Youth soccer players from East Brunswick will learn firsthand what it takes to be a professional this spring.
FILE PHOTO After returning from Beijing, where the U.S. women’s soccer team took the gold, Heather O’Reilly paid a visit to the East Brunswick Soccer Club’s Labor Day tournament, signing hundreds of autographs. That’s because the East Brunswick Soccer Club has launched a partnership with Sky Blue FC, a women’s professional soccer team that this year celebrates its inaugural season.
“We really felt this was an opportunity to support [the new team],” said Ron Brandsdorfer, president of EBSC, a travel and recreational soccer organization open primarily to township youths ages 4 to 19. “We wanted to put our money where our mouth was.”
It’s also a chance for the EBSC to celebrate its famous alumna, Heather O’Reilly, a player for Sky Blue FC, who secured an Olympic gold medal in Beijing last summer. O’Reilly started playing in the EBSC from the age of 4 or 5, Brandsdorfer said, and also played for East Brunswick High School before going on to the U.S. National Team. She will now play forward for New Jersey-based Sky Blue FC.
“We are just so proud of all the things she accomplished,” Brandsdorfer said, adding that O’Reilly is a success in every sense of the word. “As great a soccer player as she is, she’s an even better person. Heather’s just been so supportive of our club and of youth soccer in general.”
O’Reilly said she’s excited about partnering with her old team.
“The East Brunswick Soccer Club helped me become the player that I am,” O’Reilly said. “And I am so excited that they will be able to see me play the game professionally. Nothing feels better as a professional athlete than knowing the younger players in the stands are rooting for you and looking up to you.”
Sky Blue FC will be a positive force in EBSC players’ lives, said Elizabeth McSpiritt, vice president of girls’ recreation for the club. “There are so few women role models in professional sports that girls can look up to,” she said, adding that there are many positive things that come from playing sports, such as a boost in self-esteem and a healthier lifestyle.
“Anything we can do to get the girls involved in sports is great, and Sky Blue absolutely helps with that,” McSpiritt said.
As part of the partnership, EBSC players will be able to take advantage of the 100 seats the club has purchased for each Sky Blue FC game this season. Sky Blue FC will play its home games at Yurcak Field, located at Rutgers University in Piscataway, and at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater. The team’s first game is April 5, when Sky Blue FC will take on the Los Angeles Sol at the Bridgewater field.
Partnering with a local team, Bransdorfer said, is logistically easier for players and their parents than traveling to larger venues like the Meadowlands.
“All the kids are going to have opportunities to go to these games,” he said. “It’s in our backyard.”
But members of the EBSC will do more than watch Sky Blue games — they’ll also be assisting at games as ball girls and boys and playing exhibition matches during Sky Blue FC games. The professional team’s coaches also will take some time during the season to work with EBSC players, Brandsdorfer said.
“Sky Blue is being very cooperative with us,” he added.
Launched in 1975, the EBSC has about 1,500 members, said Brandsdorfer, who coaches boys soccer for the organization. Forty percent of the club’s players are girls, said McSpiritt, who said the amount of girls in the organization has been growing by about 10 percent each year.
Soccer is an extremely popular sport in East Brunswick.
“It’s always been big,” Brandsdorfer said, citing the numerous county championships that the East Brunswick High School girls team has won. The Bears, according to published reports, have won 26 of 29 county/conference championships.
“East Brunswick has a great soccer history at the youth and high school level,” Brandsdorfer said.
But now the young women in the EBSC can learn about taking their soccer skills to the next level — the professional level — thanks to Sky Blue FC.
“Hopefully this will be something our girls can aspire to as well,” Brandsdorfer said. “We believe in the importance of women’s soccer. For the girls, this is really their only chance to see professional soccer for women.”
“I really appreciate the support from the East Brunswick Soccer Club,” O’Reilly added. “It was great playing in the club, and I’m very excited to see the EBSC players at our Sky Blue games.”
McSpiritt said she hopes this is the first of many years partnering with Sky Blue FC and said she looks forward to EBSC members building relationships with the professional athletes and their coaches.
“I think it’s going to be great,” she said. “I hope it’s going to be a longtime partnership.”