The Pingry School is used to plenty of visitors over the summer. Confused parents dropping off their children in the wrong parking lot. Kids decked out in Yankees shirts, swinging bats and hitting imaginary home runs. Toddlers walking in a slowly meandering line throughout the high school, filling up the hallways with the scent of SPF 50. Camp counselors, athletes, artists, a few teachers, and a smattering of employees—everyone making their way in and out of the buildings in waves of excitement, noise, and summer fun.
And so it was among the usual summer camp frenzy that parents encountered something a bit unusual: a suddenly beefed up security presence; a need to roll down the window and tell the operations staff why, exactly, were you visiting?; a car decal noting if you are an employee or summer camp parent. Among the puzzled looks from campus visitors, a sleek, gleaming red bus pulled up behind the school, and out of it quietly stepped some of the most skilled, revered, and famous soccer players in the world.
Before Manchester United broke records for the most attended soccer game in MetLife history last week (at 82,000 fans), they had to train somewhere—and not just anywhere, but somewhere that met its world class standards. A place where the soccer pitch is pristine and the grass is cut just right. A location where the facilities rivaled their own—that could offer a high-end athletics center, lots of privacy, oh, and preferably, a pool, just in case any player wants to take a dip.
And that is how Manchester United, quite possibly the most famous soccer team in the world, went back to high school.
Descending on Basking Ridge, New Jersey were players who had probably never stepped foot in New Jersey before—Marcus Rashford, a great forward and an even greater human being; Casemiro, with that mischievous smile and laser like focus; Harry Maguire, impossibly tall, and all of them impossibly fast. Pulling up in that cool red bus and stepping out onto the pitch, Pingry’s famed cry of Go Big Blue became a temporary sea of Go Big Red. Red Devils, that is.
Pingry high school students were tasked with stocking water bottles and refilling ice, getting a chance to get up close and personal with their favorite soccer players, so long as they promised not to ask for an autograph. “I worked with operations,” said Matthew Lombardo ’24, “ensuring authorized personnel were the only ones to be in contact with the team.” Delaney Swain ’24, who has a passion for photography, took photos of the team entering across the field. “It was really cool as a senior who plays soccer to meet some of the people that I watch on TV,” she said. Meanwhile, faculty peered out the windows of the science room, craning their necks to get a glimpse of the Man U players breaking up a particularly intense rondo drill with laughter.
Why did Manchester United, considered the most valuable team in all of the Premier League, valued at $6bn (that’s billion with a capital B), choose to camp out at a high school for their training in the lead up to their record-breaking match at MetLife?
For starters, Pingry is no ordinary high school. Set on 192 acres, the facilities include a state-of-the-art training facility, aptly named the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center after longtime soccer Coach Bugliari, who can often be seen walking back and forth between his office and the building named in his honor. (In fact, at the press conference held in the school’s quickly converted Macrae Theatre, Manchester United’s legendary manager Erik ten Hag presented Coach Bugliari with a jersey and posed for photographs).
Yet Manchester United did not come here to simply train inside. They came to play, which meant they needed a soccer field that met their extremely high standards. This is what sets Pingry apart: World Cup Field.
Named the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 World Cup Field, it was built in 1994 for the Italian National Team that promised to come train on the field if Pingry built it to their specifications. In the years since, other storied teams have come to America—this high school in New Jersey, specifically—to train on the field, including the Women’s World Cup Team in 1999; Liverpool in 2003; AC Milan in 2005; PSG in 2015; and Juventus, in 2017, and then back again in 2018.
The facilities at Pingry are top-notch. The teachers here are unrivaled educators. Yet few things on campus draw more meticulous care than the Kentucky bluegrass growing on World Cup Field. Grounds Supervisor Neil Spagnuolo, who is in charge of keeping it in pristine condition, says the field keeps him up at night. “It’s my nemesis,” he says matter-of-factly, before rattling off a list of potential problems. “This place is extremely windy—I’m sure you’ve encountered it. There’s days where the grass starts to turn gray, so I have to then water that zone for four minutes just to cool it down. But—you don’t want to add too much water because then you’re going to create fungus going into the evening.” He worries about what could go wrong with the seemingly perfect grass a lot—“summer patch, pythium blight, just complete dryness, or it being too soggy”—and he’s not above occasionally dyeing a spot with turf dye when circumstances require it.
The height of the grass is the source of much attention and consternation and negotiation between the groundskeeper and the soccer coaches. Couldn’t it be shorter? After all, the ball moves faster on short grass. Can’t they cut it just a little more? And back and forth it goes.
A third party outside firm, Clark Companies, a national leader in athletic field construction and maintenance, works with the school to ensure the grass stays perfect. In fact, Clark specialist George Lang stayed at a hotel down the street from Pingry for two months prior to Manchester United’s visit, coming in everyday (and, at least once, in the middle of the night—a testament to the field keeping more than a few folks up at night) to examine the grass and give it extra TLC. As if all that wasn’t enough, Manchester United sent its very own groundskeeper, Joe Pemberton, to stay at Pingry for two weeks ahead of the team’s arrival. And not just anyone can wander onto this lovingly cared for pitch. Only varsity players are allowed to play on it—and only during games, with the exception of a practice on it the day before a game—otherwise, no one practices on it..
Except, of course, Marcus Rashford.
If proof of their superior training could be found in their resounding win over Arsenal at MetLife, then Man U’s groundskeeper Joe Pemberton was happy to elaborate on how the field met the team’s high standards. “The feedback from the coaches and my bosses has been all positive,” he said. The World Cup field grass is normally kept at an inch and a quarter—already under tremendous stress at that short of height—yet it was brought down even shorter—and cared for even more meticulously—to match Manchester United’s demands. When Bruno Fernandes passed the ball, it blazed across a grass of just 23 millimeters in length. That slightly less than an inch adds up to plenty of sleepless nights for the groundskeepers.
Carl Frye, Assistant Director of Auxiliary Programs at Pingry, is in charge of all facility rentals at Pingry. He was the lead and only point of contact between the school and Manchester United’s wide ranging operation. He believes that Pingry offers an experience few others can match.
“What Pingry provides is a quality pitch within driving distance to New York City and to Newark Airport,” he says, as if selling me on renting the field too. “It’s private. It’s secluded. And the facilities beyond the pitch, like our athletic center, are incredible.” Yet beyond the impressive gym and perfect grass, Carl believes it’s the human factor that makes Pingry special. “What sets us apart is the hospitality piece,” he says. “I think other professional organizations don’t put the same love and care into the experience of the guest quite like Pingry does because we understand the value and benefit of having a global megabrand on our campus. I don’t think the Giants and the Jets and the Red Bulls would go to the lengths we do to make sure they have a really great experience.”
For nearly a week, the high school transformed itself into a Manchester United training complex. Three of the squash courts were repurposed entirely, putting down carpets in them—one was transformed into a team meeting space with two tv sets so the players and coaches could watch films of their games; one court became a massage room, with physio tables and Theraguns for pre and post match recovery; and the third court was used for a stretching area. They added spin bikes to the field and in the athletic center, along with a smoothie bar and a newly installed fridge. Ice baths were set up daily for the players, so every day the school had 400 lbs of ice delivered.
Bernards Police Department sent 8 police officers to provide security, Pingry had 11 of their operations officers stationed around campus, and Manchester United had 12 of their own private security guards. The sheer scale of the operation was dizzying. And yet, not one summer camp was canceled. Kids were still running through sprinklers outside, unaware the biggest team in the world was just a few feet away.
The billionaire owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family, came to watch the team on Thursday and Friday. Their VIP tents were stocked with specialty ice creams, hard-to-find sunscreens and bug repellents, and cool towels that were—and this is crucial—iced but not wet. “I don’t think people understand the level of details that went into this,” says Carl, happily exhausted.
Calling the experience “the most challenged I’ve ever been professionally,” Carl worked 18-hour days while the team was in town, wisely sending his family to Maine while he tended to the Premier League’s most famous team. “So they got a vacation in Maine for a week while I was pretending to be an executive at Manchester United,” he said.
Interim Director of Institutional Advancement and Associate Head Coach for Varsity Boys’ Soccer David Fahey ’99 praises the tight knit Pingry community for funding improvements to the school that attract world class organizations like Man U. “Pingry is incredibly lucky and blessed to have facilities which are primarily funded through the generosity of our alums and our class parents because of the reputation for, and the expectation of, excellence across our campus.”
Noting that having the team train here is a “vindication” of all the hard work and care that goes into the field, David is already looking ahead to the World Cup in 2026. “If you’re going to travel to the East Coast,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye, “Pingry is the place that can meet or exceed your expectations.”
Photo Credit: Manchester United
Contact: Sara Courtney, Communications Writer