Brick 13-Year-Old Chasing Soccer Dreams At U.S. National Camp

BRICK, NJ — Reese Beggs has been playing soccer almost since she could walk. The 13-year-old from Brick Township has wanted to be a professional soccer player almost as long.

This weekend, while her friends and family are bundling up against the cold, Reese will be running around in shorts and T-shirts and spending hours with a ball at her feet as she takes part in the U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program Girls National Training Camp in Phoenix, Arizona. While she's there, she'll be training with more than 200 girls from around the country, all of whom are chasing the same dream: to someday be part of the U.S. Women's National Team.

Reese, who started playing soccer at the age of 3, has been in the ODP program for three years. She was one of 28 players out of 74 in her age group selected to the national team camp from Region 1 at the regional camp in Florida in November.

"It feels great knowing that all my training and hard work has paid off," Reese said in a phone interview prior to her trip. "I'm looking forward to being around a lot of girls like me," she said, girls for whom soccer is about more than just kicking the ball around.

Like many kids in the Jersey Shore area, Reese taking up soccer wasn't a surprising development; her parents, Chris and Joy, played the sport from youth league until they were in high school. Chris played at Point Pleasant Boro, graduating in 1990, and Joy played at Brick, where she graduated in 1991.

"I love the competitiveness, the physical part of the game," said Reese, who's a forward. So she trains, 10 to 12 hours a week, ball work some days, running others, with more hours logged when her club team, the Twin County Xtreme, is in season, because of games and tournaments on weekends.

Reese would love to follow in the footsteps of her favorite soccer player, Christie Rampone, whom Reese has known since she was little, because Chris has known the U.S. Women's National Team star since childhood. As much as Reese loves the game, however, Chris and Joy are realistic about the possibilities and pitfalls.

"It's a nice step on a long road, but we tell her to keep it all in perspective," Chris said. "We don't let soccer define her as a person. It's a dream and a goal, but injuries occur and things happen." Chris knows that all too well; an injury cut short his soccer playing days in high school. The hope, he said, is Reese's soccer talents will help her get into a very good college.

"We've had conversations with her about what women's soccer pays," Chris said, a topic that has been in the news because of conflicts between the U.S. Women's National Team and U.S. Soccer over the compensation issue. "They (the women) are advertising personal training; they have to go out and train people" because of the salary differences, he said.

"It's kind of disappointing (how little they get paid) knowing how hard they work," Reese said. She has given thought to a backup plan. "I want to work at an orthodontist, or be a hair stylist, or a gym teacher," she said.

Reese is a straight-A student at Lake Riviera Middle School, where she also played forward for the middle school soccer team last fall, setting a school record with 30 goals. Schoolwork doesn't take a back seat no matter where she is, Reese said; while she is at the national camp in Phoenix, there will be study hall hours where the girls are expected to complete school work assigned by their teachers before the girls left for the camp.

"Before I went to Florida the regional program gives you a document says you'll have study hall," Reese said. She not only put in time during study hall, Reese said; "I studied even when we had off hours."

While it would be easy to assume Reese's life is consumed with soccer, Chris Beggs said he and Joy try to ensure a balance.

"She's got to have time with her friends," he said. And those friends provide a balance because she doesn't hang out with anyone who plays soccer. "It lets her get away from it a little, so she can just be a kid."

"There's a lot of sacrifice," Chris Beggs said. "A lot of time on the weekends, a lot of hours."

Reese's first year in the ODP program, at age 11, was spent on the state team, while her second year she made the state and then the regional team. The regional and national camps have meant Reese traveling without her parents.

"I had a really hard time letting her travel" at first, Chris said, but he said U.S. Soccer "does a fantastic job of organization" for the trips. Reese has traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania, Manhattan, and to Boca Rotan, Florida, and every camp is overseen by administrators and chaperones. "They're all top shelf," Chris said.

Reese never travels completely alone, he said; for the trip to Phoenix, she traveled with another girl from New Jersey whom she has become close to on the regional team, Kelly Monaco from Dumont. Including Reese and Kelly, six girls from New Jersey born in 2003 were invited to the national camp; the others are goalkeeper Michela Auguadro and defender MaryKathleen McCurdy, both from Cherry Hill; Brigitte Bussiere, a midfielder from Monroe who plays for the Millstone United club; and defender Helene Tyburczy of Ramsey, who plays with Kelly on the NJ Crush club. In addition, Chris said he has been able to get some insights from Craig Scarpelli, the father of Brick Memorial sophomore Leah Scarpelli, who is in her second year with the national team in the U-15 age group.

"In order for this to grow to another level, you have to trust the system," Chris said. The step to the next level has had its share of eye-opening moments, however.

"It's intimidating," Chris Beggs said. At the interregional camp over Thanksgiving break, "every major college in the country was there," he said, and the scouts were there mostly looking at the younger players. NCAA recruiting rules strictly limit how coaches can contact student-athletes before their junior year of high school, but many begin evaluating talent before most players have given thought to where they might want to go to college.

Reese said she doesn't let the situation unnerve her.

"I don't really think about it," she said. "I'm with friends and coaches. You kind of get locked in and think about soccer."

Reese has not yet narrowed down her potential college choices, and Chris said he and Joy have not made suggestions.

"I'll leave that up to her," Chris said. "Hopefully, it will be within a distance we can drive (to watch her play), but ultimately it's her decision."

"There's still a long road ahead," Chris Beggs said. "There's a lot that goes on from here."

For now, Reese is enjoying the warmth in Phoenix — "She said it's beautiful there," Chris said Thursday evening by email. "The weather's beautiful, in the 60s. Perfect to play soccer." — and dreaming big dreams of one day playing for the women's national team, and of earning a paycheck playing the sport she loves.

Reese Beggs photo courtesy of Chris Beggs