It’s easy to sense when something is out-of-the-ordinary in the heart of suburbia. In our fenced in, planned out neighborhoods, we are far from the hustle and bustle of the city and its ever-redoubling wave of distractions. Here, in the pleasant silence, the appearance of an unfamiliar car or a new sign on someone’s lawn becomes noteworthy. Pingry, in this way, is like its own suburban neighborhood. Forget that it’s flanked by mass expanses of suburbia on all sides–Pingry, like a neighborhood, becomes familiar to its students, teachers, and parents in the blink of an eye. So, when all of a sudden, parents are having to check in with security before dropping their kids off at day camp, people are going to wonder. When the MacRae Theater is closed temporarily for a press conference, people are going to wonder. When a tour bus that looks like it could belong to the Beatles and smells like euros pulls into campus, people are going to wonder. In a few moments, everyone can feel it–something is different.

Maybe you’ve seen them: six feet tall, clad in red and black, legs the size of an average torso. Then again, the superstars of AC Milan, one of Europe’s premier soccer (football, for my international audience) clubs are hard to miss. Just try and look away from winger Christian Pulisic (that’s Captain America, to you) and his million-dollar smile, or try to find his teammates behind the enormous frame of midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, whose size may be the only thing more impressive than his scoring ability. Rafael Leão, perhaps the greatest superstar on the team, is the only one who’s easy to miss, but only because he’s so fast he appears as a blur.

But how, exactly, does a high school in the suburbs get the attention of such a prestigious club? Turns out, with Pingry’s reputation, there’s no need–the clubs are the ones reaching out. “I turned more people away than I said yes to this summer, just based on demand,” says Director of Auxiliary Programs Carl Frye, who has now been in charge of hosting four pro teams in the span of two months, and plans on hosting yet another in the coming weeks as Chelsea’s Women’s team makes their way to the US. “Now, it's safe to say that our reputation is one of the best. And when tours are coming to the US or there's matches at MetLife or Red bull, we are the top two, if not the top choice right now, to train.” Just to be clear, that is not hyperbole or braggadocious on the part of Frye–Pingry has been building its brand in this sector for 30 years now, ever since it played host to the men’s Italian national team during the 1994 World Cup, the last one to take place in the US. 

As with all things Pingry soccer-related, when it comes to hosting legendary soccer clubs, “it all starts with Miller and his legacy.” That’s David Fahey, Director of Institutional Advancement, and he’s referring, of course, to Pingry’s legendary soccer head coach, Miller Bugliari ‘52. It was all very Field of Dreams-like for Coach Bugliari in 1994. He got in contact with the Italians through the venue director at New York Giants stadium, who he had coached at Pingry, and was told that Pingry could host if a field were built to the team’s exact specifications. When the Miller Bugliari ‘52 World Cup Field was ready, out of the cornfield came the Italians, and nearly every year since then, an elite soccer team has stopped by for a week in the summer to train.

AC Milan’s week of training is what everybody sees. Behind the scenes, however, Grounds Supervisor Neil Spagnuolo and company spend months taking pains to make sure the field conforms to the club’s every specification. For projects like these, Spagnuolo calls on George Lang, Pingry’s in-house agronomist and someone he describes as his “go-to guy” for all things World Cup Field.  “It’s almost as if [the field] is a child to him,” gushes Spagnuolo over his colleague, who’s been the World Cup Field specialist for over 15 years now. “That’s how he cares for this field and the process of it. But I would consider him more like a grandparent, though,” he jokes, “he plays with the children and leaves it for mom and dad, and we’re mom and dad, myself and the crew that work here.” World Cup Field family tree drama aside, it’s easy to see why Spagnuolo refers to the field as a living thing. The way he describes it, communication with the field itself is just as important as communication about the field. “The field will talk to you. It will tell you when it’s thirsty. It will tell you when it has too much water.” With such a delicate watering situation, there is no wonder he’s such a dedicated communicator. Water the grass too much, and allow it to grow fungus. Water it too little, and watch it die. Let the grass grow too tall, which, in the case of professional soccer teams, can sometimes mean any higher than three quarters of an inch, and outrage is abound. Cut it too short, and run the risk of killing it all. The stakes on this field are not only high for the players.

The aforementioned David Fahey, who felt the pressure of playing on the World Cup field for four years under coach Bugliari and now has been coaching alongside him for upwards of ten, knows exactly how valuable the pitch is in attracting world-class soccer players: “If we had a turf field, they wouldn't come in the first place. Or if we had a grass field that was crappy, they would leave on day one. So, the jewel in our crown, and the only thing that matters at a base level is the quality and the availability of the grass pitch.” Even if most high schools (or, as a matter of fact, most colleges) don’t have access to a field the caliber of “World Cup,” as it is affectionately known, the field is not the driving factor behind why teams choose to train at Pingry.

Carl Frye, who has been on the receiving end of a lot of player feedback over the last two years, says with confidence that “what [players] love about the Pingry training experience is first and foremost the hospitality.” Sure, Pingry has a state-of-the-art Athletic Center–according to Frye, there are a few front office officials from the English Premier League that were blown away by the luxuries of the Bugliari Athletic Center. There’s a full-length pool, a massive auditorium, TVs and projectors everywhere you look–everything you could ever want. What it really comes down to, though, is attention to detail. As Frye puts it, “a professional team may not think it's that big of a deal to have another professional team come and use their space, and may even feel like an inconvenience, but for us, we know what it does for the prestige of the school.” In other words, these visits are a big deal for Pingry, and Frye and his team have been going to great lengths to make sure AC Milan knows how valued their presence is. 

For starters, six of the eight squash courts in the BAC were repurposed into working offices, outfitted with tables, desks, TVs, projectors, printers–the works. Recovery and nutrition rooms have been brought to life out of thin air. Christian Pulisic mentioned he wanted to golf, and almost before he could finish his sentence, he was booked for a round at the most prestigious club in the area. A lot of the guys on the team drink espresso, so a Nespresso appeared in the coach’s office. AC Milan’s iconic crest started showing up everywhere as part of the effort to make the team feel at home. The service is like something out of The Devil Wears Prada. 

AC Milan, however, could not be farther from Miranda Priestly. Ok, they’re European and they have style–in fact, they probably know Giorgio Armani, too. But in terms of the way the players and the coaches carry themselves, they have made it relatively easy on the people working 14 hour days on their behalf. Frye, who’s been around the club every day they’ve been on campus, couldn’t think of a time the team made a request that was especially difficult on him, adding that “the Italians have been very, very relaxed and go with the flow and low stress…they keep saying ‘tranquilo’ or tranquil. They even said it felt like Milan with all of the trees.” All that work to try and make the Milanese feel at home, and they already thought Basking Ridge felt like Milan–if this doesn’t debunk the myth that Europeans are snobs, nothing will. 

Above all, it seems, the guys on AC Milan know how to have fun. The club that was originally branded as “the team of devils” can be seen playing tag, pestering their photographers for social media fodder, or shooting hoops for hours on the courts next to the World Cup Field. “They practice harder on our field than any team who's come through here before. But I think they understand that when it's when it's that time, it's that time. And then when it's not that time, they have a much more laid back approach to how they handle things,” says Director of Operations Michael Saraceno, making sure to let it be known that Milan are not just here to mess around. As far as the intensity of the team’s training, the results speak for themselves; between sessions at Pingry, Milan took down Manchester City in Yankees Stadium 3-2 before shutting out Real Madrid 1-0 at Soldier Field. The message? Play hard, work harder. Drink Nespresso. 

The team is having fun. But what about the people making it all happen for them? From the outside, this all seems like an incredibly daunting project. Pingry, in its normal state, is not equipped to host AC Milan. Dozens of people have to work almost around the clock every day, coordinating local police for security, tending to the team’s every need, constantly at the ready if something goes awry. 600 campers, none of whom are strangers to wandering off unexpectedly, have to be kept away from the club at all times. With so many moving pieces, it’s easy to wonder why Pingry doesn’t just let a pro team in the states host Milan instead. Pingry, however, is too ambitious–and too savvy–to let that happen. Carl Frye certainly thinks so: “these are incredible brands that people would die to be attached to and partner with. So to say no when we have the ability to do so…to me feels like a bad business decision.” As it turns out, he’s not wrong, and there’s evidence to back it up. It was almost exactly 30 years ago, after that very first visit from the Italian national team, that David Fahey decided he might want to go to Pingry. Since then, there’s no telling how many kids have been inspired in the same way, not just by the prospect of meeting some famous soccer players, but by the ambition of the institution that attracts them.  

So, as AC Milan’s tour bus pulls out of the front entrance for the last time, the entire Pingry crew will already be hard at work, thinking about the future, trying to find the next welcome disturbance to the heart of suburbia. After all, time is of the essence–the World Cup is only two summers away.

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To contact the author: Adam Elayan ‘24