Saugus girls soccer deals with adversity

If the measure of a good team is how it handles adversity, the Saugus High girls soccer team comes out on top.Around this time last year, after fearing the worst for months, players were reveling in the fact that their coach, Ted Moriello, had seemingly beat back the cancer that had ravaged him during the off-season and would be with them on the sidelines for the 2008 campaign.Fast-forward a year, and the returning players are facing their first preseason without coach Moriello, who lost his fight with the disease less than two months after the season ended last year. Moriello had coached the team for 19 years.Jessica Capozzi, along with her fellow captains, Jacki Strangie, Gina Reppucci and Lauren Donati, will have the task of helping the team move forward under new coach Chris Coviello, who coached the Saugus High boys team for the past two years. Coviello’s assistant, Tom Duplisea, is the new boys head coach.”It’s definitely going to be different,” Capozzi said. “We’re excited for our new coach. It will be a change, but we’ll never forget coach Moriello.”Capozzi was especially close to Moriello and his family because she babysat his grandchildren.”He was more family than a coach – to all the girls,” Capozzi said. “He would say, “You guys are all my daughters.'”Capozzi said it was difficult for the girls last year seeing their coach getting sicker as the season wore on.”It definitely was hard because we saw him in pain,” Capozzi said. “We knew he was there for us.”Capozzi said coach Moriello tried not to let his players know he was in pain.”He always had jokes,” Capozzi said. “He never showed how much pain he was in. I don’t know how he could be there, how he got himself to all the games. It really showed how much he loved soccer and loved us. We knew soccer was what kept him going. We kind of wished soccer would keep going forever.”Capozzi said when she was entering high school, she considered options other than Saugus High, but decided to stay home. The opportunity to play soccer for Moriello, as her older sister, Jen, had done, factored into her choice.”I’m happy with the decision I made,” she said.Capozzi and her fellow teammates will honor Moriello at their first game with the unveiling of a banner that will be displayed at the Anna Parker soccer fields.”We’ve invited all his family to come to the game that day,” Capozzi said, adding that hopefully the banner will be a permanent fixture at the park.The Saugus High girls team will start practice for the upcoming season on Thursday, Aug. 27.”With a new coach, it’s going to be tough,” Capozzi said. “But he (Coviello) is also a great coach. He knows we were all close to him (Moriello). He knows we have to not forget him, but we have to move on.”