'I Will Remember This Year For The Rest of My Life'
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Wildwood senior Brian Cunniff knew that more would be expected of him this basketball season simply due to attrition.
As a junior, Cunniff averaged 12.3 points on a veteran 16-13 team that advanced to the South Jersey Group 1 semifinals.
That team would graduate eight seniors leaving Cunniff as the only returning player who had appreciable playing time.
“I thought I would have to handle the ball more and that it would be more important than scoring,” the 6-foot-2 Cunniff said.
As it turned out, he did a lot more handling and even more scoring. Cunniff averaged 21.1 points on a Wildwood team that ended its season with a 58-50 loss to Pitman in an opening round South Jersey Group 1 game.
Pitman, the defending South Jersey Group 1 champion, is the No. 1 seed, while Wildwood was seeded 16th, yet the Warriors earned plenty of respect in defeat. In two regular season games, Pitman beat Wildwood by an average of 22.5 points.
“We cut it to seven in the fourth quarter and couldn’t get over the hump,” Cunniff said. “Some of the Pitman kids came up to me and said ‘way to put up a fight.’”
Cunniff couldn’t say enough about how hard his teammates fought in this playoff opener.
“It’s tough to lose, but for us to go up there and it’s not an easy place to play, for us to put up a fight, I was happy we were able to play 100 percent and play so hard,” he said.
Cunniff will amass 12 varsity letters by the time he graduates, having also participated in cross country and now preparing for his final baseball season.
Yet hoops is his main passion.
Over the summer he competed in two different high school leagues, and also played in a men’s league as well. Some nights he would go from playing in one league to another. The men’s league really benefited his game.
“I think playing against stronger and older players really helped me,” he said.
With such an inexperienced team entering the season, Cunniff stepped up his game. He also set the school record by scoring 55 points in a wild 102-100 overtime loss against Clayton, a team that plays two paces–fast and faster.
Cunniff made 24 two-point field goals and seven foul shots and all but two of the field goals he said, came in transition. He was bushed after the game.
“It felt like a summer league game, and I was exhausted afterwards,” he said.
A game later he scored his 1,000th career point in a win over Pennsville. Cunniff finished with 1,058 career points. He became the second 1,000-point career scorer in his family. His mother Teresa, who is the girls’ basketball coach at Wildwood, scored, 1,305 during her career with the Warriors.
He recalls going to the gym with his mom since he was a little kid, attending her practices when she was an assistant before becoming the head coach.
The two used to play one-on-one during his younger years, but he insists his mom hasn’t been interested in playing lately.
“She beat me when I was in fifth or sixth grade but then she started avoiding me,” he said laughing.
Cunniff comes from a hoop-crazed family. Besides his mom, who also played at Rutgers, his father Brian is a long-time journalist and outstanding basketball play-by-play announcer. His younger brother Sean also plays the game.
According to Cunniff, his family is always offering encouragement, along with constructive criticism when warranted.
“It is awesome, and I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said. “When I mess up my parents tell me what I can do to get better. They don’t sugarcoat it, and I appreciate I have people in my life who are always helping me improve.”
Cunniff, who was named a first-team all-conference choice this season, hopes to play in college, but hasn’t made a decision.
He is grateful for the basketball career he had at Wildwood that ended with a spectacular senior season.
“It was a really great experience, and I had a lot of fun with it,” he said. “I loved going to practice, loved every game and being with my teammates. I will remember this year for the rest of my life.”
Photo: Brian Cunniff / Courtesy of the family
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Author: Marc Narducci
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