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About The Cover
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bout 18 months ago, Chase Petty was a sophomore at Mainland Regional High and a pretty good pitcher for his age. He was injured the first half of that season, but promptly tossed a no-hitter against Holy Spirit upon his return to the rotation. He then had a good 2019 summer on the showcase circuit, but lost his 2020 junior season due to the pandemic. But this summer Petty was electric, and his Major League Baseball draft stock has skyrocketed after he spent the summer sitting high 90s and even touching 100 miles-per-hour. What’s it like to throw a baseball faster than most people drive a car? Flip over to Page 10 of this digital edition to find out! Dave O’Sullivan, Publisher
GLORY DAYS 2020 General Contact Information Phone: 856-336-2600 Email: advertising@acglorydays.com Publisher Dave O’Sullivan Email: sully@acglorydays.com @GDsullysays on Twitter Contributors Amy D’Adamo, graphic design Bill Lynskey, advertising sales Mark Trible, special football writer Giuseppe Ungaro, content editor Volume 8, Issue 2. (Issue No. 151) 2020 Glory Days Magazine LLC, all rights reserved.
Story Idea? Email sully@acglorydays.com or direct message Sully on Twitter, @GDSullysays
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 5
headlines u PRESENTED BY BUNTING FAMILY PHARMACY u u Fall sports making their return
The last time any high school sports fan was able to take in a game was during the 2020 basketball playoffs, before the country came to a screeching halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But that will change the first weekend of October, as fall sports make their debut, highlighted by a full slate of football games on Friday and Saturday. Other sports, such as field hockey, soccer, girls tennis and cross country also will be making their return in shortened seasons, as the fall slate will last only until about Thanksgiving, and winter sports will return in late December. The first Saturday of the fall season, Oct. 3, features some exciting soccer matchups, as the Mainland boys travel to Pleasantville and the Ocean City girls, coming off a 2019 Group 3 state championship, open their season by hosting Wildwood Catholic. Also, on the boys side, defending Cape-Atlantic League champion Oakcrest travels to Hammonton, which is back in the CAL this year after spending a couple of years in the Tri-County Conference.
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Christian Rando and the Egg Harbor Township football team open their 2020 season at noon on Oct. 3 when the Eagles travel to Mainland.
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FOOTBALL
Short season, great matchups There will be only six games this year, but fans won’t be wanting for some great games on the gridiron By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer ormally, by this time of year, we’d be talking about who the contenders and pretenders are for high school football playoffs. October is make-or-break time for prep football teams, and it’s when the season really gets intense as the nights get a little colder. Nothing is normal in 2020, however. Not with the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting the entire country for six months. Things are slowly getting back to the way they were, and the return of high school football — albeit in an abbreviated six-game format — is music to the ears of players, coaches and fans throughout South Jersey. The West Jersey Football League has had to adjust its scheduling dozens of times already and opening night isn’t until Oct. 2, and there may need to be even more adjustments throughout the fall if teams have any positive coronavirus cases among their players or coaches. But, for now, teams are getting in a scrimmage this weekend and are eagerly awaiting the first weekend of October, when they can strap on those game-day jerseys. “It’s a football season. We’re playing football and we’re in school, which is fantastic. At Holy Spirit, we’re in here five days a week and then the kids having football after school kind of keeps things as normal as possible right now. I think if we were going virtual and the kids have to then come to practice (from home) that kind of changes things,” said Holy Spirit coach A.J. Russo. “With us, the way we’re doing it, it’s working very well. The kids are here after school, they’re not going anywhere, we get an opportunity to watch film with them and we can get right out here after school and practice. That’s a good thing. I think these guys are ready to play, we’re keeping it as normal as it can be, and we’re looking forward to actually getting on the field (on Friday).”
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Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Star running back Patrick Smith and the Holy Spirit Spartans will have their hands full in a shortened six-game season, as they take on the likes of St. Joseph Academy, Cedar Creek, Pleasantville and St. Augustine Prep. And while all South Jersey teams will have just six games, there will be some great matchups every weekend. Holy Spirit, a team coming off a Non-Public Group 2 state championship, starts its season with a bang by traveling to Buena Regional to take on St. Joseph Academy, the team the Spartans whipped 38-0 in last year’s state title game. St. Joe disbanded its school last spring but alumni and friends of the school and football program have revived the school, at least for now, as an academy not associated with the Catholic diocese. Buena has stepped up to allow the Wildcats to use their field for a couple of home games this year, as St. Joe is now without an athletic complex. Holy Spirit and star running back Patrick Smith, a Colorado State University recruit, will get tested ev-
ery week, as the WJFL didn’t hand the Spartans any cupcakes. Aside from St. Joe, the Spartans take on teams like Pleasantville, St. Augustine Prep and Cedar Creek, all state playoff qualifiers from a year ago. “We hear it every day from our coaches, that everybody is coming for us and every time we step on the field we have a target on our back, so we just have to have that mentality that we had going into (last year’s) state championship game,” Smith said. “Our schedule is very exciting. I was hoping we’d still have a decent schedule, and it turns out we have a great schedule. No week will be a walk-over week; every week is going to be very competitive.”
See Matchups, page 9
Shore Hardware has you covered!
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Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 9 Matchups, from page 6 Mainland, a team that has gone 18-2 the past two seasons, will also get tested and has a young roster this year. About two-thirds of Chuck Smith’s Mustangs are either freshmen or sophomores. The Stangs open up on Oct. 3 at noon by hosting Egg Harbor Township, then have a tough road game the following week at Absegami. The schedule also includes Pleasantville, St. Augustine Prep, Vineland and Ocean City. “Me and Sam got some guys from the team together during the summer so we could stay in shape and continue to work on our craft, and just make sure everyone was ready for this season,” said senior defensive back McKenzie Murphy. Another solid opening week matchup features Absegami traveling to Ocean City. The Braves have a new coach in Chris Sacco, who complete turned around Pleasantville’s program in a five-year stint, and the Red Raiders are coming off a trip to the sectional championship game, where they lost to Shawnee. Willingboro, one of the best teams in South Jersey the past couple years, tangles with Burlington Township on opening weekend and Delsea visits Clearview in what promises to be an old-school, smash-mouth type of football game. There are also some other intriguing matchups to start the season, such as Kingsway at Highland, West Deptford at
Sam Epstein and the Mainland Mustangs, coming off back-toback 9-1 seasons, open their 2020 campaign by hosting Egg Harbor Township at noon on Oct. 3. Glory Days photo/ Dave O’Sullivan
Haddonfield and Shawnee at Woodrow Wilson. At this point, with the start of the season, everybody is thinking championship — even if we don’t yet know what that might mean come December. “We want to go 6-0, that’s the mindset we have to have,” said Mainland senior lineman Sam Epstein. “We’re going to take every game like it’s our last
and try to win every game. It’s different. We’re just blessed to have a season. I wouldn’t know what to do if we didn’t have a season. When it’s not football season I’m just sitting at home eating cereal.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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VIC’S SUBS COVER STORY
‘It’s a crazy reality’ Mainland Regional senior Chase Petty is just 17 years old and already he’s thrown 100 m.p.h. By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer here are more than seven billion people in the world, and nearly all of them will never know what it feels like to throw a baseball 100 miles-per-hour. Chase Petty found out what that was like before he even got his driver’s license. Petty, now a senior at Mainland Regional High School, has been one of the better baseball players in the Cape-Atlantic League throughout his career, but he was injured for half his sophomore year and missed his junior year because of the Covid-19 outbreak. But this summer has vaulted the 17-year-old into the national spotlight, as he reached 100 m.p.h. in one of his elite showcase appearances, and has since shot up the Major League Baseball draft projection board. Major League Baseball’s website, mlb. com, has Petty — who already has committed to play at the University of Florida — ranked as the No. 5 high school prospect in the country, and there’s a real possibility he could be selected in the top 20 picks of the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft. He spent this past summer hop-scotching around the country to compete in elite showcase events such as Perfect Game All-American Game and the Area Code Games. The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder from Somers Point consistently throws his fastball in the upper 90s and mixes in a plus slider in the high 80s as well as a very good change-up. He completely dominated the competition he faced this summer, including many other high draft prospects. “Going into sophomore year I just did local tournaments and my name wasn’t really out there, but the summer going into my junior year I really started getting some recognition starting with Georgia for the Futures Games and then San Diego for the underclass All-American game and Compton (Calif.) for the underclass Area Code Games. I was just trying to get my name out there, and this summer reminded me a bit of last summer because I was traveling all over the place, but these tournaments were a lot more meaningful for me,” Petty said. “Going into your junior year, if you’re not committed you’re playing for college coaches and you’re trying to figure out which
T
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Chase Petty, now a senior right-handed pitcher at Mainland Regional, had a tremendous summer on the national showcase circuit and reached 100 miles-per-hour during one of his outings. school you want to go to, but going into your senior year, that’s when all the professional teams start coming out. I don’t want to say it was more stressful — it was actually more exciting because I’m past the college process, I’m committed to my dream school, and now I’m playing for my dream of getting drafted to come true.” “He was poised to have a breakout season his sophomore season but trying to stretch a double into a triple in Florida (during preseason) kind of derailed his sophomore season. He was throwing tremendous toward the end of that year, though, and he carried that into that summer. He got stronger and bigger
and was really explosive all fall, and even early on in March (of this year) before the coronavirus hit, so we were looking for him to have a really special year for us this year. I don’t want to say that we’re surprised because we were expecting big things, but the summer he had was really something special, and we’re happy for him,” said Mainland coach Billy Kern. “I heard some whispers when he was a freshman that the ball was really coming out of his hand nice and he was throwing well. He was more of an athlete for us as a freshman. We didn’t have him out
See Petty, page 11
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 11 Petty, from page 10 there pitching too much until the end of his freshman season. What’s really jumped off the page to us about him is how athletic he is. He runs well, he throws well, he hits well — he can do some freakishly athletic things with his body, stuff that just isn’t common. That ability has always been there, and once he got serious about working out and lifting it’s all come together for him. At the end of his sophomore year he was throwing 88-92. He was about 84-86 as a freshman. So, he’s consistently up about five-to-six miles-per-hour over the past 16 months. I think seeing consistent growth was important for him. He got into the gym, cleaned up his mechanics and really started focusing on his craft. The thing that helped him was he saw immediate gains, and once he saw the numbers jump he started setting goals for himself. He had the 100 goal all summer and I was excited for him when I saw hit hit that in July. I knew it was in there because he had been dancing around it all year, but I didn’t know it would come that early in
“Hitting 100 is crazy, it really is, because the past few years I’ve been watching (Yankees closer Aroldis) Chapman and he hit 106, which is ridiculous. He sits 98 to 101 m.p.h., so seeing that and being able to compare myself to that and throwing harder than some major league pitchers at such a young age, it’s a crazy reality.”
Chase Petty, Mainland senior
July because he hadn’t thrown a ton.” Sometimes high level high school baseball players get a lot of hype, but Kern said what Petty was able to do this summer against the best prep competition in the country should solidify in anybody’s mind that the kid is legit. “The opponents he faced this summer verified it for everyone else that he has the ability to be one of the best in the country. He’s had the No. 1 New Jersey ranking for a long time, but to go out and be all over the country and go against the other guys with those low numbers next to their name, and prove it, was nice,” Kern said. “I don’t think he gave up more than three hits all summer, and maybe one of those
was out of the infield. It was nice to see that not only was he getting good outs, but he was missing a lot of bats and nobody was really getting solid contact against him.” Topping it off was Petty hitting triple digits during an outing in July — something most Major League pitchers never accomplish during their careers. It still doesn’t feel real, Petty said. “It’s crazy, it really is. It’s an amazing feeling. Growing up you watch pitchers throw in the mid-90s and there are teams with tremendous bullpens — and even starters are throwing in the high 90s and even touching 100. It shows how the game is really evolving with velo. The biggest thing
in the game right now, when you look at a pitcher, is how they work and their velo. That’s the first two things that stand out. Hitting 100 is crazy, it really is, because the past few years I’ve been watching (Yankees closer Aroldis) Chapman and he hit 106, which is ridiculous. He sits 98 to 101 m.p.h., so seeing that and being able to compare myself to that and throwing harder than some major league pitchers at such a young age, it’s a crazy reality,” Petty said. “The biggest difference is whenever I throw hard, all my motion and everything that happens during my windup to my release point, everything feels so smooth and so clean. It feels perfect, almost. When I was hitting 95, it felt good but it didn’t feel perfect. But when I’m hitting 100, everything feels so smooth. I feel like that’s the biggest thing.” When you’re 17 years old and you throw 100 m.p.h., a lot of people take notice. The next nine months are going to be a lot different for Petty, who now has a national profile in the baseball
See Petty, page 13
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 13 Petty, from page 11 world, and his right arm could potentially be worth millions of dollars in the draft, depending on how high he gets selected. Petty is taking it all in stride, though. He said he has a great support system around him. “I have my high school coaches, Ed and Mike from (Baseball Peformance Center in Pleasantville), my mom and dad, my brothers, they have truly kept me grounded through this whole thing and I would not be where I am without any of them. They have been my rock through this whole summer, and even still through this whole process. It’s crazy to think of where I am now because years ago this was just a dream,” Petty said. “I’m just going to stick to what I have been doing, and I trust
Mike, he knows what he’s doing. I’m looking at it how I always have — it’s better not to look at it as something that has money involved. I’m not really focused on the draft right now, I’m just focused on getting better in the offseason and focused on hopefully bringing a state championship back to Mainland. When the time (for the draft) comes, then I’ll start thinking about it. I’m not going to change anything that has gotten me to where I am now.” “At the end of the day, he’s an athlete and a baseball player, and we’ll approach this season like any other. When it’s his turn to pitch, he’ll pitch, he’ll play the field. He doesn’t want to approach it any differently. He’s a team player and one of our leaders. We’ll build up his arm just like anyone else’s. My brother is our pitching
coach and he does a nice job building these kids up and we have a nice track record of taking care of our kids’ arms. Obviously, there will be a little more scrutiny and more outside influence on what we should do, but I’m confident we’ll keep Chase’s best interests in mind while also keeping the other 24 guys on the roster in mind as well,” Kern added. “We just try to keep him grounded. Even in my family, my wife and I try to talk to him about his friends group and his circle, and about how the people who have been there for him should be the people he keeps around him as this circus starts to happen for him. He’s an introvert by nature, so the attention is something new to him, but it’s deserved. Whether it’s the draft or Gainesville, we’re excited for him either way. We don’t really coach him on
handling the media, he’s a smart kid and he handles himself well. He just doesn’t like to talk about himself, and that’s a good quality. We haven’t talked about the outside people yet because it’s still early. He’s young for his grade, he won’t turn 18 until April, so we just want him to enjoy his senior year. He finally just got his license because there was Covid-19 and he wasn’t around all summer, so now he’s getting a chance to do some of the fun senior year type of stuff. I’m happy with the support he’s gotten from our three towns, Millville, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Absegami — a lot of coaches have reached out in support of him and that’s a nice testament to the Cape-Atlantic League.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
Petty consistently throws in the upper 90s with his fastball and also mixes in a nasty slider that tops out in the upper 80s, as well as a pretty good change-up. Glory Days photo/ Dave O’Sullivan
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Her time to give back Vineland Hall-of-Fame soccer player Jen Cugini, now a sergeant in the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, is reaching out to young athletes to help them get off to the right start in life By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer en Cugini has done a lot during her 38 years. There have been ups and downs, triumphs and failures. She was a star high school soccer player who went on to play Division I at the University of Maryland. She built a highly successful law enforcement career from the ground up. She’s raising a pair of daughters. Like anyone who reaches this stage of their life and career, Cugini has been reflective of late and realizes she wants to give back to her community and help young people. She said she feels that with everything she has experienced — in both her athletic and professional careers — she might be able to provide a guiding hand to younger people who need it most. That’s why the sergeant in the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office has partnered with Join Together Atlantic County’s Opioid Task Force to coordinate a workshop and prevention intervention for young athletes.
J
How it all began
During her prep days at Vineland High, Cugini — then known by her maiden name of Jen Lovecchio — was an outstanding soccer player, starting varsity in all four years, and was allSouth Jersey second team as a junior. As a senior, she was first-team allSouth Jersey and The Daily Journal’s Player of the Year. She was inducted into the Vineland High School Hall of Fame in 2014. Cugini quickly found out, however, that NCAA Division I soccer is no joke. She rode the bench her freshman year and later a devastating knee injury
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Jen Cugini, known by her maiden name of Lovecchio during her high school days at Vineland, was a star soccer player for the Fighting Clan and now is a sergeant in the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office. nearly cost her the rest of her college soccer career. “It’s funny because I was dead set on going to Lehigh and looking back now, that would have been a totally different commitment even though it’s still Division I. I had gone to Rutgers on an official visit and Maryland was later on in the process. My trainer on my club team was like, ‘when Maryland calls, you go to Maryland.’ But I didn’t have
any athletes in my family and I didn’t really know what I was getting into. Freshman year was a ‘holy smokes’ eye-opener. I didn’t realize what I had signed up for. I wouldn’t change it, but it was a big commitment. That school revolves around sports,” said Cugini, who graduated from Vineland High in 2000 and from Maryland in 2005. “Looking back now I realized I learned a lot more than I thought I
did at the time. I didn’t realize how much I was taking away from the experience. Freshman year was rough. I went from being an all-star high school athlete, all-this, all-that, player of the year, and then I went to Maryland and rode the bench my whole first year. If I played 14 minutes, that’s being generous. I wasn’t used to that and I wanted
See Cugini, page 15
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 15 Cugini, from page 14 to transfer. I was not happy that first fall semester. The bench players were really just there to make the starters better, that’s just what we were, so that was probably one of the toughest years of my young life. “Sophomore year I red-shirted with a knee injury, and looking back, that was a Godsend. My freshman year the entire back line was sophomores so I was thinking I was going to have to sit the bench until my senior year. But then I redshirted and they were all juniors, and two of them blew their knees out. I went into game-mode after that and said, ‘no, I’m not sitting the bench again (junior year).’ I became a fitness freak, I didn’t go home for breaks, and everything turned around,” she explained. “I ended up being a captain two of my last three years. So, the biggest lesson I learned is that you can go from being a bench player to being a captain and playing every minute. If you would have told me freshman year that would have happened, I would have thought, ‘no way.’” Another knee injury early in her final season ended up requiring surgery in December of that year, and what followed was a very long recovery that was filled with
pain and limited movement. “I played knowing that when the season ended I was going to have to get surgery and I had surgery on Dec. 19 of that year. That surgery was terrible, it was an eight-hour reconstruction, and that was another experience when I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Cugini said. “I was back at my parents’ house and was non-weight bearing until February, my mom and dad had to do everything for me, so it was bad. I had surgery in February to bend it again, then I had to rehab. I wanted to get into law enforcement but I knew I’d have to go to an academy, and how could I do that? I couldn’t even walk. So, I moved back to Maryland and did physical therapy through the university. I got that done and saw a billboard on Route 95 that said Baltimore Police Department was hiring, so I called the number.”
Taking a chance
Seeing that billboard on the highway eventually jump-started Cugini’s career in law enforcement, as she began as a clerk in the evidence room for the Baltimore Police Department. After a year working in Baltimore, she attended St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia to get her master’s degree in criminal
intelligence and analysis, and that’s when she met her future husband, Edward, who now owns his own construction company. “My plan was to go back to Baltimore after getting my masters, but at St. Joe’s I met my husband and while I was finishing my last classes at St. Joe’s they offered me an interview here (at Atlantic County) and everything kind of just fell into place and I never went back to Maryland,” Cugini said. Cugini started as an agent and went into intelligence, then crimes against children and was on a task force with the FBI, and now is a sergeant in litigation (trials, grand jury, domestic violence — the beginning stages of prosecutorial files) with the county prosecutor’s office. “I’m responsible for a number of detectives and clerical staff to make sure they are able to do their jobs. We answer to a chief assistant prosecutor and grand jury prosecutors. We make sure files are ready for indictment and trials. So, whatever they need from the police departments in the county to have files ready for trials and grand juries. I’m in the po-
See Cugini, page 16
Page 16 w Glory Days Magazine w Sept. 24, 2020 talk to young athletes — and there are a slew of things you can talk to them about, from opening your eyes to the world but also getting that close-knit group of people who truly care about you. In my bridal party it was all former Maryland soccer teammates, and we prided ourselves on being close. We wouldn’t have let each other go in a wrong direction. We all went through surgeries and they wouldn’t have let me become addicted to all the pain medications. They would have stepped in, and it’s so important to have that support system.”
Cugini, from page 15 sition of selecting detectives under me to go handle investigations. The litigation unit has 12 detectives and four agents — the agents might be retired officers or men or women who want to be detectives and are waiting for the academy. And we also have a bunch of clerical people who help us out. I have a lieutenant who is in charge of me and then a captain who is in charge of all of us. There’s another sergeant in the unit as well,” she explained. “I never know what each day will bring. I leave a day with my list of what I have to do tomorrow, but I may have to adjust. It’s very unpredictable because I have so many people under me who I’m helping get the job done that they need to and that’s my first priority, and Covid-19 has thrown a few twists and turns into the mix. A few years ago I worked a lot of odd hours, but it’s calmed down since then and that works well for me and my kids.”
Settling in
The first half of her career — so far — featured a lot of hectic days and nights, as she worked all kinds of odd hours and shifts while trying to work her way into better positions in law enforcement. On top of all that, she was raising two daughters, Angelina, who is now 9 years old, and Victoria, age 7. Those formative years in her career and family didn’t leave much time for anything beyond going to work, getting home and taking care of a household. But now her kids are getting older, she and her husband are more settled in their careers, and Cugini has begun to think more about her life beyond her career and children. That’s what prompted her to reach out to Laurie Smith at JTAC about getting more involved with the community. “(Becoming a sergeant) was perfect timing because I had five years of craziness, and I know a lot of people here have a lot more years than that. But for me, as a mom and what my husband does — the five years when I worked all those crazy hours, my kids don’t even remember that, but now I’m home for soccer and all that stuff, so it’s worked out,” Cugini said. “I was mowing the lawn one day and I was thinking to myself about how I got to where I am — and I don’t want to call them regrets,
What’s next?
Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Cugini said she hopes to use her platform in law enforcement and her experiences as a high school and college athlete to help young athletes get a better start in life after their playing days are over. but I would do things a little differently if I knew then what I know now. As an athlete at a school like Maryland, you have no focus on what you’re going to do after college. You don’t care because you’re so into that sport. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have played my fifth year. I should have just been a captain on the bench, and my knee never would have been as bad as it was. I didn’t do anything that would have helped me after college. So, when that final whistle blew, it was an ‘oh, boy’ moment. I’m not exaggerating. It was tears and it was terrifying. I was telling my chief about that and how I wanted to talk to athletes about it, and open their eyes to life. Sports end up, for most of us, being such a small part of our lives.” Cugini said she was lucky to have great parents and large support system of friends to lean on after her knee surgery. She said she could have easily gotten addicted to pain killers had her parents not kept a watchful eye on every medication she was taking to try to get back to normal.
“I had my parents, thank God, and I had guidance, but that knee surgery, I went home on a morphine drip and went home with a ton of medicine that my dad took from me and wouldn’t let me have. So, I look back at the different path that could have happened, and I wish I would have known. What I’d like to do is, instead of wishing I had changed something, I want to reach out to athletes and maybe I can be a voice in the back of their head to pay attention (to the future). I was just face-timing with one of my former teammates and she does lighting on big movies like Hotel Transylvania. She was like, ‘Jen, why didn’t we pay attention in college? I did communications when Maryland offered this awesome computer graphics design program. I had to start from scratch.’ She’s doing well for herself now, but it’s not only me who feels that way. Athletes figure it out, but could there be an easier way? When I was getting my masters at St. Joe, that’s the first time I really looked into internships with the FBI,” she said. “What put me in with JTAC is I wanted to
With so many years of experience in sports as well as law enforcement, Cugini said she wants to draw on all those experiences to make a positive impact on other people’s lives through mentoring. She does some of that already in her department with newer officers, and continues to branch out by involving herself with programs such as the one JTAC is sponsoring. “The reason why I’m really passionate about my position here, now, is that every new detective who comes out of the academy is assigned to me. I’ve made mistakes and I’m the type of person who will tell you I made a mistake, and why I made the decision I did. Hopefully people will learn from my mistakes, because if you don’t tell people about the mistakes you’ve made they are going to make the same ones,” Cugini said. “I have my job and I love my job, but I also have my life and I have goals in both. I’d love to go back and get my Ph.D. and teach. And not necessarily criminal justice, maybe leadership or something else I might like to get involved with. Here, most people want to climb the ladder, so my next step would be a lieutenant and maybe one day, before I retire, become a captain. “And I’d also love to get involved in some way with the community and sports,” she added. “I’m trying to show my kids that you shouldn’t just focus your life on one thing. Who knows what they will become, they are 7 and 9 years old, but I want them to be wellrounded.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 17
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Chico & Sons continues to innovate Key to success for Northfield sub shop is continuing to improve By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer he DeCicco family is well known throughout Atlantic County, especially in the world of sub sandwiches, so when they were involved in opening up Chico & Sons in Northfield a few years ago the venture was bound to become a success. And right from the start the little sub shop on Tilton Road has become a staple eatery in the town. These days Karol Kulakowski, a veteran of 20-plus years in the food and beverage service in Atlantic City’s casinos, has taken over the day-to-day operations and in the past six months he’s helped build on the foundation that DeCicco family laid. Despite a nationwide pandemic that has nearly crippled the restaurant industry, Chico & Sons continues to thrive with bustling take-out and delivery service of their popular subs, salads and pizza. And soon restaurants in New Jersey will begin phasing indoor dining back into the mix as Gov. Phil Murphy announced that on Sept. 4 eateries can begin to open to 25 percent capacity. Chico & Sons was actually ahead of the curve in some respects, as it revamped the front patio of the shop before the pandemic hit to accommodate some outdoor dining this spring and summer. “This was a great opportunity with a local boutique sub shop, and being a part of this is a challenge, but it’s also a great opportunity. I came in right before the pandemic and I knew this place had a lot of potential. We’ve done a lot of upgrades, and we have many more to come. I saw a lot of potential when I first came here, and we’re going to continue to upgrade,” said Kulakowski, who took over as manager back in January. “We did the outdoor dining — not because of the pandemic, originally, we just thought it might attract people. We did the big banner (on the side of the building) and some landscaping, plus some other additions here and there and some new items on the menu.” Chico & Sons is not far from the intersection of
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Glory Days photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Smiling, friendly faces, great customer service and a bustling take-out business are a few of the things that have allowed Chico & Sons in Northfield to remain successful despite the Covid-19 pandemic. New and Tilton roads, which makes for a quick, convenient lunch stop for a lot of on-the-go business owners such as landscapers and cleaners, as well as for other workers up and down Tilton Road and throughout the surrounding towns. Kulakowski credits his friendly, knowledgeable staff with helping the business power through the Covid-19 pandemic. “The toughest thing (when I started) was I was coming into an existing business, so I had to figure out how everything worked, which employees were good. We have between 12 and 15 people now and it’s all about teamwork, really. Everyone knows their responsibilities so I don’t have to be overly involved in everything they are doing, because they know what they’re doing, and we have the best staff,” said
Kulakowski, a 38-year-old Ventnor resident who has one daughter, Olivia, with wife Monica, who is a small business owner in the area. “We hire local people who are dedicated, and whoever wants to stay, stays. I always tell them, I don’t fire people, they usually fire themselves.” The key to any sub shop is, obviously, making a great sub, but Kulakowski and his staff aren’t just satisfied with that. They are constantly coming up with new ideas for menu items and they test everything before putting it to market. “We want this to be a nice boutique sub shop. We have a lot of classic menu items but we also have
See Chico, page 19
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Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 19 Chico, from page 17 a lot of other items that you can’t find anywhere else. Like ‘The Soprano’ which is roasted pork with red roasted peppers, sharp provolone, chimichurri sauce and pickled onion. When we make subs we have tasting teams and if they like it, we put it on the menu,” he said. “We have new additions that are dinner style, like chicken parm, eggplant parm, meatballs, sausage and peppers, and we have homemade desserts coming. We also have wings, Greek salads; six different varieties of foot-long hot dogs are coming, so it’s going to be really neat.” There’s nothing small about running a small business, Kulakowski knows, and every day brings new challenges. “It’s a very challenging job. A lot of people think that when you’re a manager you just sit at a desk and that’s how your day goes. But you have callouts, you have things that go wrong that you have to fix, maybe you have credit card issues, you have to deal with paychecks, advance orders, deliv-
eries — it’s a lot. I haven’t had a day off yet, but when you’re part of a business like this, it’s 24/7. You’re always thinking about something, it’s always on your mind. You might forget about the business for an hour or two, but then you are right back at it,” he said. “But it’s a great experience on every level, customer service, customer satisfaction, interaction with the employees and vendors. It’s very educational, you learn things every day. Everybody who comes here loves our food, otherwise they wouldn’t come here, so we’ve been very successful. I’ve seen the growth since I’ve taken over — and I’m not saying it’s just because of me — but I see the growth and we get a lot of compliments about the appearance of the building and everything we have going on inside. “Food and beverage competition is everywhere,” he added. “We’re not at a main intersection so we have to boost our advertising maybe more than another sub shop, but we have good products, good food, and that’s what brings people back. Our goal is to make sure
we have returning customers.” With the summer winding down there will be less population in the shore area, but Kulakowski said that’s not going to stop Chico & Sons from continuing to find new ways to be successful. “Of course I want to see an increase in volume, like any business owner or manager, but so far we’ve been very successful,” he said. “People know we have good food here. We’re going to lose the summer people, but in November and December you’re into the holiday season and I believe we’ll continue to be busy. We do catering to a lot of offices as well as families.” And if trying to manage every aspect of a sub shop on a daily basis isn’t enough, Kulakowski also has to deal with the trials and tribulations of raising a teenage daughter. Olivia turns 15 this month and is beginning her sophomore year at Atlantic City High School, where she’s a key member of the Vikings’ swim team and also is a very successful swimmer with the Egg Harbor Township Seahawks club team.
But he deals with teenagers on a regular basis as employees at his shop, and he said sometimes the younger generation can get a bad rap. He’s really enjoying seeing his daughter grow into a successful high school student and athlete, and soon the family will begin the task of trying to figure out Olivia’s college path. “Forget the restaurant challenge, having a teenage daughter is the biggest challenge,” Kulakowski said with a laugh. “Nowadays, with the electronics, they are very advanced with that stuff and I’m actually shocked at how good they are when it comes to work and taking care of their responsibilities. People think teenagers are on their phones all the time, but they do their jobs well. “Watching Olivia grow and succeed in sports and school, that’s very rewarding because it means somewhere along the line you’ve done a good job as parents.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
Page 20 w Glory Days Magazine w Sept. 24, 2020
GIRLS SOCCER
Ocean City hands reins to Cuneo Longtime assistant takes over state titlewinning program after Halliday steps down By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer elly Halliday won 104 games during her seven-year run as head coach of the Ocean City girls soccer program, culminating in a crowning achievement of a Group 3 state championship last season. She recently decided to step down from her position and her top assistant, Lisa Cuneo, is taking over the job after recently getting Board of Education approval. That should make for a smooth transition in what is anything but a typical year. The Red Raiders will get started with their 2020 season the first weekend of October and only have about 10 regular-season games, but they’ll have several familiar faces leading them during a season that has been altered due to the coronavirus pandemic. Assistants Ashley Schmid and Jackie Adams return to coach the freshmen and JV teams, respectively, as well as helping Cuneo during varsity games. “It was definitely a surprise and I’m still kind of processing it, but my first thought when she told me was, ‘OK, I’m in, as long as everyone else agrees to it.’ There wasn’t any hesitation on my side. I knew it felt right,” said Cuneo, a physical education teacher at Ocean City Intermediate School who has been Halliday’s assistant the past seven years. “She got promoted to varsity coach the same year I was hired at Ocean City and became the JV coach, so we’ve been together since the beginning.” If the Cuneo name sounds familiar to
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Glory Days file photo/Dave O’Sullivan
Lisa Cuneo, right, a longtime assistant of Kelly Halliday, second from left, is taking over as head coach at Ocean City after Halliday recently announced she was stepping down after leading the Red Raiders to a state championship last fall. Fellow assistants Jackie Adams, left, and Ashley Schmid are also returning to the program. South Jersey high school sports fans, it should. Cuneo coached four years at Hammonton High and her niece, Austyn Cuneo, was one of the best field hockey players the storied Eastern Regional High School program ever produced. She went on to a career at Rutgers University and was a secondteam All-American as a senior last fall. As a high school player at Eastern, she set a national record for career goals with 328, she was four times an allstate player, never lost a game, won four state championships and was the national Player of the Year as a senior. Coach Cuneo said the Ocean City players were a little nervous once they heard coach Halliday was stepping
down, but seeing her assistant take over assuaged some of their fears. “While we were waiting for board approval the girls were a little nervous, but what I told them was it will be OK, just relax, be confident and trust the process. Once it became official, the panic left, and that was good because being a junior or senior in high school and hearing that your coach is stepping down, of course you think panic mode. I would like to assume that me being there is comforting. Ashley Schmid is still on board with the freshman team and Jackie Adams is on board as the JV coach,” Cuneo said. “I can’t name too many programs that have the type of bond we do. Ashley started eight years
ago as well, so there aren’t many programs who have had the same coaches on staff for as long as we have. It’s nice that we can text each other from sun up to sundown about soccer, family, school or whatever comes up. It’s nice to have that group and know that people have your back and have the same vision. Cuneo said she embraces the high expectations that now come with leading one of the top girls soccer programs in the state, and while several key seniors graduated from last year’s state championship team, there is still plenty of talent left with the Slimmer
See Ocean City, page 21
Sept. 24, 2020 w Glory Days Magazine w Page 21 Ocean City, from page 20 sisters, Faith and Hope, leading the way, along with stars such as Summer Reimet and Suzie Dietrich. “First and foremost, we’re just excited to play soccer. There were moments where we thought we might not even have a season to play. So we’re at the point where we’ve got what we’ve got (this year) and let’s make the most of it. As far as expectations, we’re just taking it one day at a time. We know we’ll have at least 10 games, and hopefully we’ll have some kind of playoffs if everything runs smoothly,” Cuneo said. “This is not last year’s team because we lost some major components, but we should still be really good and really competitive. We just need to make the most out of what we have, that’s the plan. It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to play a full schedule to showcase all the talent we have, that’s the only downside I can think of. With half a season, we lose the ability to show off what we have, and that’s unfortunate for the girls, but on the other side of it we’re fortunate to have any kind of season at all.” No matter what happens this season, Cuneo has been trying to impress upon her group to be thankful that they are even playing this fall. “You try to tell 16- and 17-year-old athletes to just go out and have fun, but we’re all a little too competitive to think that way. It’s hard to get them to realize we’re lucky to have any kind of season, but they are figuring that out and they are thankful for what they
Ocean City is led by senior Faith Slimmer, an all-state selection a year ago and one of the leading scorers in New Jersey with 35 goals. Glory Days file photo/ Dave O’Sullivan
have. This year, it’s kind of just let’s see what happens and be thankful for what we have,” she said. “It’s going to be different. I actually coached four years at Hammonton, so I’m trying to channel my own history a little bit, but it will be different. Now it’s just me talking more instead of Kelly, but I’m really excited. Like any first-year coach I just want
to get to that first game and go from there. We’re excited, and the girls are ready to go. I’m just glad we got something this season, that’s where we’re at.” Ocean City begins its 2020 season on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. by hosting Wildwood Catholic. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
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