Jul 20, 2008 11:15 pm US/Eastern
17 New Jersey Athletes Headed For Beijing
LUMBERTON, N.J. (AP) ―
The soccer field is so rudimentary
that there are no lines painted on it, just goals and big orange cones.
But the players at the Universal Soccer Academy
are focused, dribbling through a maze of cones, then planting and shooting on goal.
Most of them are
tweens. One is decidedly not: Carli Lloyd, a starting midfielder for the U.S.
women's team, who is taking her kicks along with the kids.
"I do the same
stuff they do," says Lloyd, who stands out because she's a head taller
than most of the players and because her shoes are the bright red ones worn by
the national team. "Just working on technique."
When she's not with the
national team, Lloyd can often be found at the soccer academy, which is run by
her personal coach.
She is among at least
10 women and seven men from New
Jersey or living here who are destined for this
summer's Olympic Games; at least another six athletes from the state are
alternates.
Most of the
Olympians-to-be are in their 20s and most of them train for their sport
full-time. They include Lloyd and three other women's soccer players from the
suburbs, a sharpshooter from the Pine Barrens and the rarest of athletic breeds
-- a swimmer from inner city Irvington.
While some live in New Jersey, several of them spend most of their time in
hotbeds for their sport, or at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. But competing as youngsters
in New Jersey
gave several of them their starts.
They include Olympic
veterans such as soccer player Christine Rampone, of Point
Pleasant, who won a silver in 2000 and a gold in 2004, and Matt
Emmons of Pemberton, who won a gold in prone shooting in 2004; and first-timers
Erin Donohue, a 1,500-meter runner from Haddonfield, and Rebecca Soni, a
swimmer from Plainsboro.
Some, like sailor Sarah
Mergenthaler, always dreamed of becoming Olympians, though her earliest goal
was to play soccer.
Lloyd says she didn't
dream of being on the Olympic soccer team as a kid; she just loved playing.
In a break between
international Olympic warmup matches, Lloyd, 25, was working out with much
younger players in front on an audience of appreciative soccer moms and dads.
"This has been an
inspiration," said Mimi Guzman, mother of 10-year-old Olympic dreamer
Sarah Guzman.
Lloyd grew up in Delran
and was a star at Rutgers. She was on the
national under-21 team five years ago and was looking for a way to make the
leap to the main team, which featured soccer legends like Mia Hamm and Brandi
Chastain.
The answer was
Australian-born James Galanis, who coached her younger brother's club team.
Galanis agreed to train
Lloyd to become an elite player. He refined her technique, gave her workouts to
increase strength and endurance, and worked with her on the mental aspects of
the game.
"I wouldn't say I
was a nutcase," she said. "But I wasn't as confident as I should have
been."
Galanis' drilling is
why Lloyd, who scored goals in games earlier this month against Norway and Sweden, was back on the practice
field near her home last week.
Other athletes,
meanwhile, were scattered around the world preparing.
Wrestler Steve Mocco
was in Tempe, Ariz., getting ready for his matches in the
120 kilogram (or 264.5 pound) weight class.
He spent his college
days wrestling at the University of Iowa and Oklahoma
State. But it was at Blair Academy
in Blairstown, a private New Jersey
high school renowned for wrestling, that he saw his future on the mat.
"It was when I
started seeing myself as a wrestler," Mocco said. "That that was what
I wanted to do." The Olympics soon became part of the goal, because in
wrestling they represent the ultimate championship.
Blairstown coach, Jeff
Buxton, took Mocco around the country to wrestle against other competitors who
were at the top of the sport.
Another New Jersey coach helped
get an unlikely Olympian his start.
Ed Nessel, known to generations
of New Jersey
swimmers as Coach
Nessel, calls Cullen Jones "The Stork" for his
lanky form. Earlier this month, Jones
broke the American record in the 50 meter freestyle -- the sport's version of a
sprint.
But Nessel recalls when
he was just a teenager from Irvington
who was in Nessel's swimming program.
Jones stood out on the
youth swimming circuit because of his skill, but also because he was one of
only a few competitive black swimmers.
"Some New Jersey coaches were
asking: 'What do you care about the black kid,"' Nessel said. "My
answer was, 'Is he black? He's so fast I didn't notice."'
Jones has become a
shining example of Nessel's teaching methods.
The former pharmacist who now coaches swimmers in Florida taught Jones to think about racing
strategy, not just sprinting. He says his bond was especially intense with
Jones because the young athlete's father and one of Nessel's sons died at about
the same time.
One of his lessons is
evidence at the start of every race: Jones always reaches down and puts his
hands on the rough surface of the starting blocks just before the race to
increase the sensation on his fingers.
"It's a certain
ritual that he did since he was 13 years old," Nessel said. "I took
certain pride because of how he retained it."
It's not just coaches
who helped the athletes break into the top level of their sports.
Mergenthaler, the
sailor who is currently training in China, said her family of sailors
has been important too.
"When I quit my job to train
full time, they were nothing but excited for me," the 29-year-old former
money manager said in an e-mail. "I think some other families might have
thought I was crazy!"
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