Marlboro athletes making college plans

By Mike Zummo
Posted 6/23/21

 

Gary Trapani said he’s like a pack rat.

In that vast array of things he doesn’t throw out was a letter written by then-sixth grader Lizzie Lofaro, who outlined her favorite …

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Marlboro athletes making college plans

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Gary Trapani said he’s like a pack rat.

In that vast array of things he doesn’t throw out was a letter written by then-sixth grader Lizzie Lofaro, who outlined her favorite activity.

Basketball.

She loved that “my friends are on my team and my dad is the coach”. She also loved that “it’s a fast-paced game.”

Lofaro, on June 15, was one of four student-athletes receiving Division I and II scholarships. She will be attending Division II College of Staten Island and she shared the stage with fellow seniors, Erica Petrie, Joyce Ryder and Alyssa Macur, all of whom will be playing soccer in college.

Lofaro started playing 13 years ago when her father put the ball in her hand and the rest had become history, and she made sure she thanked everyone who played a role in getting her to where she is now.

She had the longest journey with former Marlboro coach Marion Appler, who she met with her parents when she was about to enter fifth grade.

“They told you I play basketball and you looked and me and said, ‘maybe you will play varsity basketball for me.’ While I was lucky enough for four years with you, you’ve pushed me, believed in me and had my back.”

While she didn’t lose a season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, winter was relegated to a whirlwind 26-day season, which denied her the opportunity to score her 1,000th career point and a third-straight sectional championship.

Petrie and Ryder nearly found themselves without a team when Marlboro’s girls’ soccer team didn’t have enough players to participate in the Fall 2 season but found a home on the boys’ team.

Petrie is going to play at Division I Fairleigh Dickinson and Ryder is attending Division I University of Connecticut.

Girls’ coach Jacoba Smith said both were natural leaders and told a story about when the team was waiting for all the players to get picked up and Petrie waited with them.

“And that’s just something that a family does,” Smith said. “You watch out for each other. You take care of each other and that’s when I found out she was going to take care of the team no matter what.”

Ryder was the first to join the boys’ team in the fall and she didn’t second-guess the decision.

“They welcomed me right from the beginning and never made me feel uncomfortable,” Ryder said. “I can’t thank them for enough for the memories and the amount of fun I had playing with them. This team is more than I had hoped for, and I’ll never forget.”

Marlboro boys’ soccer coach Jim Ventriglia said he was grateful to the experience and talent Petrie and Joyce brought to his team during the March/April season.

“As a coach I’m grateful because they both broughy a certain level of experience and talent,” he said. “They don’t hold back. They have these qualities where they go out there and were put in a really strange situation with these girls playing with guys. They took it in stride. They belong.”

Alyssa Macur hasn’t played for the Marlboro girls’ soccer team since she was a sophomore and spent most of her time playing for the Force Football Club, based in Central Valley.

Smith said Macur was an exceptional goalkeeper.

“I knew then she had quick hands, quick feet and you were an exceptional goalkeeper. She had so many saves, exceptional saves that I didn’t know how she did that. So, I know she’s going to do great at Pace.”