This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/19/2017 12:00 AMValley Regional senior Charlie Ferrucci has enjoyed a lot of success with the Warriors’ boys’ soccer and lacrosse teams. Charlie helped Valley win its first Shoreline Conference title in lacrosse this past spring, and now his soccer squad is on its way to states and also in a prime position to qualify for the Shoreline Conference Tournament. Charlie earned All-Shoreline Conference Second Team honors as a midfielder in his sophomore lacrosse season and then made the First Team as a junior. He also received All-Conference Honorable Mention as a forward for the soccer team in his junior year.
Charlie started playing both of his sports thanks to his parents Paul and Jen Ferrucci, who introduced him to soccer and lacrosse at an early age.
“I’ve been playing lacrosse as long as I can remember, and I started soccer around the same time,” says Charlie, an Essex resident. “My dad played lacrosse, and he introduced it to me. I tried it out and really enjoyed it. My mom was a soccer player, and it was the same thing for that.”
Charlie has traveled a long road that’s led him to successful destinations with each of his teams at Valley Regional. Charlie feels proud about what he and his fellow Warriors have accomplished during the past year.
“For lacrosse, I would say it’s winning Shorelines. That’s definitely a big moment. It was the program’s first time winning, and it was especially great knocking off Old Lyme. I had never won against them in my high school career,” says Charlie, who will captain the lacrosse team as a senior. “For soccer, last year, even though we only made it to the semifinals, it was still a big moment making it that far and beating some of the teams that we did.”
Charlie is the soccer team’s leading scorer with seven goals and five assists so far this season. Even though Charlie feels that last year’s club had more pure soccer talent, he likes the Warriors’ chances of making another postseason run this year.
“I think the skill level may have been above what we have this year, but I think what makes us seem like we’re better is that there aren’t really powerhouse teams that just run over everyone,” Charlie says. “It’s an even playing field for the Shoreline. It comes down to who’s willing to work the hardest for it and, hopefully, we’ll do that.”
Charlie doesn’t shy away from hard work, and Valley boys’ soccer Head Coach Mick Fearon can certainly attest to that. Fearon has seen Charlie put in the time to improve both individually and as a member of the team. He says that Charlie displays great quickness on the pitch, along with a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Fearon adds that Charlie features the right mixture of intensity with a little levity.
“The thing that Charlie has that a lot of high school kids don’t have is that he is a two-sport athlete, and he has a good sense of where to be. He’s quick. We play him wide on the wing. When we play one up front, he plays center. He’s a versatile forward,” Coach Fearon says. “He works hard and knows to have fun, as well. The younger kids like that kind of atmosphere. He knows when to be serious, and he knows that they are kids. That’s their release after coming out of school.”
Charlie was a major contributor during the lacrosse squad’s banner season last spring by providing 27 goals and 14 assists while manning the midfield. In the 2018 campaign, Charlie will take on a new role as captain for the Warriors, and he’s already preparing himself by leading the younger players on the soccer team this fall.
“Well, I think that coming back from the Shoreline championship last year is a lot to live up to, but I want to keep doing what we’ve been doing, and, hopefully, that will result in us having a good season,” says Charlie. “I think it’s a lot of the same for soccer as a senior on, for the most part, a young team, even though I don’t have the title of the captain.”
After Charlie graduates from Valley, he plans to enroll in a college preparatory school to hone his lacrosse skills before moving on to a college program in New England. Charlie would like to stay close to home and feels that he needs some more seasoning before making the leap to the collegiate level.
“I’m taking a postgraduate year at a boarding school. After that, I will go to college. [In his postgraduate year], I want to play both soccer and lacrosse, then I plan on playing lacrosse in college,” says Charlie. “It’s a lot of preparation, because it’s a tough transition from playing at Valley to playing at college. It gets you ready for what’s coming.”