Rain wreaked havoc on schedules, title hopes
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff Laura Gatti (l) and her Freehold Borough teammates had to wait a week to celebrate their B North Division title after the rain postponed their efforts to clinch the title.

Rich Kane has a saying, “Your best friend is your fellow AD [athletic director].”

This week, Freehold Regional District supervisors of extracurricular activities are experiencing what Kane, the athletic director at Manalapan and Colts Neck high schools before his retirement, meant.

Area supervisors were burning up the phone lines, calling on all of their resources this week to find games or open dates for makeups. Last week’s torrential rains put schedules on hold, causing a mass scramble to find new playing dates. The supervisors will find out which ADs and coaches are their best friends as they look not only to make up games, but also get their teams into the postseason.

It’s never a good week to have outside activities canceled, but last week was about as bad as it gets. With the state deadlines approaching for teams to be .500 or better to get into the postseason, the lost games sent coaches and ADs to the phones in a near panic to find games that could make their team eligible.

The Manalapan girls soccer team was one of those teams caught in the pinch. The Braves started the week 5-6-1, but lost its three scheduled games to the rain. To qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament (SCT), the Braves had to be .500 as of Monday, Oct. 17.

“We made about 50 calls to get a game,” Garretson said.

The Braves got one for Monday at Toms River South. A win gets them into the SCT.

Also, very much on Manalapan’s mind was the state playoffs. Teams have to be .500 or better to make the state sectionals as of Friday. The Braves plan on playing three games this week and will have to go 2-1 to make the states.

This is an unusual season for the Braves. They are not accustomed to being a bubble team. At the very least, they are contending for a title and not fighting to the end to make the postseason. The state playoffs were always a given.

“Injuries have been the big story,” Garretson said. “Finally, now, we’re healthy. The girls have worked real hard to be in this position. We hope to get on a little run if we can get into the playoffs. Maybe we can peak a little later in the season.”

Manalapan has played most of the year without its leading scorer, Sue Candiano, and best marking back, Annie Perragine, who are both back in the lineup and healthy. Their return has Manalapan back playing its best ball of the year. They will be a dangerous team if they make the postseason party.

“We’ve had great leaders who held it together,” Garretson said.

He praised senior captains Meghan Manisero, Brenna Zielinski, Angelica Lyons and Sam Grzelak with keeping the team’s head high while the losses were mounting up. The reward, they hope, is a couple of wins this week.

Garretson pointed to another problem with rescheduling — finding officials. With so many teams scrambling under deadlines, it will extend the limited officiating pool. Garretson noted that because Manalapan was already scheduled to play Monday, getting officials to their match won’t be a problem.

Freehold Township’s girls were in the same position as Manalapan this week with a 5-6-1 record and looking for games. Carolyn Beismann’s Patriots will have to be .500 by week’s end to get into the states.

Colts Neck’s field hockey team is one team that benefited from the rainouts. Thursday was the deadline to be .500 to make the SCT, and with not being able to play any games, Christine Conover’s Cougars got in at 6-6-1.

Rich Yuro Howell boys soccer team also made it into the SCT at 6-6-1. The Rebels lost all of their games last week to remain at .500 and made the SCT. Howell must remain at .500 on Friday to make the state tournament.

The rains also delayed coronations.

Jerry Acevedo’s Freehold Borough field hockey team is 12-0-1 and all but assured of winning the B North Division title for a second straight year. But they still have to win, or tie, one more game to secure the championship. That was put on hold last week.

Colts Neck’s girls soccer team has a game to make up with St. John Vianney (SJV) that is rather important. If Dave Irvine’s Cougars can beat SJV, they will have secured the public schools A Central title. But when they get around to playing the game, both teams will have been off for a week.

Art Collier’s Cougar boys also have the potential to win a division title. They are in a three-team race in A Central with Raritan and Holmdel. But they need to beat SJV in their only remaining divisional game to have any chance of getting a co-championship. With many games to be made up before the issue is settled, it could be quite some time before we know who wins the division.

Marlboro will be playing a lot of tennis once the weather clears up. Needless to say, no tennis matches were played outdoors last week. The defending A North champions are 5-0 in the division and have yet to play Ocean, which is 7-0. The two matches between these schools will determine who eventually wins the division title.

The rains also stretched the use of the school’s facilities, with teams forced to go inside, including football teams.

It was definitely a good week, though, for the gymnastics and volleyballs teams, which lost no competitions to the rain.