Toms River South football: 'Impossible Dream' film a deep dive into Shore sports history
The 16-millimeter film, buried at the bottom of a trunk piled with reels of old high school football game footage, had not been viewed in more than a half-century.
The celluloid contained high-quality recording of the most important football game ever played at the Jersey Shore - an important piece of local history and absolute gold for local filmmaker Sandy Levine.
In her film South Football’s Impossible Dream, Levine explores the rise of Toms River football, from the arrival of coach Ron Signorino Sr. in 1964 to the championship season four years later.
And it culminates with the 1969 late-season clash with Middletown in what is still referred to as “The Game,” a battle between a pair of unbeatens considered to top two teams in the state.
“I went on faith with this because I had started shooting in August of 2021 and I don’t think the film was found until December,” she said, “and I was not comfortable about making a documentary, something people sit down and watch, without having that game film.”
But Ron Signorino Jr., the Toms River South head coach from 2011 to 2021 and now the keeper of the film trunk his father, now 88, began tossing reels into when he was child, found it in one of the last reels he examined.
Now it’s a centerpiece of the hour-long film premier Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Grunin Center at Ocean County College in Toms River.
Dreaming big
The other important reel was the opening game of the 1968 season against Brick when, after losing to the Green Dragons for eight straight years, Toms River finally turned the tables.
“Coach Signorino had come up with this idea, and before the 1968 season he challenged them to believe in the impossible dream,” Levine said. “That’s where the film gets its name. The Man of La Mancha was on Broadway at the time, and The Impossible Dream was a song from it.
“Coach Signorino wrote personal letters to his players. And I have a player reading one on camera in the film, and it talks about his players needing to believe in the impossible dream, and that theme continued right through 1969, and ended with the Middletown game.”
While Toms River lost that game, 14-8, they went 17-1 over those two seasons, after going 1-17 the two seasons before Signorino arrived. He had two successful stints at the school, from 1964-78, and again from 1997-2000.
In extensive interviews with former players, Levine divines the essence of what it was to be a part of the program during that time.
“As a producer, my focus is a human interest story, it’s not a sport story,” Levine said. “Of course it’s about football and it’s about that game and it’s about coaching and it’s about the players, but I’m more interested in how (Signorino) motivated them, his techniques and what was it like to be coached by him.
“What was fascinating to me about the players is that they remember a lot of details about games, and not just the Middletown game, that they played more than 50 years ago. It was amazing to me, and that their high school football experience meant so much to them. Almost all of them have their varsity football jacket, some of them have their helmet. Their parents, mom usually, made a scrapbook, and they have that.”
If you go: Grunin Center is located on the campus of Ocean County College at 1 College Dr., Toms River, 08754. For tickets visit grunincenter.org or call the Grunin Center Box Office at 732-255-0500.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River South football: 'Impossible Dream' film recounts 1969 game
