Team sent players to varsity level
By: John Beisser
Every successful athletic program has a built-in feeder system where young players can develop without the glare and pressure inherent on the varsity level. This past season, the Manville High boys’ soccer program was fortunate to field a junior varsity team where young can players had the opportunity to hone their skills and develop their games.
Under the direction of Tim Moore, a math teacher in his fist year in the Manville school district, the young Mustangs learned the fundamentals of the game while participating in a competitive environment.
"We started the season with 13 jayvee players and 15 on the varsity," Manville varsity coach Mike Shambach said. "It was great having a jayvee team and Tim did a nice job with them. He also coached our goalies on the varsity level and he was instrumental in their development. I had to grab some kids from the jayvee and move them up to varsity and that made it tough at times to the kids who remained on the jayvee."
Four key players were elevated from jayvee to varsity. Freshman Cesar Mora quickly caught Moore’s eye early in the season and, before long, he became a varsity player.
"It wasn’t too far into the season when I turned to Mike and said, ‘Cesar is pretty good. He could really help the varsity.’"
Another pair of freshmen, Frank Calderon and Doug Bradley, were also elevated to the varsity.
Perhaps the best example of the benefits of having a jayvee program came in the case of Matt Zangara. A talented, yet somewhat raw athlete at the outset of the season, Zangara began the year as the jayvee team’s starting goalkeeper. Once he had a few games under his belt, it became apparent that Zangara was a natural leader and not your typical sophomore athlete. He had a maturity and a presence about him that suggested he was ready for varsity competition.
One day at about the mid-point of the season, as Moore and Shambach were evaluating the merits of moving Zangara up, the varsity goalkeeper, Andrew Saultz, became ill. Zangara became the varsity starter at that point and from then on, played most of the rest of the season in goal for the varsity squad.
"Matt really gave the varsity a boost," Moore said. "He seemed to give the lineup new life. Although he was just a sophomore, he really became a vocal leader back there. He had no problem yelling at seniors, taking control and telling them where they needed to be."
There’s no telling if Zangara would have been as successful without having the benefit of getting his feet wet on the jayvee level first. At some points during the season, the varsity’s gain was the jayvee team’s loss, which put some stress on the remainder of the jayvee lineup.
The varsity and jayvee games are generally played at the same time on adjoining fields. In some cases, players were elevated to the varsity even during a jayvee game. The jayvee team might be in a decent groove when, all of a sudden, some of its best players were lost to the varsity.
"We’d be in the middle of a game when I’d look over and here comes a runner from the varsity field and he’d say ‘Coach Shambach needs Frank (Calderon) or Doug (Bradley),’" Moore said. "Sometimes it got a little frustrating for the guys left on the jayvee because we’d have to finish the game with maybe nine or 10 players. I tried to stress to the guys that this was a positive. If they worked hard enough, there’d be a shot for them on the varsity. Plus, playing all of these minutes on the jayvee would prepare them for next season when hopefully they’ll be contributing on the varsity."
With all of the attrition on the jayvee roster, the team scratched out just one win, a 3-2 decision over Belvidere. The jayvee team, however, fulfilled its role as a developer of young players and a feeder to the varsity. In a more perfect scenario – and Shambach is hopeful this will be the case in future years as the talent progresses – there will be less of a need for the varsity to pull as much from the jayvee. A more stable scenario would have the jayvee and varsity roster’s remaining more intact throughout the season. Due to injury, illness and a lack of overall depth, Manville did not have the luxury this past season.
"It was tough at times but I have a great relationship with Mike (Moore)," Shambach said. "He did a great job with the jayvee team, really helped all of our goalies and it was good to have a second set of eyes to help me as the head coach."

