts at regions to earn a trip to Atlantic City and the state championships By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer hen current Holy Spirit 138-pounder K.J. Sherman was born, he arrived early. The only child of Ken and Jeanette Sherman of Galloway weighed in at a whopping two pounds, four ounces, and spent two months in the intensive care unit at the hospital before his parents were able to take him home.
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It seems Sherman has been defying the odds his entire life. So it should come as no surprise that he did just that at this year’s Region 8 Championships at Egg Harbor Township High School in late February. Sherman was one bout away from being eliminated, and was trailing 8-1 in that bout, against St. Augustine Prep’s Trey McLeer. A loss meant an end to the 17-year-old’s sophomore campaign, but a win would qualify him for the NJSIAA state championship at
Boardwalk Hall the first weekend of March. Sherman somehow fought his way back to force overtime, then scored a pin in the overtime period to put himself into the third-place bout. There, he was trailing good friend Ryan Figueroa, a senior from Hammonton, in the waning seconds before scoring a late takedown to pull out a 6-5 victory. Sherman had
See Sherman, page 11
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 11 Sherman, from page 10 taken third in the region less than eight weeks after his father died suddenly at age 56. “This day has been pretty good, but hectic. My second match I was down 8-1, I hit a roll-through cradle and tied it up, rode him on top the second period, and in the third period I rode him out again. In the overtime, it was the same thing, a roll-through cradle and I pinned him. The next match was a little more on my nerves. The first time he got a shot it was kind of my fault, I wasn’t really awake. But I was able to persevere and come back. I said to myself, ‘I can’t give up now. My father just passed away not too long ago and I’m trying to respect his name and make it back to states,’” Sherman said after that final day of regions. “(My dad) was on my mind that whole match. That first takedown (Figueroa) got on me, I knew it was going to be tough. But I feel awesome. I feel like I can make a name for myself this year.” Sherman certainly did make a name for himself at states, picking up the first victory there of his career after qualify-
ing as a freshman and going 0-2. Sherman, who came into states as the No. 16 seed, beat No. 17 Nicholas Stampoulos of Brearley/Dayton, pinning him with 18 seconds left in the third period after a topsy-turvy bout that saw Sherman take a late 12-11 lead before locking up a cradle for the pin. Sherman than lost to the top seed, Jacob Perez-Eli of Paulsboro, 7-2, and lost a 4-3 heartbreaker to Seton Hall Prep’s Conner Decker in the wrestlebacks. He finished his season with a 31-10 record. “His dad is smiling in heaven, there’s no doubt about it. He has a lot of heart and has a gas tank that won’t quit. He can go six minutes hard. He’s just a great kid with a lot of desire to win,” Holy Spirit coach Ralph Paolone said after Sherman’s final two wins at regions. “I’ve known that family for a long time. His dad and I could talk wrestling for hours at a time. It’s difficult. I’m sure he’s looking for his dad and I’m sure when it first happened he was listening for that voice in the stands. But I think he feels the most normal and the most at home when he’s on the mat.” Wrestling is all about overcoming.
Overcoming weight, the pain and grind a high school kid has to put his body through the entire year, fatigue. It is not a sport for the mentally weak. And Sherman’s mental toughness was severely tested this season. In early January, Ken Sherman contracted a staph infection, and in just a few days he had passed away. It was a shock to the system for a young man who, no matter what happened on the wrestling mat, always had his father and best friend in his corner, rooting him on. “They love this sport. He’s had more than 100 matches from the end of last year to now, they go to Penn State matches. After our matches they drive to Penn State and he’ll get a practice in after their matches. He just loves this sport,” Paolone said. “It’s a terribly tough thing and it’s been a tough season for him. I think he’s always had it in him. He’s digging deep now, but he’s always had it.” “My husband died (in early January) and for us it was about K.J. doing what he wanted to do, no matter what. He’s wrestled so hard — he had 100 matches in the summer, my husband took him everywhere to make sure he was
ready for the season because he knew he was going to have a tough weight class. He’s had good opponents, just great, respectful opponents. Ryan Figueroa, they’ve been friends and have wrestled in the same rooms together, so it was really nice to see them wrestle each other with respect. It was just beautiful to see that he didn’t give up,” Jeanette Sherman said. “When he lost (in the second round of regions) it was tough for him to gulp up, he didn’t know if his emotions were about losing or about grieving — he hasn’t really had time to grieve because things happened so fast. He wanted to do it for his dad, and he pulled it out in the last two matches, miraculously. They were both nail-biters and I know he had my husband in his heart, and his coaches and teammates motivating him. It was a utopian finish for him at regionals with everything that has happened.” Sherman’s mother said she was fully prepared for K.J.’s season to end after a loss to Kingsway’s Finnegan McFadden in the second round of regions, and seeing her son trailing by a large
See Sherman, page 13
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 13 Sherman, from page 11 amount in the wrestleback against McLeer. But somehow K.J. summoned the inner strength he needed to punch his ticket to Atlantic City. “When he was down 7-1 at the end of the second period, I said to myself, ‘you know what? We’re OK. We’re going to go home, we’re going to grieve and I’m going to give him time to take off before we go back to wrestling.’ But when he pulled it out in the last few seconds I was so happy for him. What it took for him to pull that out, tied up, 8-8, and then win in overtime — I knew that was all heart. It was beyond skill, I knew that was what he wanted in his heart, and he accomplished that. I was so happy for him. I was beyond happy for him,” she said. “It helps me continue to be able to say to him that everything you put into this is what you get out of it. As a parent, I was very worried. Wrestling is very mental, and for him to overcome the grieving of his dad, his best friend — his everything — and go in and have to wrestle so many tough matches, I was very scared for him. At that point I was
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Sherman, still just a sophomore, went 31-10 this season and advanced to the NJSIAA state championships at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall for the second straight season. only worried about his mental state and him doing what he wanted to do, and I was going to support him no matter what. The fact that he won told me this is what he wanted. He was able to accomplish that, and that was huge.”
K.J. admitted it wasn’t always easy to stay focused on wrestling during the postseason tournaments, but he knew he still had his dad in his corner, if only in spirit now. “It’s very sad. Every now and then
I’ll just bust out crying,” he said. “But, all this hard work, he helped me through this and he’s been leading me this way ever since I was little. I might not have known it then, but I appreciate it so much more now. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am right now, at all.” Jeanette said she has seen her baby boy grow into a young man, and she saw a lot about his mental makeup in the span of just two matches at regions. And she knows that as difficult as it may be to let her husband, and K.J.’s father, go, she said she knows it’s now her son’s time to shine. “His dad was his best friend. They’ve been together literally every day for the last 17 years,” she said. “We’ve always babied him and done everything for him, but he’s had to step up now. He doesn’t hear that voice over his shoulder that he always did. He has to have his own voice now. He doesn’t have my husband’s voice, that he always trusted. He had to do it for himself, and he did it.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Grace Gallagher, Mainland girls swimming
Showing Grace and leadership Gallagher went from novice to undisputed team leader during high school swimming career By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer hen current Mainland Regional senior Grace Gallagher decided to try high school swimming for the first time four years ago, it didn’t go very well. To say she felt like a fish out of water would be an understatement. “I learned how to swim the summer going into high school. One of the girls on the team taught me how to dive in, how to flip turn. I didn’t know how to swim at all. It looked like I was drowning, basically,” Gallagher said. “I never thought I could make it this far in swimming. To be able to see my progress in this sport is really fulfilling.” Gallagher’s ascension in the sport the past four years has been remarkable. She has gone not only from a kid who could barely swim to a Meet of Champions qualifier, but she’s also developed into one of the best team leaders coach Mike Schiavo has had during his tenure. “She’s been awesome. I was so proud of her for getting her state cuts. She’s always been a great contributor and a hard worker,” said star junior
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See Gallagher, page 17
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Senior Grace Gallagher helped lead the Mainland Regional girls swimming team to a 13-1 record and a Cape-Atlantic League American Conference title this year.
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March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 17 Gallagher, from page 14 Katie McClintock. “It’s been good to see it all pay off for her. I’m really proud of her. She deserves it all.” “She’s been such a role model. Katie has been swimming her entire life, but Grace just started swimming her freshman year in high school and she’s come a long, long way,” Schiavo said. “I think that’s so refreshing for any athlete — you might not end up being as fast as Grace has gotten, but you can still continue to grow and contribute. That’s one of the things we always try to have is everyone feel like they are contributing in some way, and Grace is one of those. She’s come from being just a 50 freestyler to extending that to 100, and in the last two years we got her up to the 200 free, and every once in a while we’ll throw her into other events. And she’s still pretty good at backstroke, fly, breaststroke and IM. The times she’s able to do without really focusing on those other strokes is pretty impressive. “She has natural ability, but also a wonderful attitude every day,” he added. “She has a smile on her face and works as hard as she can, and at some point during practice she will take over and they’ll all be chasing her.” The leadership that Gallagher and the other nine seniors on the 35-swimmer roster provided went a long way to turning Mainland into a team that went 13-1 and won the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference championship with a perfect 6-0 record. The Mustangs, who feature just nine club swimmers, beat out perennial powers Ocean City and Egg Harbor Township to win the conference title, and also made it to the sectional final for the first time in seven years. Suddenly the Mainland girls were being talked about in the same breath as the school’s boys team, which has won six straight sectional championships and three of the last four state championships in Public B. “I think we knew coming in this year we had some good girls but I don’t think anybody expected this season to happen the way it did,” Gallagher said. “It’s kind of nice to be in the spotlight a little bit. Whenever we’ve
gone to boys (championship) meets in the past we’ve been so supportive, and vice-versa. It’s great. It feels really good knowing that all this work paid off.” Gallagher said it wasn’t easy to turn herself from a novice into a swimmer who could not only consistently score points for her team, but earn an invite to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions as an individual this winter. “It took a lot of adapting, seeing what the coaches have to say and changing how you swim. Every swimmer swims so differently — whether it’s freestyle, backstroke or any other event — it’s getting different techniques down and nailing all the little things. And in practice, it’s about not backing down, you just have to go for it,” she said. “For me, I’m not swimming in college, so this last season I had nothing to lose. I just had to put my mind to it and go for it. For me, at least, that’s what has been pushing me to do so well. My brother (James) was part of the first boys team that went to states (a few years ago) and my mom swam when she was younger, so I was like, ‘I don’t really know what else I’m going to do, so I might as well start.’” Schiavo said he hopes the younger girls on this year’s team can follow the lead of Gallagher and the other seniors, as well as some outstanding seniors who graduated in years prior, to help Mainland continue to build into a girls swimming powerhouse. “I think over the last four or five years at Mainland we’ve been fortunate enough to have lots of Grace Gallaghers. Maybe not swimming as fast as she did, but plenty of great students who show up every day, work hard and have awesome attitudes, smiles on their faces, finding a way to smile through everything and giving all the younger girls someone to look up to,” Schiavo said. “It’s perpetuated itself, and that’s been really cool over the last couple of years. We want to maintain, and it’s not me, it’s them — they want to maintain what they’ve developed and help it grow.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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GIRLS SWIMMING
Out of the ordinary Mainland Regional managed to go 13-1, win a conference title and make it to the sectional championship meet despite having just nine club swimmers on its roster By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer igh school swimming is unlike any other prep sport in that in order to be successful, a team must have club swimmers — athletes who compete in swimming all year and train with their clubs, even during the high school season. It’s a very strange setup, as high school coaches can sometimes have a completely different roster during meets than the one they are tasked with coaching up during practices after school. It can be very difficult to build a successful swimming program with a lot of club swimmers because it can be tough to build team chemistry, but it’s also a tall order to try to win meets without a lot of club swimmers. The Mainland Regional girls program has somehow found a way to do both — keep team chemistry when the best club swimmers aren’t at practice, while also becoming a conference champion with less than a third of its team coming from the club ranks. Coach Mike Schiavo had 35 girls on his roster when the season ended earlier this month and only nine of them were club swimmers. Still, the Mustangs went 13-1 this season and won the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference with a 6-0 mark and also made it to the South Jersey Public B championship meet for the first time in seven years. “We definitely have some very talented club swimmers. They put their mind to it and they put the work in. But for the other girls who don’t do club, we’re still her six days a week putting in all that work,” said senior Grace Gallagher, who had no swimming experience prior to her freshman year, and who is not a club swimmer. “It goes to show that if you love the sport and if the opportunity in high school presents itself, just go for it because you never know what can come from it.” “It’s something I’ve always taken a lot of pride in. I coached at Holy Spirit for 21 years and we ended up six times for the boys state champions and one time for the girls. We’d be going up against schools like CBA or St. Joseph-Metuchen, and you name the amazing girls teams that had all club teams. Histori-
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Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Mainland girls swimming coach Mike Schiavo said he credits team chemistry as one of the major factors in the Mustangs posting a 13-1 record this season. cally, the teams I’ve coached have not been all club kids, and I really like that. For those three months, the girls are really committed to focusing all their energies and efforts — outside of school and their families — on this sport,” Schiavo said. “They are focused on those three months and we’re all going through everything at the same time. They’re all getting in shape, they’re all getting sick together, going through the inevitable ups and down, and they’re all dropping a lot of time by the end of the season. That’s difficult when you have a lot of club kids because their cycle of work is different because their big meets are different. Typically, there is a conflict there, and it takes a couple years for club kids to figure out everything.
“We’ve had more club kids than we’ve had in a while and that’s made us stronger, so I definitely want to make sure those girls understand they are a huge part of this team even if they are not here every day,” he added. “Inevitably — and this is something I really enjoy — those club kids really come to love high school swimming, at least in my experience. We throw out the welcome mat and we certainly applaud all their efforts outside of the high school season — I don’t ever want them to feel bad about what they miss in the high school season. But a lot of them swim their fastest times ever during a high school meet, instead of a club meet. That’s the thing
See Mainland, page 19
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 19 Mainland, from page 18 that’s crazy to me. Maybe not the Katie McClintocks of the world, but a notch below, the club kids get so fired up to swim for their high school teammates. And not just with, but for their teammates. It’s tough for them to reproduce that excitement when they are one of a thousand swimmers on deck.” Gallagher said she agrees that swimming can lead to some great relationships among the athletes. “I have made two of my absolute best friends from this team,” she said. “You’re with each other for a couple hours a day and you get close no matter what — whether you are complete strangers or have known each other for years. That bond is definitely there.” Schiavo said he credits his 10 seniors with creating the kind of atmosphere that is positive for everyone from the best club swimmers to freshman novice swimmers. “In this year’s senior class, and there were 10 of them, they are just phenomenal kids. All of them are really good students, so involved in this school in so many different ways, and leaders in their own right,” Schiavo said. “I’ve said this before, but out of those seniors, there are only two who really score points for us. Yet the others keep coming back because they feel like they are an important part of the team. And they understand what everyone is going through every day, so all the new girls who come out who don’t have experience and may not end up contributing in meets all the time, these seniors know what it’s like to be that kid and they can connect with them and continue to think positive, and grow, and feel like they are a part of things.” Schiavo said it’s not always easy to integrate incoming freshmen who are accomplished club swimmers into the much different atmosphere that is high school swimming. But he said eventually they come to love being a part of their respective high school team. “A couple of our girls were commenting up at the South Jersey final against Moorestown that it seemed like two-thirds of their girls never even got in the water. They noticed it. But, on the other side of that, coaches who can create a successful team where the majority of their swimmers aren’t there
“We definitely have some very talented club swimmers. They put their mind to it and they put the work in. But for the other girls who don’t do club, we’re still her six days a week putting in all that work.” Grace Gallagher Mainland senior “Freshman year for club kids, they don’t get it, but by the end of their first year they are like, ‘OK, I got it, I love my teammates and I’m here for them.’ I love seeing that. To me, for any sport or any coach, that’s what you want to see.” Mike Schiavo Mainland coach every day, my hat’s off to them. That’s tough to do,” he said. “That’s always in the back of my mind. This year, we had five incoming freshman with club experience and I always worry how connected will they feel? How much will they end up caring about their teammates? And that’s why I was so fired up to have those 10 seniors this year to be role models, to open their arms and welcome them, to organize social activities outside of the pool to connect with them so they did end up caring very quickly. They might not understand it all right away — freshman year for club kids, they don’t get it, but by the end of their first year they are like, ‘OK, I got it, I love my teammates and I’m here for them.’ I love seeing that. To me, for any sport or any coach, that’s what you want to see. You’re not going to remember how fast you swam but you’ll remember those moments with your friends when it’s all said and done.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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GIRLS WRESTLING
New sport, new motivation Amirah Giorgianni looking for bigger and better things after taking second at states By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer ometimes, a high school athlete’s career in their chosen sport doesn’t work out the way they planned and they turn to a different sport. It happens all the time. Mainland junior Amirah Giorgianni — a lifelong basketball player — just never figured the sport she’d end up turning to would be wrestling. “I played basketball, but it wasn’t really working out and I wasn’t happy doing it anymore, so I figured, why not wrestling? I’ve always wanted to try it but didn’t want to give up basketball,” Giorgianni said before this year’s state championships were held earlier this month. “But when (basketball) didn’t work out it was time to try it, and I ended up liking it a lot.” Giorgianni says she is naturally aggressive, so a sport like wrestling fits her personality well. Very well, apparently, as she recently finished second in the state in the 180-pound weight class despite being about 15 pounds light for that division. Last year, the NJSIAA launched girls wrestling as an official sport, hosting regionals and then state championships at Boardwalk Hall along with the boys. This year, in her first attempt at the sport, Giorgianni won a region title, and faced New Brunswick’s Kerly Borbor in the state championship bout. Giorgianni, the No. 2 seed in her weight class, nearly had her opponent pinned in the second period, but eventually lost, 9-5. “Growing up in my family, we usually rough house and stuff like that, so I figured why not give it a try? I’m more of an aggressive girl, so I wanted to try it. I didn’t know anything about it, honestly. When I first came into the room they were like, ‘run a half.’ I didn’t know what that meant, so this has been very new to me,” she said. “All the boys made me feel like I was at home, they treated me like anybody else, and that really played a part in everything. That helped a lot, because if they treated me like a girl who was fragile, that wouldn’t have helped me. But they treated me as if I was another guy and that has made me the wrestler I am today.”
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Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Amirah Giorgianni, a junior at Mainland, finished second in the state this season in the 180-pound weight class and lost just two girls wrestling bouts all year. “She was a pleasant surprise for us this year. In years past — I had coached for years, took four or five years off when Mike Colombo took over, then took the program back over again — in the first 10 years I had three or four girls who wrestled boys. In Colombo’s tenure he had one or two girls, and both of us had girls who would have competed well in the girls tournament the way it is now,” said Mainland wrestling coach Clayton Smith. “Amirah came to us from basketball and said she’d like to wrestle and we said, ‘no problem.’ We told her she was going to be the only girl and that she’d have to wrestle boys. (Athletic Director Mike) Gatley had a conversation with her mom about that, and we have a very good rapport with her mom. Her mom has been to all the tournaments we’ve entered her in, and I think her mom is very pleased as to how Amirah’s progress has been since joining the wrestling program. “Two things that really help her are, one, she’s very strong for her size and weight class, and two, she’s wrestling a weight class up,” Smith added. “She could drop to the 161-pound class — she’s close enough to cut down to that — but she had so much success at 180 that she said she’s strong enough and a lot quicker than girls in that weight class.”
Giorgianni’s mom, Felicia, has been a big key to Amirah’s success through her support despite working two jobs and caring for Amirah’s three younger brothers as well. “My mom really helps me through this whole process,” Giorgianni said. “She works two jobs, but anything that has to do with me and my brothers, she’s always there. At regionals, she got off work and we drove straight there. She really supports us in everything we do.” Coach Smith said he’s taken a simplified approach to coaching Giorgianni given her inexperience with the sport. “Over the past couple of tournaments I’ve become kind of a girls wrestling connoisseur. I’ve watched how the girls wrestle each other, and her wrestling the boys is a different style. By watching the way the other girls wrestle, I come in and work with her and try to recreate some of the things they do. As a coach, you look at the average girl’s strengths and weaknesses and say, how can we beat their weakness and defend against their strength? That’s what we’ve done with Amirah, we’ve basically taught her how
See Motivation, page 21
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 21 Motivation, from page 20 to wrestle offensively and defensively against another girl,” he said. “You can only teach so much in one season, so some of the stuff we have taught her is very specific. Joelle Klein (of Lower Cape May) is very successful, she only does a handful of specific things, but she does them well. And we’ve been doing the same thing with Amirah.” Still, it hasn’t been easy to adjust to a new sport and learn new moves and terminology. “It was tough at first because I didn’t understand the wrestling slang and I didn’t know what to do. The boys were throwing each other to the ground and I was like, ‘I don’t know about this.’ But once I got into it, I became very comfortable with it,” Georgianni said. “During the season I would wrestle with the boys team, if they had a match for me. My first girls tournament I took third place, then I went to the Kingsway tournament and then regionals. Those were my three girls tournament and the rest of the season I would wrestle against guys. In girls matches I’m 12-1. I haven’t won against any guys
and in my first couple of matches I would get pinned, but as it got going things got better. “It’s not that hard, it just takes time. Obviously, when you first try a new move you’re not going to be good at it, but if you keep trying and keep putting in effort, you’ll get better as you go,” she added. “You just have to have that mindset to keep pushing. Even if you’re not doing well in the beginning, you’ll get there if you want it. I’ve come a long way. When I first started, I couldn’t do anything, but now I feel like I have accomplished a lot for this being my first year, so I’m happy with where I’m at.” Giorgianni points to her regional title as a huge highlight so far for her, and winning at that level is not easy for a first-time wrestler. “It felt amazing, having my family and my coaches there supporting me, and having confidence in me. Not just me having confidence in myself, but everybody else believing in me — I cried when I won. It was emotional for me because I didn’t see myself getting this far,” she said. Winning makes all the pain and ef-
fort worth it, and there was plenty of pain throughout the season, much more so than she ever experienced in basketball, she said. “The toughest thing is the pain. I’ve gotten hurt a lot throughout the season, but you have to have that mental toughness to fight through it and know you’ll get through it. It’s all mental, for me, at least,” Giorgianni said. “I try to keep that mindset to not give up and keep going. I’m glad I started this, I feel like this is my place. Obviously, I love basketball because I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, but this is where I feel like I’m supposed to be. It’s turned out well. I’m definitely going to stay with it next year. I’m working with Jimmy (Garrett) from Orchard South Wrestling Club and he’s going to add me to offseason tournaments.” Her success this winter has spurred on her motivation for next year, and she said she thinks girls wrestling will continue to grow in popularity in the coming years. “I think (girls wrestling) is going to become something bigger. When I first started, I didn’t realize there were a lot of girls doing this sport. This is a thing
and other girls do this,” she said. “I think it can become just as big as boys wrestling.” “Wrestling has already taught her some things. I don’t think she realizes that there are things she can do now that she couldn’t before, those one-onone battles. She was a basketball player and also has played soccer and softball, and in those sports you win as a team and lose as a team. When it comes right down to it in wrestling, you win and lose by yourself,” Smith said before the state championships. “The satisfaction of winning by yourself is awesome and the agony of defeat, you feel that by yourself as well. She’s a region champ and she’s too good to not be a state placewinner. My hope is she makes it to the finals and finishes in the top two in the state. If you do that as a junior and then repeat that as a senior, this could be an avenue for her to go off to college. She won’t get big money because nobody does in wrestling, but if it gets you in the door at a school you want to go to, it’s done its job.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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BUNTING
BASKETBALL REPORT EHT boys, Gami girls programs to watch By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer hen the Egg Harbor Township boys basketball team beat ACIT, 55-48, on Feb. 4, Eagles coach Cameron Bell said that if his team ended up making the NJSIAA playoffs, it could make some serious noise. Perhaps only the EHT players and coaches believed that statement, because even after that victory the Eagles were just 7-11 and had suffered fivegame and three-game losing streaks in the first 18 games of the season. But the Eagles did squeak into the state playoffs, as the No. 16 seed in South Jersey Group 4, and proceeded to knock off top-seeded Toms River North in the first round and then went on the road again to upset Williamstown. Suddenly, the below-.500 Eagles found themselves in the sectional semifinals againt fourth-seeded Cherry Hill East. EHT took the Cougars to double overtime before falling, 57-55, and after that loss coach Bell was quick to set the bar high for the 2020-2021 season. “I knew we were dangerous and that we hadn’t really played up to our potential all year long,” said Bell said after the loss. “There were bits and pieces, and every now and then you would see the potential, but that’s the thing about a young team. I said that if we could get in (the playoffs), we could make some noise. It’s tough to lose this way, but it was a helluva game.” “We played hard. These guys be-
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Freshman point guard D.J. Germann is one of several exciting young players the Egg Harbor Township boys basketball team will have returning in 2020-2021. lieved and they have unbelievable confidence in themselves and their abilities. They stayed locked in the entire game. Emotions ebb and flow throughout the game. Sometimes they got a little down on themselves, but they kept coming back,” Bell added. “”I told the guys, ‘this same team, if we stay together, you’re looking at the
2021 Group 4 state champions.’ I believe that. I believe in my guys and I believe in their talent.” Isaih Walsh, one of the few seniors on EHT’s roster, had a message for the underclassmen as he was leaving the gym at Cherry Hill East: “Never back down from a loss. Keep going, keep grinding.”
It’s easy to think that teams such as Wildwood Catholic, St. Augustine Prep and Atlantic City will once again rule the Cape-Atlantic League next season, but coach Bell might not be far off when he says his Eagles should be right there in the mix. They’ll return
See EHT, page 23
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 23 EHT, from page 22 nearly all of their starters and have some solid playmakers in guys like Carlos Lopez and Isaiah Glenn, both of whom are sophomores, as well as a sharpshooting guard in junior Ethan Dodd. And starting point guard D.J. Germann is just a freshman. They’ll have to replace Walsh, who went for a team-high 23 points in the loss to Cherry Hill East and was perhaps the most reliable scorer all season long, but look for guys like the Rando brothers, Anthony (junior) and Christian (freshman) to make bigger impacts next year, along with junior Michael Mirville and sophomore Anthony Colon. The Eagles went 13-15 this year, but their state playoff run proves that they have plenty of talent.
Beware of the Braves
Another team to be on the lookout for next year is the Absegami girls squad. The Braves made it to the South Jersey Group 3 semifinals before getting blown out by Mainland, but this team battled some big-time injuries all season long and still was a contender in the CAL National and sectional playoffs. They’ll lose seniors Angelina Pollino and Gi-
anna Hafner, two significant losses, but junior Haleigh Schafer returns and coach Bobby Lasko hopes to have a full year with point guard Jackie Fortis, who missed the entire regular season this year with a thumb injury. She played in only three games, all in the state playoffs, and in two of those games she helped lead resounding second-half comebacks that put the Braves into the sectional semis. The Braves also have some intriguing players to watch next season, including freshman guard Gianna Baldino as well as post player Iggy Crandall, who really showed her potential in this year’s state playoffs. She’s just a sophomore and a transfer from North Jersey, and should be an integral part of the Braves’ plans moving forward. Same thing for Chi Chi Wochka, a sophomore who is still gaining experience and confidence but could be a big factor in the low post next year.
Other teams to watch
St. Augustine Prep was a young squad this year but despite the relative lack of experience of a typical Hermits team, this year’s version made a late-season run and has plenty of talented players coming back, including sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson, who
has a chance to be the Player of the Year in the conference next winter. St. Joseph is another boys team to watch. The Wildcats went 22-6 this year and have some really talented players, and coach Paul Rodio Jr. loves to play at a fast pace, so with the talent this program has they’ll be one of the more entertaining teams to watch next winter. On the girls side, don’t be surprised to see Holy Spirit get back on the CAL radar. Head coach Tim Whitworth did a really nice job in his first season, getting the Spartans, who had just two seniors, to start to play much better basketball after a slow start. Jules Lynch and Melody Pugliese will be tough to replace, but Sophia Pasquale will be a senior next year and Kira Murray had a solid freshman campaign this year. Also, keep an eye out for ACIT, the RedHawks will have Grace Speer and CeeCee Jackson coming back, and those two will provide a pretty substantial challenge on the low blocks to the other teams in the CAL American. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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SOFTBALL
A.C.’s Hendri signs on with Rutgers By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer he Atlantic City softball team isn’t the kind of club that gets a lot of media fanfare. The Vikings don’t have a lot of players who come up through the travel ball circuit and in many seasons head coach Anthony Nistico and his staff are trying to coach up a roster filled with novice players, as is evidenced by a 20-39 record the past three seasons, including 7-23 in the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference. But the past couple of years the core of this team has been led by a couple of outstanding players, both of whom are now NCAA Division I recruits. Last fall, senior do-it-all infielder, outfielder and pitcher Katie Master signed on with Central Connecticut State, and recently shortstop Gabi Hendri joined her as a DI recruit as she signed a National Letter of Intent with Rutgers University. Rutgers plays in the Big Ten Conference, which houses some very powerful teams, including the likes of Michigan, Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin — all of whom won at least 32 games a year ago. Rutgers finished sixth in the conference, going 25-20 overall and 11-13 in conference play. “The recruiting process was really a struggle for me. I had a lot of interest, but also a lot of rejection. I didn’t really want to base a school solely on softball. I really wanted it to impact my whole college career. If I got hurt, would I like (a particular school) if softball was taken away from me? That’s really what stuck with me through the whole thing, am I going to like it? I wanted to chose a school I wanted to go to if I wasn’t going to play softball,” Hendri said earlier this month. “Rutgers is a dream, to be able to play at the level of the Big Ten. Playing Division I was my ultimate dream. Just going to camps, talking to coaches, showing them my all and just talking to them — you have to keep pushing and emailing, and eventually you start getting some feedback. I kept persevering and pushing, and it happened.” “One thing I want to share, and these are 2019 stats: in the country, there are 370,000 young ladies playing high school softball. Five percent of them go on to play collegiate softball. That number is about 20,000, and of that, only 1.5 percent make it to Division I. That number is 345,” Nistico said when addressing Hendri’s teammates and friends who were gathered at the signing ceremony at the school’s library. “So, out of 370,000, only 345 go on to play Division I softball, and I think that’s an amazing achievement
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Gabi Hendri, a senior at Atlantic City who has hit better than .400 the past two seasons, recently signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her academic and softball careers this fall at Rutgers University. (for Gabi).” Not only is Hendri one of the better defensive middle infielders in the Cape-Atlantic League, she can also handle the bat pretty well, too. In the past two years she has hit better than .400 with 45 hits, including 11 doubles, seven triples and three home runs, has 21 RBIs and 26 runs, and has stolen 14 bases. Her on-base percentage during those two seasons is .465 and her slugging percentage is .615. Expect more of those same kinds of numbers when, and at this point, if, the 2020 season gets underway. “It was an amazing feeling knowing that I’ll be able to play at that level, but it’s also a reality check. I got here, but now I have to stay here, so I have to keep working hard and pushing myself to be the best I can be when I get there in the fall, and when I finish my senior year,” Hendri said. “(Atlantic City) is a way better team than people think and I think this year we have a lot of new core freshmen who — like when Katie and I were freshmen — they play travel ball and have more of a background (in the sport) so I think that’s really going to help me and Katie in our senior year to help push us through.” Signing on to play at Rutgers University is a dream
come true for Hendri, the daughter of John and Kara Hendri. “This is surreal. It’s a dream,” she said. “You watch kids on TV (at their signings) and you think, ‘I want to get there someday. I want to be playing teams like Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State — some of the best schools in the country — and sitting here knowing that in a year, that’s where I’m going to be.’ It’s crazy.” Added Nistico, “Gabi and Katie are perfect examples of dedication. They don’t pick up the glove in March and put it down in May, they do it all year long. This is perseverance. If you need a role model for what you want to achieve, they are perfect role models.” (Editor’s Note: As of this publishing date, the NJSIAA said it is hoping to have a spring sports season once many schools are scheduled to reopen on April 20. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, however, nothing is certain yet about whether or not spring sports in New Jersey will be held.) Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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BASKETBALL
Disappointing end to postseason runs Vikings, Red Raiders were playing their best basketball season when state playoffs were halted by pandemic By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer f you take away a toddler’s favorite toy, it usually doesn’t take them too long to get over it. Before you know it, something else catches their attention. This one isn’t going to be so easy to get over. The Atlantic City boys and Ocean City girls basketball teams were on the doorstep of playing for a state championship this season when the Coronavirus pandemic suddenly shut down the NJSIAA state playoffs — just before championship weekend — and left the Vikings and Red Raiders wondering, “what if?” Both teams had surprisingly similar seasons that featured slow starts, long midseason winning streaks and shocking postseason runs. The Vikings started off 1-3 but then won 12 straight games to improve to 13-3 and get themselves at least into the conversation among South Jersey Group 4 contenders. Atlantic City entered the sectional tournament as the No. 3 seed and beat No. 14 Kingsway and No. 6 Cherokee to earn a berth in the semifinals against second-seeded Lenape. The Vikings, led by senior Stephen Byard, went on the road and knocked Lenape off, 61-58. On the other side of the bracket, No. 16 EHT had knocked off the top-seeded team, Toms River North, in the opening round and the Vikings ended up facing No. 4 Cherry Hill East in the championship game. Atlantic City trailed at halftime but came roaring back in the second half to cruise to a 61-44 win and capture the South Jersey title. But then South Brunswick pulled out of the Group 4 semifinals because of the pandemic. There was still hope that Atlantic City could play in a state championship game against Elizabeth (which beat Patterson Kennedy in a state semifinal game that was played) at Boardwalk Hall, but the following day the basketball season was shut down. “It was disappointing, but the flip side of it is I’ve never ended a season with a win. So, there are some plusses and minuses. It was good to have a run like that and I’m appreciative of the way we ended the
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Senior Stephen Byard and the Atlantic City Vikings had their dream of playing for a state championship taken away when the NJSIAA shut down the basketball playoffs earlier this month because of the Coronavirus pandemic. season,” said Vikings coach Gene Allen, who led his team to a 21-6 record. “The kids were heartbroken. We were excited about the possibility of playing that Thursday night, and when that got canceled we were excited about potentially being able to play in a state championship at Boardwalk Hall. But this pandemic is pretty serious, so we have to keep it all in perspective with the kids. Sometimes kids at that age don’t understand. It was sad.” Ocean City’s season followed a similar trajectory. The Red Raiders started out 1-5 before ripping off a 15-game winning streak. That run came to an end on Feb. 14 with a 22-point loss against rival Mainland Regional — led by New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year and Oregon recruit Kylee Watson — but the Red Raiders got their revenge in the South Jersey Group 3 championship game, beating the Mustangs 32-29. From there, Ocean City went to Deptford High School and beat Westampton Tech in the Group 3 semifinals, in a game that was played in front of zero fans. The Red Raiders had hoped to play in the state championship game three days later, but then the season was shut down. “It’s a unique situation. Who could ever predict something like this happening? It was almost surreal playing that game (against Westampton Tech) in front of nobody. I kind of sensed that was going to be
it with everything going on, and knowing some of the boys games weren’t even being played that night,” said Ocean City coach Paul Baruffi. “The game itself was played like a normal game, you could just really hear everything. For that kind of game, because we’ve been there before, usually the crowd is crazy. Until the two teams that played after us came in, it was really empty. We just approached it as playing just another game, and I think our girls were just as excited to win it, but it was different.” Baruffi said that even before his team played in the state semifinals, he wasn’t confident it would get the chance to win a state title. “I kind of sensed it that night that we played Westampton Tech. Once we saw the NCAA was shutting down, and then the NBA did it, that this might be it. I kind of prepared them for it after that game in the locker room. We knew it was a possibility,” he said. “My biggest thing was for those girls who had never gotten to play in a state championship game, just the atmosphere of it. It’s different than anything else they would have experienced. Even the girls who were there a few years ago, they were more role players or didn’t get to play in that game. So, for my seniors, it was a tough way to go out after having played their
See Postseason, page 27
March 20, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 27 Postseason, from page 26 way into that position.” Coach Allen says each year in the playoffs he tries to prepare his players, especially seniors, for their seasons to be over. “When we start the playoffs, I always make them bring both (home and away) uniforms because you never know when the season is going to be over. That kind of gives them somewhat of a perspective on the finality of it,” Allen said. “If we win, I give them back the uniform, and if we’re on the road I take the home uniform. I try to somewhat prepare them for the end of their high school basketball careers in some instances, but it’s still always very painful when it does end. And this year, even more so because I saw a lot of these kids really grow up before my eyes, both on and off the court. This is a very special group to me. These kids really bought in. Early on in the season we struggled, but they started buying in and they just grew so much, so it’s very difficult now to see the season end like it did.” What makes how this season ended
so difficult, particularly for these two teams, is not only how much they had to overcome to get to the state semifinals, but also because the Vikings and Red Raiders both were playing the best basketball these particular rosters ever would. “It’s a testament to how hard these girls worked all year. They really came together. We played a very difficult schedule, a lot of Group 4 schools, and we lost a lot of those games but I really feel like it prepared them for the end of the year. You could kind of feel them coming together when we got to the playoffs — recognizing what they needed to do, where we needed to be. We broke pressure that maybe earlier in the year we couldn’t. And all year Abbey Fenton hit big shots for us and she continued to do that at key moments during the playoff run. And the other girl who really stood out to me was Delaney Lappin. We didn’t have her for the first eight games because she was coming off an injury from soccer. With her athleticism, you could tell the girl played in a state championship soccer game, just a phenomenal athlete. She did so many little things that people
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Emma Finnegan and the other Ocean City seniors saw their prep basketball careers come to an end after a win in the state semifinals. The following day, the NJSIAA halted the state playoffs. don’t notice,” Baruffi said. “I feel like everything came together at the right time. Different seniors stepped up at different times — Lauren Mirsky had a big game offensively against Westampton and Emma Finnegan rebounded tremendously for us all year. We got some good senior leadership and some big games out of different people. It
just came together at the right time. It’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to go play in that game and find out if we could have won a state championship. I feel bad for the players not getting that opportunity.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
snapshots Teriq Chapman and the Atlantic City Vikings went on a thrilling late-season run that ended with a South Jersey Group 4 championship. The Coronavirus pandemic denied Atlantic City the opportunity to play for an overall Group 4 state championship. Glory Days photos/ Dave O’Sullivan
Mike Brestle, father of Marlee Brestle, hugs his daughter after she and her Ocean City teammates upset top-seeded Mainland Regional to win their third South Jersey Group 3 title in the last four years.