For the sectional semifinalist Salem High bowlers, it’s all about brotherhood, energy and consistency to create a ‘generational run’ of a season

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I BOWLING
Wednesday’s Semifinals
No. 5 Asbury Park at No. 1 Camden Catholic
No. 6 Doane Academy at No. 2 Salem

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Troy Carey is the consummate team player. He’s the best player on the Salem bowling team and he’s headed to college on a scholarship, but when he was approached by a reporter for an interview on the season he wanted to make sure his teammates and the accomplishments of the Rams this year were highlighted as well.

It’s a request leaders make. He values his teammates so much he asked the school’s vice principal if they could accompany him to next week’s Top 100 Tournament for the best players in the state. He went last year and missed the cut for match play by one pin, but it was only him and coach Kenneth Buck in the big bus and he thought it’d be nice to have the company and support.

It’s been another good year for the Rams and the senior wanted to spread the love in a sport where there is no defense and success hinges on finding the right line that day. Carey and Company are back in the South Jersey Group I semifinals looking to handle some unfinished business when they host Doane Academy today at Wood Lanes.

The Rams were in this same position last year and lost to top-seeded Clayton. But this time, with a year of seasoning and the swagger of a first-time division champion, they are the hunters and confident of extending what already has been a “generational run.”

All five of their projected starters – Troy (206), Semaj Carey (178), AJ Carlson (150), Rudy Perez (188) and Jacob Puni (170) – all have better averages than a year ago. Semaj is nearly 30 pins better.

Unsure whether their season-opening match was a scrimmage or a counter, the Rams didn’t bowl particular well and lost to Kingsway 3-1. When it was over, Troy gathered his teammates and delivered the line that has defined the season.

They won the next eight matches in a row and won the Tri-County Classic Division title for the first time. The only teams they lost to since delivering the line of the year were the No. 2 seed in SJ Group 2 (14-1-1 Lindenwold) and No. 4 in SJ Group 3 (13-0 Deptford). Both are semifinalists in their respective sectionals. They handed Lindenwold its only loss in their first meeting.

Riverview Sports News caught up with Troy and teammates Semaj Carey and A.J. Carlson on Presidents Day at Wood Lanes practicing for the big match. Here is the conversation. Let’s go 10 frames with the Rams.

Riverview Sports News: Troy, why was it important to you to make sure everybody on your team get recognized for the success it has enjoyed this season?
TC: Without them I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. The energy we bring as a team not only fuels one another but everything we do. Our energy is unmatched. When we put up our energy that’s when we do our best. Those days where we’re flat and lackadaisical that’s when we have all of our mishaps and mistakes happen. We are firm believers if we bring energy, we come ready to play, no matter how we play we’re ready to show up.

The two words we say before every match are ‘energy’ and ‘consistency’ because that’s when we bowl our best, when we’ve got energy because the energy is going to bring our consistency and that’s just going to let the brotherhood and rest of the team grow even more.

RSN: What did you think of Troy thinking so much of you guys to ask you be allowed to join him at the Top 100.
SC: Troy is a factor. He’s basically the leader of the team. He’s like the second coach. He didn’t have to do that. I guess he felt like if he made it, we’re a team, he might as well bring his team with him.

RSN: What is it that makes this team work?
SC: First, we’ve got a good coach, and everybody picks each other up. You make a bad shot and the next man picks you up. It’s always the next man up, help your brother out. It’s a brother sport, for real. If somebody does something bad, we pick them up.

And people stepped up and played a bigger role than they did last year. We have some people who played JV last year, now they’re averaging 170-180 on varsity. They really played a big role.

AJC: The thing that’s made us as strong as we are and consistent as we are is chemistry. We try to keep the energy up. We try not to get in our heads too much. Bowling, from my experience, is mostly mental. You’ve got to make sure to stay on your mark consistently and try to stay out of the negative headspace because the second you start getting in your head you start doing bad and then you bring the team down. We really keep the energy up by just being positive.

TC: Last year we were teammates and everything like that, but we weren’t as tight together as we are now. And that comes from just days when we don’t have practice, just going out as a team or some days before the season just going out with each other just bowling, laughing and joking and hanging out outside of this. We’ve got a bunch of classes together and we talk bowling all the time. At the end of the day I’m just glad I can be a part of a team like this.

There are days where not everybody is going to bowl amazing, but that’s why you’ve got teammates. We play not only a next man up mentality but your next ball be your best one. If you don’t throw a strike, it happens. You’re gonna miss spares, you’re not gonna strike on every ball, but that’s why you have teammates to back you up. That’s why you play for each other.

RSN: Is this team better just because it’s older together?
SC: I wouldn’t say better because they’re older. One, we’ve got a lot of knowledge. Everybody knows how their ball reacts. Nine times out of ten practice is serious. We’re trying to take it all the way this year, so we don’t like negative energy. We don’t like doubting each other. It’s a better run than last year. We had a solid team last year, but I think everybody in some way got better from last year.

TC: We’re firm believers whether you play JV, varsity or you’re just there to support everybody plays a role because at the end of the day we’re supporting each other. We try to stay like a brotherhood as best we can.

RSN: Because you’re basically the new guy, how concerned were you about fitting into the mix and not upsetting the chemistry?
AJC: I know a lot of the members already. My main concern was really just try to be consistent. I’m not exceptional at bowling, but the whole thing was make sure I stay a team player and try to contribute as best I can because you always need somebody who can be consistent.

RSN: Does the success you’re enjoying this year surprise you? I know you got to the sectional semis last year, but they were 5-8-1. Now you’re 10-3 and division champions for the first time with largely the same lineup.
SC: Before the season even started I knew we were going to be something special. It’s like what Troy said before the season. We’re on like Tour. We’re on a generational run. Next man, best man. Next ball, best ball. Pick your brother up.

RSN: Explain to me the origins of this “generational run” concept. Was it something that came off the top of your head that stuck or was it something you’d be thinking about for a while?
TC: We are the first team from Salem ever to win division champs and we’ve gone the farthest any team has. Last year we got to this spot and lost, but I feel like last year for us, yeah, it was a great year, but at the end of the day it wasn’t our full potential. We had great games and everything, but this year it’s really just showing and I just feel like that generational run is just speaking upon how we’re the best team in school history.

RSN: And it started after that first match, right?
TC: We knew at the end of it we’re going to face competition this year, but that kind of drove us that now whoever we play we’ve got to do us, we’ve got to have fun, because at the end of the day, another thing we preach is, if you’re not having fun then there’s no point in doing it. Once you start to lose that focus on just having fun and enjoying it then you’re going to lose the whole point of everything.

After that first game we came over to the huddle and I was like we’ve got to go on a generational run. We’re about to ball out and we indeed did that. I could just tell from the energy and how we were playing as a group that everything was clicking, everybody was just playing their role.

RSN: People come up with those things in sports all time hoping they stick and when they do it makes a great legacy, but could you sense it was going to be special?
TC: I’m not going to lie, after that first match of the season yeah we lost but you could see on the team nobody’s heads were down because we all just sensed the exact same thing: Whoever we play next, it’s personal. As a team that’s all you want to hear. For us, we don’t take losses as a burden, we take it as a learning experience.

RSN: What did you think when Troy brought up the idea of making a “generational run?”
AJC: We weren’t all bowling our best (in that first match) so we lost, but from there we took it as we’re going to keep winning from here. We’re not gonna lose and if we do lose it’ll be a loss because they were better, not that we were doing bad. The main thing was stay positive, take it game by game, and make sure we don’t take it personally, just keep doing the best we can and take it all the way.

GROUP I BOYS BOWLING
Wednesday’s sectional semifinals
SOUTH
No. 5 Asbury Park (6-10) at No. 1 Camden Catholic (9-3-2)
No. 6 Doane Academy (8-10) at No. 2 Salem (10-3)
CENTRAL
No. 6 Roselle Catholic (13-4) at No. 1 Middlesex (17-0)
No. 3 Roselle Park (6-9) at No. 2 Warren Tech (8-4)
NORTH I
No. 4 Butler (17-0) at No. 1 Kinnelon (15-4)
No. 3 Newton (14-3) at No. 2 Pascack Hills (15-0)
NORTH II
No. 4 Belvidere (14-5) at No. 1 North Arlington (22-3)
No. 6 Wallington (14-8) at No. 2 Rutherford (16-5)

Dragotta commemorates 10th anniversary of near-fatal heart attack with ceremonial dash to finish the soccer game he couldn’t before

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SEABROOK – It’s 7 a.m. and the November morning sun is barely rising over the acres of fields that spread out as far as the eye can see. The only people up are the kids getting ready for school and the folks taking them there. It’s so cold you can see your breath.

Out on the Cohansey Soccer Club pitch, readied in advance for one man’s approach, a solitary figure breaks the silence, kicking a soccer ball in an otherwise empty complex.

One man. One ball. One goal. No defense. Just the man against the world.

He dribbles from one end of the shortened field to the other, stopping just once, right around the 18 box.

He shoots. He scores. GOOOOOOAL. 

There was one around to cheer, but the roars inside the man’s head were as loud as any World Cup final.

He takes a picture of the ball in the back of the goal, quietly takes it from the net. Then heads off to Anderson’s Country Store, his inner circle’s favorite meet-up spot, for a big cup of coffee courtesy of his friends and carries on with the rest of his day.

It’s a ritual Pepi Dragotta has repeated every Nov. 18 for the last 10 years. He hasn’t missed yet – either the date or the goal. He’s scored every time.

“I’m just happy to be there, I’m happy to be on that field to finish the game every year,” he said. “Grabbing that ball out of that net is like taking a knee at the end of the (football) game and winning it. I made it, we won, I can go home and relax.”

It may not mean something to anyone else, and may seem an odd activity to anyone unfamiliar with the story, but it means the world to him. And Tuesday it meant even more … for it was 10 years ago to the day fast-acting friends made another kind of save. 

They saved his life.

It was during a kids against the parents soccer game that Dragotta collapsed on the field with a heart attack. But through the quick action of Doug and Deanna Volovar and others he’s here today to take on the challenges and successes of this game called life. 

And he marks the occasion every year, returning like a marathoner who finally gets to finish the race to finish the game and score the goal that never got to happen.

“That’s where I started the game and that’s where I’ve gotta finish the game,” he said.

The incident

Pepi Dragotta was headed home from work as a project manager for a large South Jersey electrical contractor on Nov. 18, 2015 – a typical Wednesday evening – when he got a call from his good friend Chubby Weber. They were going to have a game against the kids for the final practice of that year’s Cohansey soccer season and they wanted him to play.

He had been an active in athletics all his life, from high school football player at Cumberland Regional to longtime youth league coach to Sunday trainer to some of the top athletes in Salem and Cumberland counties. But nothing would have prepared him for what was about it happen.

The game had been going for only about four minutes — at least that’s what they told him later — when Dragotta, two months after his 39^th birthday, collapsed on the field with a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest.

But thanks to the quick action of longtime friend Volovar, his wife Deanna, and two others at the complex, he is here today.

Initially they thought he was having a seizure, but when they got to his side they discovered he had no pulse. The Volovars along with soccer dad Brian Stanker, a state trooper, and Jeanette Bokma, a coach on an adjacent field with medical training, performed CPR and other life-saving procedures to help their friend while emergency services were on the way.

“It was a shock, something that was unexpected and very scary,” said Volovar, now the athletics director at A.P. Schalick High School. “It was very hard to watch that happen. It was very difficult because I didn’t think it was something major at the time but then to watch it happen and unfold and being right there … it was very difficult.

“When you’re trained to do that kind of stuff you always think that it would be no big deal, I’d jump right in. I wouldn’t say it was traumatic, but it was close to something very traumatic.”

The EMTs, who included the nephew of Dragotta’s late business partner, shocked his heart twice. A medivac helicopter landed in the middle of the field to transport him to the hospital. They placed him in an ice bath for 24 hours. He underwent six bypasses.

Because of the quick actions of his friends, his chances of survival went from 6 percent to 28. Not great odds, but he had a fighting chance.

“The hospital was amazed,” Dragotta said. “They said I was one of the first patients that has ever survived out of hospital with a cardiac arrest. But it was because of Doug and Deanna and the other two people, because they kept oxygen going to my brain.”

“Everybody was kind of involved, it wasn’t primarily just the four of us, there were other parents that were there, too, helping out,” Volovar said. “We just started the life-saving procedures we were familiar with. I think we all had a huge role in it. If everybody who was there didn’t do something and contribute in some way he might not still here.”

They told him he was dead for seven minutes. He wasn’t ready for the final whistle. There was still so much to do.

Had he not survived he wouldn’t have been there to teach his soccer-playing son Hunter a new sport and watch him become a record-setting kicker for the Schalick football team. Or watch his daughter Natalee graduate at the top of her high school class. Or be there to help his wife Jen raise their special needs daughter Hailey. Not to mention all the graduations and birthdays and good times that would be missed. 

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it,” Dragotta said. “I travel a lot driving to football and work and different things and you think about it. Like, what happened. That’s what my boss asked me, when you died did you see anything. I said I think I just went to the Gates and said screw this I’m going back.”

Which brings it to this frigid Tuesday morning.

The Dragotta Dash usually takes place with little fanfare. Last year his cousin and a friend showed up to watch, but they stayed in the car and Dragotta carried on as usual. Friends told him over the weekend they’d be there Tuesday because it was a special anniversary, but whether it was the hour, the sub-freezing temperatures or other circumstances he was the only one there this time. And that was OK. 

“I scored the goal, then (Volovar) texted me and said ‘Happy Re-birthday, love ya,’ and I sent him a picture of the ball in the back of the net.”

What would he do if the community ever came out en masse to show their support?

“I would damn well make sure that I made that goal,” he said.

He’s never missed.

Paying it forward

When Dragotta first got out of the hospital, his friends wanted to hold a benefit through the Pittsgrove football and Cohansey soccer programs to help ease some of the financial burden of getting back on his feet. He declined the gesture, saying he wasn’t going to take any money.

His friends persisted and he gave his blessing, but told them he was going to make it big and donate all the money they raised to the local sports leagues. But he didn’t know the proper way.

It started with a series of scholarships for students in the two counties with the Volovars, Stanker and Bokma selecting the recipients.

But the night before the benefit Dragotta decided his way to give back was to buy as many portable defibrillators as he could and give them to as many youth recreation facilities as possible. They raised $12,000 that first year and he purchased 12 AEDs and distributed them throughout South Jersey.

The initiative was so well received the friends started Heroes Foundation NJ and to date has donated 150 devices to recreation facilities throughout the state. Dragotta, an electrician by trade, hooked up the unit on the scoreboard at the Schalick football stadium given in honor of former Cougars coach Mike Hars, who died of a heart attack in 2017.

Ironically, a few years back Dragotta and Stanker helped a soccer official in Marlton survive an in-game heart attack with their knowledge and access to an AED.

Since that fateful day in 2015, Dragotta has been all about his family and friends. He’s glad they’re a part of his life and he let them know during a gathering at his home to mark the occasion Sunday night.

“Honestly, I’m happy to be alive, man, I really am,” he said. “When I’m on these websites and I read things about sudden cardiac survivors and these things, I’m very fortunate. A lot of these people are really in bad shape.

“It’s not about me. It’s about my kids and my family and my friends and everybody else. I love my friends, my family, being able to be out there every Friday and Saturday with my son and spending time with my daughters. And my friends. There’s nothing better than it. Nothing better.”

After winning its first two games on the road, the Salem CC men’s basketball team has risen to No. 2 in the JUCO Division III poll

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Mike Green knew his Salem CC basketball team was going to be playing with a target on its back this season. Well, that target just got a lot bigger.

After winning their first two games on this road last week, the Mighty Oaks have moved to No. 2 in the NJCAA Division III poll that was released Monday. It’s their highest ranking ever. They were No. 5 in the preseason poll.

The Mighty Oaks collected 98 poll points from the voters, seven ahead of No. 3 Riverland. Defending national champion Mohawk Valley (1-0) remains No. 1, picking up all nine first-place votes.

“It’s cool,” Green said. “That looks good for today and it looks good if anybody’s been following from what I’ve been saying at the beginning, when I really first got here, like you want to make it a powerhouse.

“Still got to give credit to that last year’s team. This team has that target on their back. It’s great publicity for Salem, great publicity for everybody involved, but it comes with a certain dedication and a certain swagger you gotta have about it.”

The Mighty Oaks’ first game as the No. 2 team in the country is their home opener Thursday, when they’ll raise the banner for their district championship and fifth-place finish at the national tournament.

“This is a proud moment for our college and community,” athletics director Bob Hughes said. “Being recognized nationally while honoring last year’s championships is a testament to the foundation we’re building here at Salem.”

The Mighty Oaks will see but not play No. 11 Sandhills CC at this weekend’s Penn Highlands Turkey Classic and have three other currently ranked teams on the schedule (Union, Northampton, Montgomery County).

“We’re hunted now,” Green said. “We’ll see how we deal with it.”

JUCO Division III Rankings

TEAM (REGION)	REC	PTS	PV
Mohawk Valley (3) (9 1st-place votes)	1-0	105	1
Salem CC (19)	2-0	98	5
Riverland (13)	2-0	91	7
Northern Essex (21)	4-1	84	8
Minnesota State C&T (13)	1-0	77	4
Dallas Richland (5)	1-3	70	3
Union (NJ) (19)	1-0	63	9
Duchess (15)	3-0	56	10
Herkimer (3)	0-1	49	2
Northampton (19)	3-0	42	12
Sandhills (10)	1-2	34	6
Dallas Mountain View (5)	3-1	23	13
Dallas North Lake (5)	3-0	13	NR
Joliet (4)	2-1	10	NR
Montgomery County (Pa.) (19)	0-0	5	15

Receiving votes: Bunker Hill, North Country, Owens, Hostos, Dallas Eastfield, Ridgewater.

Little, Lee, Rines spark second-half surge that sends No. 5 Salem CC to opening-night win over Atlantic Cape

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

MAYS LANDING – As the reigning fifth-place and preseason fifth-ranked team in the country, Salem CC basketball coach Mike Green knows his team has a target somewhat unfairly on its back this season and will get the best effort from every opponent every game.

The Mighty Oaks, with virtually an entire new team from the one that finished fifth at the nationals a year ago (which makes the target reference unfair), got the best Atlantic Cape had to offer in their season opener Thursday night and they didn’t handle it very well early. One of the players called it the worst half of basketball they’ve played.

But they found the difference between being the high schoolers many of them were at this time last year and the college game during the break, came out a different team in the second half and sank the Buccaneers 80-73.

“We have a lot of freshmen,” said one of them, forward Idris Rines. “We have one returning guy from last year (Stefan Phillips), so that was like our first big test. I think we adjusted well in the second half. We were mentally still in high school (in the first half), but in the second half we were ready for the comeback. We prepared, we stayed together, fought adversity and trusted each other.”

The Mighty Oaks trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and by nine at halftime in large part because they were terribly out rebounded. The Buccaneers had more offensive rebounds (14) than Salem had boards (12) and scored 11 second-chance points off them.

Nasseem Wright and Zyaire Gibson kept them in the half. Wright had 11 points and five rebounds, while Gibson hit three 3-pointers. Wright finished with 15 points, eight boards and eight blocks.

Luckily, the Mighty Oaks were hitting their free throws. They were 14-of-16 from the line in the first half, 28-of-32 in the game. They were 69.9 percent foul shooters as a team last year.

“We struggled with it through the whole jamborees and exhibitions,” Green said. “It’s good to see the work we put in in practice is worth something.”

Their second-half surge was led by Rines, leading scorer Saaid Lee and Jarrell Little. Lee and Little combined for 29 points in the half. Rines scored nine points in the half, including two huge 3-pointers during the comeback.

They also closed the rebounding gap. They were still outrebounded in the half 20-17, but they gave up only five second-chance points.

“We just had to adjust to the game and be more physical with them,” Lee said. “They started off punching us in our face so we had to punch them right back and be physical.”

Little scored all 14 of his points in the final 20 minutes after being held scoreless in the first half. Green getting on him during the break provided the proper incentive.

“Mentally I was out of it,” he said. “This is my first game out of high school so I was struggling at the beginning but I just let the game come to me. I wasn’t ready for the physicality. In high school I used to get fouled a lot, but our here it’s more like a grown men’s game. Every game you’ve gotta play hard.”

At 6-6 one might think Rines would be more comfortable inside than out, but the 3-ball is a big part of his game and Green actually encourages to shoot. He was 2-of-6 behind the arc and also had five rebounds and three blocks.

“My high school coach, Coach (Derek) Brooks, my tenth-grade year (at Upper Dublin), he stepped in – it was his first year – and he really worked with me and my 3-pointers,” Rines said. “I was always a talented 3-point shooter growing up, but once I got into high school I really developed it. I hit over 50 3s my senior year.

“I always have confidence in my 3s, but I think teams probably don’t think so and people think I’m probably an inside post. That’s like a big advantage. People just go in the corner and are like oh he can’t shoot and we just light ‘em up from 3.”

After trailing virtually the whole game, the Mighty Oaks finally got it tied at 53 on a pair of Wright free throws with 11:17 to play. Little gave them their first lead since 2-0 on a layup with 9:48 left.

The teams either traded the lead or had it tied nine times over the next six minutes until Lee gave the Mighty Oaks the lead for good with 3:30 to play. on a layup with 3:01 left. The Buccaneers never got closer than four the rest of the way.

“I recruit toughness, high character kids,” Green said. “They got down and I challenged them at halftime and they responded.

“They’re really high school kids so they’re used to getting on somebody lesser and just taking the ball from them. You’re not going to do that at this level. I think they got the message at halftime and they adapted.”

Salem CC 80, Atlantic Cape 73

SALEM CC (1-0) – Saaid Lee 6 7-8 19, Jarrell Little 5 4-4 14, Nasseem Wright 4 7-8 15, Stefan Phillips 0 2-2 2, Zyaire Gibson 3 0-0 9, Quadeair Smith 0 1-2 1, Lenar Anderson 2 0-0 5, Idris Rines 3 5-6 13, Jaiayre Wright 0 2-2 2. Totals 23-56 28-32 80.
ATLANTIC CAPE (0-1) – John Andalora 1 0-0 2, Quinn Baumann 1 0-0 2, Jaleel Clark 0 0-0 0, Amin Hines 2 4-7 8, Rashad Jalloh 2 0-0 4, Sahmir Jones 1 0-0 2, Olyn Knox 5 6-6 16, Jayden Lopez 0 0-0 0, Justin Moore 1 0-0 2, Carlos Rodriguez 8 4-6 24, Logan Sparks 4 3-7 11, Corey Thomas 1 0-0 2. Totals 26 17-26 73

Salem CC	36	44-	80
Atlantic Cape	45	28-	73

3-point goals: Salem CC 6-20 (Little 0-2, Gibson 3-7, Anderson 1-1, Rines 2-6, Phillips 0-3, Smith 0-1); Atlantic Cape 4 (Rodriguez 4). Fouled out: Jones. Total fouls: Salem CC 19, Atlantic Cape 25.

Mighty Oaks women have a lot to work on after one-point scrimmage loss at home to Penn State-Brandywine; visitors won it on FT with five seconds left

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT — Scrimmages are supposed to teach a team things they just can’t get in a regular practice. And in the case of the Salem CC women, it’s a practice with a limited number of players.

One of the things the Mighty Oaks learned in their first scrimmage of the season Thursday is they have to be prepared to take a team’s best punch at the start of the second half.

The Mighty Oaks took an eight-point lead into halftime, but they were outscored 13-1 in the first three minutes of the third quarter to lose that lead. They did get back on their feet and actually regained the lead, but eventually fell to Penn State-Brandywine 45-44 on a free throw with five seconds to play.

They only had seven regulars available and on some days have to send their assistant coaches into action just to have enough to practice.

“We’re a young team, we’ve been coming off a lot of injuries, we’re just finally getting healthy,” coach Brian Marsh said. “They haven’t seen (a) a 5-on-5 and (b) a team that plays this hard, this scrappy. It’s really hard to run an offense against a team like this.

“Even though that defense is trying to speed you up and speed you up, that’s when you have to calm down and run some things. That’s exactly why we’re doing these scrimmages. We’re just trying to get this thing straightened out.”

Salem took a 20-12 lead into halftime, but the Lions came out of the break with energy, turned the Mighty Oaks over at an alarming rate and had as many points in those opening three minutes of the third quarter as they’d scored the entire first half.

At one point in the second half, Salem had as many turnovers in the game as Brandywine had points (35) and finished with 43 for the game. Their final turnover led to the game-winning free throw.

“They gave us a lot of problems, but our guards have to do a better job and our coaches have to do a better job,” Marsh said. “Unfortunately, with so many injuries, we weren’t able to put that kind of pressure on our point guards. They don’t see it until today, so it’s kind of hard to know what you’re going to go up against if you haven’t gone up against it yet.”

The run actually became 18-2 and the Mighty Oaks fell behind 30-22. They didn’t hit a field goal in the first seven minutes of the half.

But they were never too far back to make a comeback. They moved their defense up closer to half-court, got the game tied on Raynescia King’s steal and layup with 4:07 to play and actually regained the lead on Tanijya Shaw[s layup off Justine Cardona’s steal with 2:24 left.

Brandywine retied it at 44 with less than a minute to play. The Mighty Oaks called time with 18.2 seconds left to set up their end game. They put the ball in play from in front of their bench, but lost it on the baseline. The Lions got it to midcourt where King collided with Tejanae Ballin with five seconds left.

Ballin, a freshman, hit her first free throw to break the tie, but missed the second. Salem’s Paula Wilson corralled the rebound and got it out to Jayda Hunter, who got it to Shaw, but Shaw got turned around on the left side of the 3-point line and couldn’t get off a shot before the horn sounded.

Shaw led the Mighty Oaks with 24 points and was their only scorer in double figures. Kasey Oliver was their top rebounder with 15, but Dani Gustin, Wilson and Shaw each had five.

“Give our girls credit, we played really hard,” Marsh said. “I said I thought our effort was great, our execution needs a lot of work. We have five scrimmages to get this thing straight for (the season opener) Nov. 4.

“I think the girls did an excellent job of not giving up. They didn’t hang their head and they just kept fighting and fighting. That’s what this program is going to be built upon, the toughness and the never-say-die attitude.”

The Salem CC men’s team, preseason ranked No. 5 in JUCO Division III, went to Alvernia for a scrimmage and “got handled.” Jarrell Little led the Mighty Oaks with 16 points. Lamar Anderson had 12.

PSU-Brandywine	7	5	23	10-	45
Salem CC	8	12	9	15-	44

Salem scoring: Jayda Hunter 0 0-2 0, Tanijya Shaw 9 5-10 24, Dani Gustin 2 0-0 4, Kasey Oliver 0 5-8 5, Raynescia King 2 1-2 5, Paula Wilson 1 0-0 2, Imara James 0 1-2 1, Justine Cardona 0 3-4 3.

Salem rebounding: Jayda Hunter 3, Tinijya Shaw 5, Dani Gustin 5, Kasey Oliver 13, Raynescia King 4, Paula Wilson 5, Imara James 1, Justine Cardona 1.

Free throws: Salem CC 15-28, PSU-Brandywine 8-24.

Turnovers: Salem CC 43, PSU-Brandywine 32.

Top photo: Salem CC women’s basketball coach Brian Marsh makes a point to guards Raynescia King (00) and Justine Cardona during the first quarter of their scrimmage with Penn State-Brandywine.

Pennsville’s Cooksey back on soccer field after year-long medical ordeal that led to a ‘season of loss’

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – From now on, every time Karsen Cooksey looks at the calendar the first day of August will forever be known as her “Day of Victory.”

It may be just another day on other calendars, but it should be a national holiday in the Cooksey household for that was the day the Pennsville soccer player left her temporary North Carolina home for good, released from a 12-month medical ordeal that threatened to prematurely end her high school sports career and change her life forever.

Cooksey suffered a debilitating knee injury during a pre-training camp exercise at the start of her sophomore year – right before Casey Slusher’s first preseason practice as the Eagles’ new head coach – but the complications that followed her surgery moved her life into a desperate search for answers and ultimately what she refers to as a “season of loss.”

The surgery went wrong and left the family searching for a miracle. That arrived in the form of four months of Olympic-level therapy at a clinic in Cary, N.C., 6 1/2 hours and 400 miles away from home and friends.

Sure, she lost her sophomore soccer season, but she also missed out getting ready for her oldest sister’s wedding with the girls because of an appointment with the surgeon, the prom and hanging out with her friends, and all the other things that come with being an active teen.

Pretty scary stuff for a 15-year-old who aspired to follow her cousin as a 100-goal scorer for the Eagles, but through a world-renowned doctor and support from her family, teammates and community she avoided a third surgery, got well and is happily back on the field playing the sport she loves.

“It’s a miracle,” says Karsen’s mom Michelle, who doesn’t use the term lightly as Children’s Ministries Coordinator for Lifehouse Church in Townsend, Del.

A miracle is defined as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs and it certainly applies as the Cookseys were definitely at a financial and emotional wits end as they fretted over their youngest daughter’s circumstances.

‘Knew’ something was wrong

It all started in a summer team camp before the start of official varsity practice when Karsen, the Eagles’ top goal-scorer as a freshman, hyperextended her knee during a simple passing drill. It was the same knee she initially hurt in a basketball game at Clayton that February.

She spent five weeks doing rehab before her doctor decided on surgery. The first surgery was performed in Delaware Oct. 23, an arthroscopic procedure designed to repair the injury, and it didn’t take long for the family to realize something was wrong.

“People usually get up and start walking after meniscus (surgery), but the pain was like crazy,” Karsen said. “I couldn’t put my toes on the ground. A week went by and it was awful. 

“I couldn’t do the normal things like straighten it, move it, put pressure on it. It was just all messed up.”

Four days after the operation she was back in the hospital. X-rays and ultrasounds were inconclusive, but an MRI revealed something disturbing. The pictures the family saw showed a nerve attached to the repaired meniscus. 

A second surgery was performed in Delaware Dec. 3 to “decompress the nerve.” All seemed well two days after the operation, but a few days later Karsen’s leg began shaking and then shaking violently and she was back in the hospital for another week. She was in a wheelchair from December to February, but at least she was home for Christmas and didn’t miss the Eagles winning the Super Bowl – on her birthday.

To complicate matters, all the medicine she was taking in an effort to quiet the nerve was starting to attack her system. There was talk of removing organs. She was back in the hospital in March. 

“So many things were going wrong, I guess we just didn’t even really know,” Karsen said.

The family started looking for other options, among them a trip to Baltimore for a second opinion at Johns Hopkins. 

“I had a lot of people throwing a lot of things our way and they were some big, big, big scary things and I never had a peace about any of them,” Michelle said. “I was just like, ‘Lord, please close doors that we should not walk through and open ones that are for us.’”

Finally, eldest sister Taylor, a medical professional, found Dr. David Pascal in part through a series of social media videos and testimonials from the world-class athletes he has treated in the past.

He could fix this, not through surgery or drugs but his technique of “quantum neurology.” But it would require the family pulling up stakes and moving to North Carolina.

According to his bio on the Institute website, Pascal, a chiropractor, specializes in severe neurologic injury, focusing on identifying the root causes of health issues and developing personalized treatment plans that promise long-term healing. He has treated track Olympians, world-class gymnasts, pro golfers and pro volleyball players.

On March 11, Michelle’s birthday, they were driving back from the hospital when the call came from the Pascal Health Institute that they’d see her. “The best birthday present ever,” Michelle said.

They left for North Carolina April 21.

Outpouring of support

The treatment wasn’t cheap and not covered by insurance, but the family had a lot of help to make ends meet. Dad Kirk quickly sold the family boat, a retirement gift to himself after a long career in local law enforcement, to get the financial ball rolling. It sold two hours after the listing drew multiple buyers. “Right then and there we knew something was headed in the right direction,” Kirk said.

Friends quietly set up a GoFundMe page that raised more than $41,000 in two days. Trinity United Methodist Church in Pennsville offered to take care of the apartment the family would have to live in while Karsen was undergoing treatment.

“It was one miracle after another that my little mind still can’t even fathom,” Michelle said.

The treatments were twice-a-day, two hours a day. It was an exhausting schedule, but there were some diversions.

Their apartment was next to the WakeMed Soccer Park, home of the North Carolina Courage of the National Women’s Soccer League. Karsen visited often and received encouragement from several players from the Courage and Orlando Pride during her treatment and recovery, and remains friends with several of them. She went to watch the Pride play in Washington, D.C., Saturday.

One of the milestone days was July 8, the day they took her crutches away. But she still had three more weeks of therapy. 

She was released from the Institute Aug. 1, the Day of Victory, and came back home with the doctor’s caution of maybe returning to the field next year. But all her fears were finally behind her and she was looking forward to future.

“I think I was probably more worried about walking again than whether I’d play soccer,” Karsen said. “I think if I never found Dr. Pascal I’d probably still be in a wheelchair.”

She returned to normal activities almost as soon as she got home, and that included lightly practicing with her Pennsville teammates.

Back in the game

The year before Cooksey got hurt, she was the Eagles’ leading scorer with 14 goals. The team scored only 30 goals in the year she missed – 13 of them in two games – and no one scored more than nine. This year, they are 8-6 and go into this week looking to solidify the program’s first winning season in 2022 and a prime position in the South Jersey Group I tournament

She was back in the game for the first time in 23 months on Sept. 29 as the last-minute starting goalie in a predictively low-impact game against Buena and even made two saves in an easy shutout. She was back at it the next day against Salem Tech and, after texting her reluctant mom during the game for permission to play in the field, scored the team’s fifth goal in a 9-0 rout.

It was her first goal since she scored a hat trick Oct. 23, 2023 – against Salem Tech – but it meant so much more than any goal she’s ever scored in her life.

“I was excited,” Karsen said.

“That one goal this year means more to us than the 100 because it’s victory,” Michelle said. “The 100 aren’t important because the one means she’s walking. The 100 doesn’t mean anything if there’s not true victory behind it, and that one is victory. 

“It means there’s no wheelchair. It means we’ve persevered, we’ve had joy. That one is the win.”

Mom admitted the ordeal had them all reorienting their perspective on sports, but Karsen is thinking about her future. She probably won’t play basketball again, but is thinking about playing softball. She was a catcher, but that constant crouching puts a strain, so that’s probably out; plus, the Eagles have a pretty good one already. They did graduate two outfielders, so there’s an opening.

That’s really all she needs.

The Tri-Cape All-Stars survive triple-digit temperatures, two one-run games to win their second Carpenter Cup softball title in three years

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PHILADELPHIA – While they were warming up, even before the first pitch of the first game, the Tri-Cape Softball All-Stars made a pact.

It was going to be all or nothing. They went for the all.

The Tri-Capers won three games do-or-die games in Monday’s bracket round to sweep their way to a second Carpenter Cup softball title in three years. They beat Delaware South in the title game 3-2 after taking down Jersey Shore 9-0 and Delaware County 2-1 on a walk-off passed ball.

“Before we even played any games (Monday), when we were warming up, we said ‘All or nothing,’” Pennsville infielder Graillyn Weber said. “If we lose the first game we’d be done or win the first game and win the whole thing. That’s pretty much what it was.”

What it definitely was was hot. The games at FDR Park were played in temperatures that hovered around 100 degrees, but the Tri-Capers didn’t wilt – even under the intensity of a couple one-run games.

They beat Delaware County in the semifinals when courtesy runner Trinity Brown of Oakcrest raced home on a passed ball with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. They took the lead against Delaware South on Tori Jester’s two-out single in the sixth. 

Ocean City’s Jess Mooney set South down in order in the seventh with Woodstown’s Ellie Wygand squeezing the final out on a fly ball to left field touching off a big celebration. Weber turned a leaping double play in the top of the sixth to keep the game tied.

“When we first got the trophy we all jumped and held it up,” Weber said. “It was pretty cool. It was like one of those moments you see on TV when a team wins something and holds up the big trophy. That was a cool moment.”

Weber and Wygand both had a hit in the rout of Jersey Shore and Weber had a hit against Delaware South.

Tri-Cape never trailed in the championship game, but they never had it in hand until the sixth. Brooke Douglas’ RBI double gave them a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Adeline Lutz tied with an RBI single in the third. They regained the lead on Ava Snyder’s RBI single in the bottom of the third, but Delaware South tied it again in the fifth.

“I knew we were going to win it, honestly; I just knew it,” Weber said. “Because we had such a solid team. We had all the best players I felt like.”

“Loved getting to play on the field with so many elite and talented players,” Wygand wrote on her X feed. “What an honor! What a blast!”

Tri-Cape won the Cup in 2023 and 2014. Pennsville coach Beth Jackson has been on the staff for all three titles. Schalick coach Rick Higinbotham has been on the staff for the last two.

This year’s team went 6-0 in the tournament, winning three one-run games, and outscored their opponents 42-13.

“It’s always fun,” Jackson said. “It’s a new group of kids. Every year they’re a great group of kids and they always work together. We only have two practices and they come together and play for two days and they win. It’s always amazing.”

The team will be recognized along with the Carpenter Cup baseball champions in Citizens Bank Park prior to the Phillies’ Aug. 4 game against Baltimore. 

CARPENTER CUP PLAYOFFS
Monday’s Games
SOL/BAL 7, Lehigh Valley 1
Delaware South 4, Berks L/L 3
Tri-Cape 9, Jersey Shore 0
Delaware County 4, Delaware North 1
Delaware South 4, SOL/BAL 1
Tri-Cape 2, Delaware County 1
Tri-Cape 3, Delaware South 2