Anthony Crisostomo had more than soccer on his mind at the start of Bordentown Regional High School’s preseason.
Right in the midst of his first week of practices, the senior wing was also running the first clothing drive for his mental health nonprofit, Your True Layers.
“We collected over 1,000 pieces of clothing,” Crisostomo said. “So I definitely love helping my community out, helping those with mental illness and still struggling in anxiety and mental health. I love prioritizing my time into that because I feel like everybody needs to be seen.”
Crisostomo is balancing his efforts between being a captain for a Scotties team with high expectations coming off a strong 17-5 season that earned it a spot in the tougher Liberty Division of the Burlington County Scholastic League and the nonprofit that he started last year.
“He’s key to, a lot of times, the good vibes or what makes a team just hit that extra level,” said Scotties head coach Mike Brennan. “And he is the leader when it comes to how this team is feeling at any given time. He’s a special kind of kid.”
A four-year varsity player, Crisostomo comes off his best statistical season last fall, when he had six goals and was tied for second on the team with 11 assists during a season in which Bordentown went 7-0 in the BCSL Patriot Division. Crisostomo isn’t worried about piling up more statistics but understands that he can do some important things to help the Scotties win.
“Creating chances like assists is definitely a big part of my role,” he said. “Last year, I had a lot of assists and I enjoy setting my teammates up, making plays happen, being creative. I don’t want to limit myself to just getting assists. I want to be someone who can create, score, make runs, help defensively when we need it. I think my biggest thing to bring to the team is being able to create opportunities and use my speed and technical ability to open things up for the guys around me.”
Off the pitch, he has taken on responsibility in his community with his nonprofit. Your True Layers is billed as a platform “dedicated to mental health and emotional awareness through storytelling, education, outreach, fundraising initiatives, and access to valuable resources.” The nonprofit has its own website, yourtruelayers.org, and an Instagram page to help people connect. Crisostomo launched it last year.
“The reason I started Your True Layers was because I know what it feels like to deal with your things by yourself or people don’t really understand what you’re going through,” he said. “I wanted to create something where people could share experiences and realize that they’re not the only ones that go through certain things. Sometimes just hearing someone else’s story can make you feel understood and a little bit less alone. I wanted Your True Layers to be a place where people could be honest about what they’re feeling, learn from each other, and have these mental health resources that I have on my page for them to be able to seek help because I know it’s hard seeking help sometimes. And definitely I love to get people that comfort that they’re not alone.”
He has gotten friends and teammates involved in running the nonprofit. They offer resources on how to deal with anxiety and depression and have real stories and tips from people who have gotten through their struggles. The clothing drive was another way to reach out into the community, and Your True Layers is planning to hold another clothing drive for those in need Oct. 11 and 12 and always accepts monetary donations to support the nonprofit. Taking on that responsibility has also helped him in his other passion, soccer, which he’s been playing since he was 4 years old and hopes to continue in college.
“Your True Layers is definitely helping me with soccer,” Crisostomo said. “Starting it has taught me a lot about communication and listening to people and understanding that you don’t always know what someone is going through just by looking at them. I think that carries over to the team because everyone has different things going on outside of soccer. As a captain, I’m aware of checking in with my teammates, listening to them, making sure everyone feels like they’re part of the group. And soccer has taught me how to be a teammate, but Your True Layers has helped me to understand about what being a good teammate really means. Like communication is very important on and off the field, understanding one another is very important on and off the field.”
On the field, the Scotties got off to a little slower start than they would have liked. They followed a 5-0 win over Riverside in the season opener with back-to-back losses before getting back on track with a 4-0 win over Burlington Township. Injuries contributed to reshaping the team in the early going, and Bordentown expects to be a tough opponent over the final month.
“We’re playing good soccer,” Brennan said. “We came in the season with really high hopes. We still have them. But I guess it’s good to go through your problems early in the year as opposed to the end of the year. So hopefully we’re going to regroup, work on some things in training, and get the ship righted.”
Facing some strong competition early is helping them adjust to what they’ll see all year from Liberty Division opponents. And as a team with a lot of players back, every opponent will be geared up to try to knock off the Scotties.
“The biggest challenge is that every game is more competitive,” Crisostomo said. “You can’t really take off because every team has players who can play well and punish you for your mistakes. For us, I’d say it’s about adjusting to the higher level, playing faster, being more disciplined, and trying to stay consistent for those full 90 minutes. But honestly, I think playing better competition is only going to make us better.”
Crisostomo was one of the strong starting pieces returning for the Scotties. Much of their optimism was based on the players they had coming back from last year, including leading scorer Everett Hosszu-Barrett. Their top goal scorer from a year ago, Tyler Kunkel, was their most significant loss to graduation. The experience returning is their biggest strength.
“We have a lot of kids that play all over the place in different clubs, but high school soccer is a different animal entirely,” Brennan said. “We were battle tested last year and we have most of the kids back. We have 10 kids back that got a whole lot of playing time last year, eight of them started just about every game, so as far as far as that goes, that’s definitely a strength to our team. We can score, we can possess in the middle of the field, and we do a good job for the most part of keeping the ball out of the net. So those are the things you need to have in order to be a good team. Those ingredients are in place, so I guess we’re going to see if we can do something with it.”
Bordentown showed its balance early on. Cole Rosini, Marco Carlini and Ediz Gungor joined Hosszu-Barrett and Crisostomo as goal scorers in the first four games of the season. Liam Mellor is back in goal as a junior in front of a defense that is hoping to gel while the attack gets more dangerous.
“We have the firepower, but it is spread around,” Brennan said. “So that makes life a little easier for us, and it makes things a lot harder for other teams to defend. A good game plan, formation and discipline can go a long way in shutting one kid out, but we’re hoping to get all of our goal scorers on the same page in the coming weeks and I think we’re going to be pretty tough to play against.”
Bordentown knows it has the talent to compete with anyone. The challenge this year is that the Scotties will play each team in the BCSL Liberty Division, which includes teams that are among the top in the state, twice. That will test them plenty. Bordentown’s first two losses of the season came against Liberty teams.
“I don’t really think our record shows the potential the group has,” Crisostomo said. “We have a lot of talent. There’s a lot of upcoming freshmen, sophomores, juniors, we’re all packed with talent. But more importantly, what I think is the best in this team is that we all care about each other and we all pick each other up at trainings. We all want to get better. We do have some things we need to clean up and stuff, but when we get everything all together and start playing the way we want to play, we’ll definitely play very well.”
Bordentown employs a mix of players from every class in its regular rotation, even some freshmen. Many of them play for Trenton City Soccer Club, an MLS Next member club, outside of school before coming together on the Scotties. With injuries changing their available players, the Scotties were sorting out how to best configure their talent until they return to full strength. Crisostomo is hoping to do his part as a veteran and a leader in his final year before college.
“Being a senior is honestly kind of crazy,” he said. “It feels like just yesterday I was a freshman, looking up to the older guys. And now I’m the older guy, I’m in that position. And I think the biggest thing is realizing how fast everything goes. I want to enjoy every practice, every moment I get with my teammates because I know I’m not going to have another season with these guys. And I love these guys. These guys are amazing. I love teammates that I have. And I’m excited to be the leader for the younger guys. And I’m just trying to enjoy the best, the last ride I got with the boys.”
Crisostomo feels he has to set the example as a captain now. He got a taste of varsity playing as a freshman and has been a starter since his sophomore year. He brings top ability to the team as an experienced, skilled player.
“Anthony’s very dangerous on the field,” said Brennan. “He’s very, very fast. He has a good IQ. And his presence on the field, it prevents teams from doubling some of our other players because he will absolutely burn them if that’s the case. I think if all goes well and we’re fortunate enough to be healthy, I think Anthony is set up for a real big year, goal scoring wise.”
Anthony Crisostomo has been vital, whether raising expectations and spirits on the soccer pitch for Bordentown or recognizing and addressing mental health concerns in the community with his Your True Layers nonprofit.
