Giana Pittaro sends the ball during a 2-2 home tie with Toms River North on Oct. 29. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Kelsey Gmitter dribbles during a 2-2 home tie with Toms River North on Oct. 29. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Anyone attending a Steinert girls’ soccer game over the past two years got to see a familiar site at the Reynolds Middle School end of the field.
Standing behind the fence for nearly every game have been three former standout Steinert baseball players, the woman who coached the first state champion at Nottingham High, and the winningest baseball coach in Rider University history.
If she wasn’t on the sidelines as a Spartan assistant, the greatest female soccer player in Steinert history would also be among that group. It’s a gang bonded by athletic glory and family ties, and it’s on hand at each game for the same reason—to watch sophomore Giana Pittaro and junior Kelsey Gmitter play for the Spartans.
Two of the biggest cogs on this year’s team are also part of Hamilton Township sports royalty.
“The history of that family is just unbelievable,” said Steinert girls’ soccer coach Mike Hastings. “G and Kelsey understand the tradition here, maybe a little more than most people.”
Pittaro’s father Chris played for Steinert’s first state championship baseball team in 1978 and went on to play for the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins. He currently works for the Oakland A’s. Her mother, Lisa, is Steinert’s varsity assistant and the school’s all-time goal scorer with 177. She was a three-time high school All-American and four-time All-American at George Mason University.
Kelsey’s dad Fred, a former Spartan All-County baseball player, is Lisa’s brother. Lisa and Fred’s brother, Joe, is one of the earliest inductees into the Steinert Athletic Hall of Fame for his baseball and basketball prowess.
And then there is Chris’s mom and dad, long-time township residents and Giana’s grandmother and grandfather. Sonny Pittaro won 766 games as a Rider baseball coach and is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, as well as the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Elaine Pittaro was the first softball coach at Nottingham High when it opened in 1982, and she coached the school’s first champion when the Northstars softball team won the 1987 Group III championship.
For good measure, Kelsey and Giana’s cousin, Erin Septer, was a star soccer, basketball and lacrosse player at Hamilton West and is now a standout soccer goalie for Shenandoah University.
If that’s not a legacy to live up to, it’s hard to say what is. And while the grown-ups never tell the cousins they have to live up to their accomplishments, the specter is always there.
“My family has never put pressure on me because of who they are,” Pittaro said. “But there is definitely pressure to be the best that I can be every time I step on the field. It’s not something Kels and I really talk about, but it’s something we both feel the same about.”
“Steinert athletics are important to me,” Gmitter said. “I haven’t really talked about it with G, but I do feel pressure because my family left very tough shoes to fill. Especially my Aunt Lisa.”
There’s no denying that, as Lisa Gmitter’s shoes were about a size 1,000 when she graduated from Steinert in 1983. She once held the state record for career goals and still holds the school record for career goals and goals in one season with 65. Lisa went on to a storybook four years at George Mason, which was a women’s soccer powerhouse in the mid-1980s. She then married a former Major League Baseball player, which means her daughter and niece have a pretty good athletic support system.
“I’m sure there’s always that pressure,” Lisa said. “ I think they handle it well, but both families have always been 24-7 sports so they’re used to it. They’ve played basketball and soccer together and I think they handle it well.”
Hastings agreed.
“The microscope’s on them a little bit,” he said. “Every little mistake is magnified, because they’re expected to be some of the better players on the field. I think they’ve played up to that.”
Pittaro started the season as a defender—her natural position—but when Steinert struggled to score she was moved up front and went on to lead the team in scoring with five goals and nine assists for 19 points. Gmitter helped anchor a strong Spartan defense that led to a 10-7-2 record and a berth in the Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals.
The past two seasons were the first that the cousins actually played organized soccer together, but that didn’t mean they weren’t used to each other.
“As little kids, Kels and I would always kick the ball around in the backyard with my mom,” Pittaro said. “We also played together on a couple of basketball teams. But since she’s one year older than me, last year was the first year we played on the same soccer team together.”
Gmitter said that the two never played hardcore when they were young, but pretty much supported each other while enjoying themselves.
“We’ve been playing together ever since I can remember,” Gmitter said. “We never really do any one on ones, we mostly just do fun things like juggling in our backyards, playing soccer and tennis in Veterans Park, or just making up different games to play.”
That doesn’t mean the family gatherings aren’t competitive.
“I guess that’s a tough backyard football game to get into,” Hastings said with a laugh.
That would be an accurate guess, as Gmitter said, “It does get pretty competitive at family parties. There is always some kind of games going on—corn hole, video games, cook-offs between my dad and Uncle Joe. We’re always having fun.”
Pittaro feels the gatherings are more mellow than one might imagine, but did note that “the occasional corn hole and paddle ball tournament brings out the competitive side of my family, especially my two uncles.”
With three family members in the Steinert Hall of Fame, both girls understand the relevance and history of Spartan athletics. But Pittaro said she was never hit over the head with it, and that its significance evolved over the years.
“I have a better understanding now than I did a few years ago because I’m part of the Steinert program,” she said. “I feel that despite the pressure I put on myself sometimes, I am lucky to have my family as role models on and off the field.”
Lisa feels that neither girl ever tries to flaunt their family history to anyone, calling them “both very humble.” She also noted that they are more like sisters than cousins, and are best friends.
One thing they share is a respect for what they know about Lisa. “I have heard so many awesome stories about my Aunt Lisa, how great she was,” Gmitter said.
Giana added that “I’ve heard from former coaches that my mom was a relentless striker that other teams dreaded playing.”
Both girls credit Lisa for honing their game throughout their lives. Now that she is their coach, Gmitter sometimes defers to Hastings when she sees something that needs to be said.
“She’ll look at me and say, ‘You need to tell her this,’ because coming from her, it’s tough,” Hastings said. “I know the situation. My dad used to coach my teams. It would go in one ear and out the other when he said something. And then the other coach would say it, and I’d say ‘Oh, OK, I’ll do that.’”
Lisa has been proud of how both girls have performed on the varsity level for Steinert. The last thing she ever wanted was for her daughter to try and be like her, especially considering the two have a different set of skills.
“She’s athletic, and we’re different players,” Lisa said. “She’s strong, sometimes I watch her run, there’s parts of her that are better than me. She’s so versatile. I was just a goal scorer, G’s a natural defende,r and here we have her playing striker and she’s doing well.”
As for her niece, the coach said “Kelsey’s just a gamer. You don’t know she’s on the field, but she’s so consistent. She’s always smiling, she’s got a great attitude. It’s nice to watch them.”
In analyzing each other, Gmitter called Pittaro “a composed, tactical player (who) wins balls, distributes and makes things happen. She’s definitely a leader.”
Pittaro countered by saying that “Kels is probably the most positive and uplifting player on our team. She is the kind of player you can always trust on defense.”
The two of them together are adding yet another chapter to the Pittaro-Gmitter saga that has graced Hamilton Township and, most notably, Steinert for decades.
“Regardless if I went to Steinert or a different school, athletics would be just as important to me,” Pittaro said. “But knowing my family’s past, it’s added incentive to help continue the winning tradition at Steinert.”
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