‘Life took a turn’: New Egypt’s Tommy Merlucci, a standout goalie, switched to football as a senior after losing his father
Any time New Egypt senior Tommy Merlucci sees the local soccer fields where he and his father spent so many years together, he still remembers Jimmy Merlucci always checking in with him.
“Every single time I would run on the field – every single time without fail – he would say, ‘Hey, you all right?’” Tommy said. “After halftime and before the game. Not hearing that any more has just really hit home.”
Jimmy coached Tommy’s youth soccer and basketball teams for years, and the father and son were soccer fanatics. They went to New York Red Bulls games together and even traveled to England in the summer of 2023 to see Tommy’s favorite Premier League team, Liverpool F.C., play in person.
Liz Merlucci would wake up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday and her husband and son would be watching soccer together. She’d come home late on a Saturday, and the two would be parked in front of another game.
“There was always a soccer game on my TV, it was so annoying,” she said before laughing. “They would go to Red Bulls games together, and we went to Orlando, Arizona, England – it was our life.”
Tommy and Liz recount all of this as they stand near the practice field for New Egypt’s football team. Tommy is the team’s kicker and punter, and he also sees time at defensive end, fullback and tight end.
Tommy Merlucci has become New Egypt’s kicker in his one and only season of playing football (Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)
After being a soccer player for 13 years and reaching the academy level as a goalie, he’s a football player in his senior year. His abrupt change came after Jimmy Merlucci died at 49 on Dec. 28, 2023, from leukemia.
“That was our bond,” Tommy said. “Soccer is what built our relationship even stronger. I won’t say my love for soccer died with him, but it definitely took a hard hit.”
Loving the beautiful game
Tommy grew up following in the footsteps of his older brother, Ryan Joseph, 24, who also played youth soccer. His dreams of the future revolved around the sport.
“When I was younger I was like, ‘I could play professionally,’” he said. “Growing up, I always wanted to play soccer in college.”
Soccer also connected him to the larger world outside of New Egypt, a tiny town in Ocean County with just over 1,500 residents.
“It introduced me to people all over the country, and I know people from other countries,” he said. “I know a lot of about South American culture and European culture through soccer.”
His father was alongside him every step of the journey as the two shared a love for soccer, basketball and fishing. The jovial family man was actually a former offensive lineman who played football in high school at Steinert in nearby Hamilton, but anything his sons were into, he was going to be into as well.
Tommy’s talent evolved to the point where he was playing for the Princeton Soccer Academy in high school and making the 45-minute trip back and forth four nights a week. At one point, he was playing seven days a week for multiple teams.
“It was definitely a job,” he said.
A tragic loss
Jimmy Merlucci was first diagnosed with leukemia in February 2022 and underwent chemotherapy and surgery. The family celebrated when it looked like he had beaten the illness.
“He actually rang the bell at the hospital after being in there for 30 days when he had a stem cell transplant,” Liz said.
Shortly after Thanksgiving in 2023, the cancer returned.
“It came back, and it had a vengeance to it,” Tommy said. “It just took him.”
The plan was for Jimmy to undergo chemotherapy after New Year’s Day. He died on Dec. 28.
Tommy found out after playing in a basketball game against Woodstown during New Egypt’s annual Christmas tournament.
“After that game, I go home and my mom tells me he passed,” he said. “I’ve had one career 3-pointer, and it was that game. I give credit to him for that.”
(From left) Tommy Merlucci and parents Liz and Jimmy Merlucci bonded over Tommy’s love of soccer growing up. (Photo courtesy of Tommy Merlucci)
The small town the family has lived in for 21 years opened its arms to the Merluccis in the wake of Jimmy’s death.
“The love and support that we received from this school, from this town, was just absolutely remarkable,” Liz said. “It was very humbling to have such a strong support system. I didn’t have to cook for like six weeks. People were coming to the door constantly, checking on us.”
“We had the basketball team show up at our door with candy and flowers, and the soccer and basketball team came to his funeral,” Tommy said. “This town really does mean a lot.”
“We did our best to just be there for them,” New Egypt senior lineman Michael Doren said.
Making a change
The aftermath of Jimmy’s death had his son rethinking his future. Not only did he lose his biggest fan, but playing academy soccer was becoming a grind.
“I more or less got worn out, which happens a lot,” Tommy said. “It’s a real big problem in terms of athletes. I was just burned out.”
Telling his mother about his abrupt decision to drop soccer for football may have been hardest part.
Liz looked at it not only emotionally, but practically. The family had poured years of time and money into traveling and paying for academy soccer and personal trainers. They had envisioned Tommy’s path to college as a soccer player.
Tommy Merlucci and his mother, Liz, have an “inseparable bond” since the loss of his father and her husband. (Photo by Scott Stump)
“I was very upset,” Liz said. “I was very disappointed, but he knows I’ll support him in anything he wants to do. I think he was throwing away a lot of talent and opportunity, but if this is what he wants to do, this is what he wants to do. There’s a lot of emotions involved. Losing my husband wasn’t easy and still isn’t easy. I can understand (Tommy) being burned out.”
“At first she said no,” Tommy said. “But I think she realized it was something I really wanted to do, and it would help me be happier in my life.”
Then he had to tell his soccer teammates.
“They were pretty disappointed,” he said. “Some people were like ‘Why are you doing this?’ People were very confused by it.”
Tommy’s friends who had tried for years to recruit the 6-foot-1, 205-pound goalie to come out for the football team were even stunned by the move.
“I was really surprised because he’s a good soccer player, but I was happy with him playing (football),” New Egypt junior wide receiver Clyde Ferris said. “It was his choice. I would’ve never predicted him being on this football team after his soccer season last year.”
“The kids were on him like ‘You’re coming out,’” New Egypt head coach Steve Fence said. “I said, ‘I’m not poaching from other programs, so if you want to come out it’s your decision.’ He’s been a natural fit.”
Embracing a new game
While Tommy had been in his fair share of collisions as a goalie, the ones in football were a different level at first.
“Our first football practice with pads I was like, ‘Man, this ain’t soccer,’” he said. “I was a goalie, so I took contact, but we got some big dudes on this D-line, and I’m running full speed into them. That first hit put me on my butt and I was like, ‘This is different.’”
“My nerves, they’re still shot,” Liz joked about watching him play football.
Like countless converted soccer players before him, Tommy has put his powerful right leg to use as the team’s kicker and punter in the Warriors’ 4-1 start to the season. He initially wanted to wear jersey No. 74 in honor of the number Jimmy wore at Steinert but had to go with No. 9 because kickers can’t wear numbers in the 70s.
Liz Merlucci wears the Steinert high school football jersey of her late husband, Jimmy, alongside son Tommy Merlucci. (Photo courtesy of Tommy Merlucci)
He had never kicked a football before outside of messing around in the backyard. He watched some instructional videos on YouTube.
“It’s just repetition, mostly,” he said.
“I know nothing about football,” his mother said. “I’ve been a soccer mom for 20 years. When he said he’s going to be the kicker, I said, ‘That’s great because I know it goes between the two posts, that’s all I need to know.’ I’m lost.”
Tommy Merlucci has also excelled as New Egypt’s punter. (Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)
The player who wasn’t even on the team last year made a small piece of school history when he nailed a 30-yard field goal in his first game. It came in a season-opening win over Keansburg and marked New Egypt’s first points as a member of the Shore Conference, which the Warriors joined this season after previously playing in the West Jersey Football League.
“That was pretty cool,” he said. “I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”
“We go big or go home,” Liz said with a smile. “That’s how we roll.”
He then made what proved to be the game-winning extra point in a 7-6 win over Neptune. The senior has also shown prowess as a punter. He was one of the few bright spots in a 32-0 loss to Shore in a matchup of unbeaten teams on Friday night when he boomed punts of 42, 41, 40, 49 and 51 yards.
Liz has been watching every minute of it in her newfound role as a football mom.
“He looks up at the stands, I’m always going to be there,” she said. “There’s a Reel (on Instagram) that I saw once with this lioness with a little cub behind her, and it flashes over to this big lion standing behind her. He’s become my lion. He’s my backbone, and I’m his.”
“It has brought me and mom way closer together,” he said about his father’s death. “My mom and I have an inseparable bond.”
Looking to the future
Tommy is now working with a trainer to improve his kicking with the hope of landing a spot on a college roster after leaving soccer behind.
Reminders of his father are still everywhere around the small town, including some of their favorite fishing spots. He has a tattoo on the underside of his forearm of Jimmy’s signature blending into a fishing pole.
Tommy has a tattoo of Jimmy’s signature with a rod and reel symbolizing their love of fishing together. (Photo by Scott Stump)
Football has been a place where he can put aside the anguish over losing his dad for a few hours every day with a group he calls his “second family.”
“He’s very calm about it, very mature about it,” Ferris said. “He’s hasn’t broken down and been angry at people.”
“He’s the same kid after that he was before, at least externally,” Fence said. “Internally I’m sure there’s things that he’s battling. He’s a very even-keeled kid.”
Jimmy is on Tommy’s mind before every game.
“I think about the reasons why I play,” he said. “He helps me get through the games.”
Football has been an escape, but the first anniversary of Jimmy’s death is now looming over the holidays. The family plans to spend Thanksgiving in Maine, where Ryan lives and works as an electrician, during what will be a difficult time.
“We’re going to be in Maine a lot this year,” Liz said.
Sometimes Tommy wonders how he ended up here on a football field. If Jimmy asked him now if he was all right, he would have an answer.
“If you told me four years ago I would be playing football, I would laugh at you,” he said. “Life definitely took a turn after I lost my dad. And I’m happy it took this turn.”
Scott Stump is an award-winning reporter, newsletter writer and editor who first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point.
Email: [email protected]
