It’s a beautiful summer night in the rural town of Kirkwood, Del. The day is May 12, 2012.

Syracuse Empire United has just defeated the Smithtown (N.Y.) Attack in the semifinals of the Region I Premier League Championship soccer tournament and has advanced to play in the championship game just 18 hours later.

But as the team celebrates, Emma Firenze — who scored two goals in the match — as well as teammate and older sister Jackie Firenze, are nowhere in sight. Instead, the sisters are off of the field and en route to the C.W. Baker High School prom in Baldwinsville, N.Y., 300 miles away.

Jackie Firenze tells the story best.

“Immediately after the whistle, we sprinted off the field and hopped on a plane,” she said. “We did each other’s makeup on the plane, got off the airplane in Syracuse, got dressed in the car and arrived at the prom an hour late.

“Then immediately after the prom, we drove back to Delaware for the game the next morning.”

It’s that dedication that Empire United coach Mike Paolini, C.W. Baker coach Kathy Morse and Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon say differentiate the sisters from the other highly skilled players they’ve coached. Now together at Syracuse, Jackie, a sophomore midfielder, and Emma, a freshman midfielder, have continued to prove their commitment to the sport.

While Emma is unlikely to play for the Orange this season due to a bone chip in her right femur, it’s clear that both women are integral pieces of the foundation of a budding program as it transitions into the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I remember watching them in Disney and they singlehandedly changed the game together,” Wheddon said, referring to a recruiting trip. “Emma got the ball, played it out wide to Jackie, Jackie took a player on, crossed it in the box and Emma headed in the goal. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh great, both of them are coming to Syracuse.’”

Both girls say it’s their parents, Greg and Kelly Firenze, who instilled in them a strong work ethic. Beginning in kindergarten, Jackie and Emma attended every practice and clinic they could. When snow prevented them from playing outside, they worked on their first touches on the small patch of turf in their basement.

“When you’re little, you just never want to stop,” Emma said. “We would go in our basement and be downstairs for hours, just playing and not having to worry, just wanting to play soccer, all day and all night long.”

Added Jackie: “We’d go over our skills and practice and practice until we’d get it right. And even when we got it right, we would still continue to do it every single night.”

From the basement in Baldwinsville to Syracuse’s South Campus, their devotion hasn’t wavered.

While the rest of the SU team warmed up goalkeeper Brittany Anghel before Syracuse’s game against Connecticut on Sept. 13 last year, Jackie worked on her first touch with SU assistant coach Adam Reekie. It was the same first touch she worked on for years in the basement with Emma, but she still felt the need to improve.

Hours later, she scored what Wheddon called the biggest goal in program history when Jackie broke a 2-2 tie with a goal in the 90th minute.

It was the first time Syracuse had beaten Connecticut in 18 tries.

Although currently sidelined, Emma has shown the same drive.

This summer, Emma played on the U.S. U-19 Region I Olympic Development Program (ODP) team while at a tournament in Russia. Coach Ken Krieger said he saw the same passion in Emma that he saw while eating breakfast with members of the national team during the 2011 World Cup in Germany.

“This kid’s desire probably matched my daughter’s,” said Krieger, father of U.S. women’s national team player Ali Krieger. “As funny and fun-loving as she was during time off, on the field it was business. It was almost like a, ‘Hey, my name is Emma Firenze, you killed my father, prepare to die’ type of mentality.’”

But while practicing with the Syracuse Lady Knights of the Women’s Premier Soccer League later in the summer, she injured her right knee. After seeing two doctors, undergoing an MRI and starting surgery for what appeared to be a torn meniscus, the surgeon discovered a small divot in the back of Emma’s right femur, said her mother, Kelly Firenze.

“It was quite a heartbreaker for all of us,” Kelly said. “… We all shed some tears. We had a couple of days there where we did that, and then from that point on, we decided we needed to move forward and just try to work on getting her healthy.”

Emma likely won’t play this season, but is working non-stop with the Syracuse training staff and has traveled to several of the team’s road games, even though the NCAA doesn’t pay for injured athletes to travel.

On Tuesday, Emma received medical clearance to stop using crutches, and on Sunday during SU’s 2-2 tie with Duke, she stood on the sidelines with a device that tracked her teammates’ heart monitors.

“She can’t play,” SU freshman defender Blake Johnson said, “but she’s there with us all the time.”

When No. 8 Emma and No. 9 Jackie do take the field together, it’ll be their skill, yes, but also their dedication that gets them to that point.

“Growing up, we devoted our lives to soccer,” Emma said. “… We’re living our dream.”

Published on September 24, 2013 at 2:18 am

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