By Wayne Witkowski
Things are slipping back to normal for Tom Brennan.
The Middletown High School South coach, who missed most of the second half of last season with surgery from a heart attack suffered in late December, was with his players at a car wash in town June 25 to help raise funds for a trip to a showcase in Orlando, Florida, Dec. 26.
Later that day, he and his family attended a graduation party for one of his three departing seniors, Brianne Naughton, who will study but not play basketball at James Madison University.
This is a “new normal” for Brennan, who will start a season for the first time in five years without Stephanie Karcz, who leaves behind a legacy of three section championships — the first one of the three ending a 30-year dryspell — a state title won two years ago and last year’s return trip to the state finals in a 25-4 season. Also departing is valuable contributor Julia Valkos, who will continue her track and field career at Cornell University as a pre-med student.
“Some people I’ve run into, including some even this morning, ask me if we’re rebuilding, but I don’t know about that. We’re saying goodbye to an awfully talented group, but we do have players back,” Brennan said.
Those returning players are up to the challenge, as they began summer workouts on June 26 that will be held twice weekly in the summer. Middletown South will play in a Maroon and White three-day showcase hosted by Red Bank Regional High School at the end of July that calls for two games each day. Some also are involved with AAU basketball teams.
Brennan will return, as will his staff of assistant coach Jesse Chalmers — who stepped in as interim head coach when the Eagles went 10-1, losing only to NJSIAA Tournament of Champions finalist Manasquan High School — and assistants Joe Benbrook and Tom Rooney.
“It’s getting there, going in the right direction. I’m going full days in September,” Brennan said of his physical status.
A month after heart surgery, Brennan began his rehab in January in one-hour sessions twice a week on ellipticals, treadmills and exercise bikes. A month ago, he was released to workouts at home on a treadmill program. He passed a strength test on June 17.
“I’m as close to normal as I can be,” Brennan said last weekend, although he has needed physical therapy for tightness in his shoulder indicative of advanced tendinitis that comes off surgery like this.
“Aside from some pain [externally] in my chest, everything inside is working properly.”
Brennan had resumed a full-day teaching schedule at Middletown South in April but scaled it back to half days in May when some soreness developed that he linked to recovery from the surgery.
During that time, Brennan said he related his rehab work with physical rehab undertaken by one of his students, Haley Dalonzo, who missed basketball season from mid-January recovering from surgery for a knee injury. She scored 10 points a game when she got injured. She’ll be a senior this fall and a team captain for next season.
“That was a huge loss, but her rehab is going really well. She’ll be ready to go when we start practice,” Brennan said. “She’s worked hard coming back, and I related to her in class as we got through our low moments [of rehab] and to push each other.”
Alexandra Balsamo is the other senior returning to the lineup. Her defense and good shooting touch that can extend beyond the 3-point line helped lead to her 14.4 points per game.
Brennan also found inspiration in his daughter, Isla, a freshman who played the very challenging role of starting point guard last season and tackled the emotional responsibility of supporting her dad’s recovery at home.
“It was very difficult, but having the support of my family, my teammates and the Midletown community helped me get through it,” Isla Brennan said. “It was tough not seeing him there on the sidelines until the end of the season, but I only thought to do whatever I have to do.”
“I’m very proud of her the way she handled everything in basketball, at school and when she was at home,” the elder Brennan said, as his daughter averaged nearly eight points.
The father and daughter shared a conversation on the adversities, and how Isla Brennan responded after the season.
“I focused on the task at hand [during the season] and when we had that conversation, it got pretty emotional,” Isla Brennan said.
Now she is working on taking on more leadership since Karcz and her fellow seniors graduated and on her own ballhandling. She been ranked in one offseason survey as one of the top 15 underclassmen in the state.
“It’s very flattering to see things like that, but I try not to let it get into my head too much,” Isla Brennan said. “I try to keep outside things to a minimum.”
“She needs to get a little more physical and to go more downhill going to the rim,” Tom Brennan said of his daughter’s offseason priorities on the court. “She has to look to initiate contact more and to work more on her leadership skills at organizing things on the floor as an extension of the coaching staff.”
Isla Brennan has worked in training sessions with John Truhan of Central Regional High School, James Young of Red Bank Regional and Tony Green of the Hoop Group, as well as her dad.
Emily McCarthy, another of the five freshmen who usually were in the rotation, started at the other guard spot and offered unwavering toughness without getting caught up in the emotional side of it. Both are on the Jersey Shore Rebels, an AAU team based in Brookdale of which the elder Brennan is one of the coaches. A third Middletown South freshman last season was 6-foot-1 inch center Eve Pirie
“She has advanced skills for a ninth-grader,” Tom Brennan said of Pirie. “I didn’t realize what a good passer she is, and she has altered a lot of [opponents’] shots. Her confidence was high at the end of the season.”
The other two freshmen were spot starter Samantha Keenan, who has been working on her jump shot, and Grace Curtis, who coach Brennan said gives Middletown South a good inside/outside game with Pirie with her zone-busting shots that can come from long range, as well as her good decisions passing the ball.
“I’m really proud of how they dealt with adversity,” the coach said of the freshmen. “It’s a credit to them and the upperclassmen who did a nice job of keeping the kids on an even keel.”
Gabby Cook, a 5-foot-9-inch junior in the fall, can compete for a starting spot with her athleticism as she continues to fine-tune her skills.
A lot will be learned and developed over the summer that may set the tone for preseason workouts that begin in late November.
