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Health & Fitness

A Tribute To My Daughter

(reprinted from June 2008)

I don’t think there’s ever been a state champion of any sort in my family tree. Not that the Cieri’s or the Lagrotteria’s are from mediocre stock, mind you. But the idea of being a state champion in a high school sport just boggles my mind. For a player, it takes a lot of skill, a lot of luck, timing, and the right combination of team play and great coaching to get you there.

Our family’s lack of a state champion ended on Saturday, June 7, 2008, when the Mater Dei High School varsity softball team took the group B Non-Public state title, beating Montclair Kimberley Academy, 11-2.

You see, my daughter Anne Marie is a member of that championship team. She’s always been the athletic one in the family (God only knows where she gets it from). Ever since 7th grade, she’s been fascinated with softball. She became so good at it that she started varsity her freshman year at Long Branch High School, earning two varsity letters in the process. Head coach Rosalie Guzzi and assistant coaches Tonya Galezewski and Deanna Vogt were great mentors who recognized my daughter’s competitive spirit and abilities the minute they saw her. Her teammates were great, and even though the team struggled during her tenure there, the camaraderie between them never wavered.

When Anne Marie transferred to Mater Dei, one of my greatest fears was that she wouldn’t be accepted or have the same kind of relationships with kids or her fellow softball players that she experienced in Long Branch. Boy was I wrong. Not only did her social life flourish, but I believe she became a better ballplayer and person because of what she went through her last two years in high school.

When Anne Marie played for Long Branch, she worked hard and started every game. It was different at Mater Dei. Because of a few circumstances beyond her control, she didn’t get to play as much.

For example, when she transferred her junior year, NJSIAA rules had her sit out the first 30 days of the season. By the time the 30 days were up, the team make-up had already been set, and Anne Marie rode the bench the remainder of the season.

When spring training started her senior year, she separated her shoulder during a practice and sat out almost an entire month. As one of seven returning seniors, she was looking forward to starting at first base, a new position and challenge for her. But once again, by the time she came back, another player took her place at first. For a good part of the season, she rode the bench again, only playing in the last few innings of the blowouts or entire games against one or two lackluster teams.

While the team kept winning, she didn’t feel like a part of it. As a senior, she expected to play. She became discouraged and often wondered whether all the hard work she had put into making the team was worth it. She even wondered whether she would get a varsity letter. To tell you the truth, her mother and I often wondered about those same things, too. It just didn’t seem fair, and we both felt badly for her.

Luckily, Anne Marie had coaches who recognized what she was going through, took her aside any opportunity they could, and let her know that, whether she played or not, she was an invaluable member of the team. While others played out on the field, Anne Marie would lead the bench cheering and keep the other players loose, just in case an opportunity arose for her or any of the others to get in a game.

I even told her that if anyone of the infielders got hurt during the course of the game, I surmised just by looking at the numbers that she would be the first one off the bench to fill in. The “sixth man”, so to speak – in this case, the “sixth woman”.

Thanks to the constant barrage of encouragement from people like head coach Jeanne Dickinson and assistant coaches/husband and wife Anne Marie and Alex Osnata, “AM”, as her teammates called her, slowly came around and accepted her role as “sixth woman” and head cheerleader while still maintaining her skills by working even harder at practice. If she played, she’d be ready, and even if she didn’t, any accolades the team got would be hers as well, because she worked hard like they all did to get there.

Well, the team did mighty well this past season. They won the Shore Conference B Central Non-Public division title and beat Wall Township (who was the number two team in the state at the time) in the semifinals of the Monmouth County Tournament. They lost a heartbreaker to Red Bank Catholic in the finals (1-0 in nine innings), then turned around and beat St. Joseph of Hammonton (who was the number one team in the state at the time), 1-0 in ten innings for the state sectional title, and in the process, earned the respect and admiration of all the Shore Conference coaches, teams, and fans alike.

Then there came the state title game against Montclair Kimberley Academy. The state champion eluded our family no longer.

Mater Dei is a school of only around 400 kids, with 16 of them on varsity softball. The local newspapers dubbed them “the little team that could”, and “AM” was a vital cog in the wheel of that team. I can’t thank her coaches enough for getting that message across to her.

Now with the season over and graduation come and gone, my state champion sits at home getting ready for life after high school. She’ll toil away the summer months working at Monmouth Park Race Track and keeping fit with her student membership at True Fitness until the next chapter in her life begins – as a freshman at Cabrini College, majoring in exercise science and health promotion. Whether she plays softball there is anybody’s guess, but the pedigree of a state champion is instilled in her now. It’ll be hard for her to just walk away from it all entirely.

My daughter learned a few valuable life lessons this past year. For one, the ability to adapt to any situation will serve her well in whatever she does and wherever life takes her. But just as importantly, she finally realized that the name on the back of the jersey is not as important as the name on the front of the jersey.

Her mother, her brother, her family and I couldn’t be prouder of her.

(You can also follow Kevin Cieri’s blog on his Facebook page, “Jersey Shore Retro” as well as on Twitter at @jsretro).

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