Soccer Marathon Remembers Player, Friend

by Colleen Curry on August 10th, 2009 Comment

The Graeme Preston Memorial Soccer Marathon included over 70 teams from Monmouth and Ocean Counties Saturday.

At the center of more than 1,500 Freehold families at Opatut Park on Saturday were Scott, Annie, and Paige Preston, family of Graeme Preston-killed in a car accident last year at the age of 12- founders of the memorial Graeme Preston Foundation for Life, and pillars in the Freehold community.

“This man right here,” said organizer Nick Montani pointing to Scott Preston, “this is why we do it. These are the best people you could ever meet, and it’s our chance to honor that.”

Montani, 18, of Freehold Township, and the board members of the Foundation for Life spent more than eight months planning the annual marathon soccer tournament that took place Saturday from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M., with more than 70 teams participating in the non-competitive tournament in memory of Graeme.

More than ten new teams in the U8 age bracket signed up this year, adding to the 25 total new teams at the second annual event.

Montani, like many of the players on Saturday, had grown close with the Preston family through soccer and had approached the board last year to organize a fundraiser for the foundation. Instead, they asked him to take over the planning for the soccer marathon from last year’s teen organizer, Mia O’Brien, also a former soccer student of Scott Preston’s.

“I think anyone that knows the Preston family feels like I do,” Montani said. “If you see all that they do—in the foundation, and coaching, and in the community—it just makes you wonder, why couldn’t I do it, too?”

The Foundation’s board of directors, made up of Preston relatives and friends, has just finished its first year of fundraising and community giving, donating over $45,000 back into the Freehold community this year to scholarships, First Aid, Camp Quality, and the Optimist Club. A branch of the Foundation called G’s LOV (Graeme’s League of Volunteers) has donated hours of community service for local projects, including a dinner-and-activities night for the Ronald McDonald House at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch.

Scott Preston, taking a break from coaching teams during the tournament, said the tournament has been a way for the community to cope with the loss of Graeme, his friend Kevin Clawson who was also killed in the accident, and the loss of three high school students and a van driver in a car accident earlier last year.

“This town has been hit pretty hard. We have been through a lot in a short amount of time. Freehold is a close-knit community, and I’m from an old Freehold family. This is a way for the community to give back,” he said.

The Rutgers Women's Soccer Team ran a free clinic with Freehold soccer players.

When Rutgers Women’s Soccer Head Coach Glenn Crooks heard about the event, he decided his team would volunteer to work with the participants. The team held its first practice for the fall season on Saturday morning, and afterwards drove down to Opatut Park to run an informal clinic with Freehold soccer players.

“For us to participate is an honor,” Crooks said, watching the two teams interact. “This family is about instilling how Graeme’s life mattered. Life can be cut short, so don’t wait to take advantage of opportunities, don’t wait to live your life.”

Crooks, who has coached Graeme’s sister Paige at summer camp and hired Scott Preston to do artwork for the Women’s Soccer team locker rooms, considers the Prestons close friends and an exemplary family in the soccer community.

“They took a tragic event and turned it into a positive,” he explained. “They teach you to be good to your teammates, yourself, your family. These are values I want to instill in my players, that’s why I made this the first day of preseason.”

The silent auction included signed soccer jerseys and locally-donated gift baskets.

Among the teams playing Saturday was the Friends of Graeme team, a group of friends and former teammates of Graeme’s with specially-made t-shirts. Rob Soto, 14, of Freehold Township and a member of the team, played with Graeme growing up and plays for Scott Preston’s Legacy team now.

“It’s fun to see everybody come out for this,” Soto said. “It’s good to know Graeme made this happen.”

“It’s really just an incredible family connected to Freehold,” Montani said as he gestured towards a tearful Scott Preston. “Their love and passion for passing on what Graeme was all about—kindness and friendship—that’s why we do this.”