[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://www.conjsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Jessica-Bell-Headshot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]
@jessb2230[/author_info] [/author]
Twelve high school varsity letters. Brianna Musco never took a season off.
Nearing the start of college back in 2014, most people expected Musco, a star athlete at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey to continue competing at the next level. Instead, she chose to pursue her other passion: music.
But, the story does not end here.
After her first year of studying music at Monmouth University, Musco decided that she needed to get back into playing soccer. She transferred to Delaware State University for her sophomore year to join its NCAA Division I team.
Junior year came around, and once again, Musco was ready for a change. Back to Monmouth she went, as she made her final decision to fully dedicate herself to music, and give up playing sports.
Musco personifies the internal struggle of many college athletes. As students progress through college, they realize that they are getting closer to entering a competitive job market. The back-and-forth nature of Musco’s story does not show a lack of focus in her aspirations, but instead a lack of the time needed to fully commit to both of her passions.
“In high school, there is a very clear routine, which involves having class, and then practice or games,” said Musco. “But, in college, you have to schedule classes in between practice, and sometimes miss doing school work for games. I found this completely different, and you have to have great time management.”
Musco knew from a young age that as much as she liked sports, she equally enjoyed playing music. Her uncle, Vincent, owns Westwood Music School, and began giving Musco lessons. Yet, with time management always being an issue, Musco gave up playing music to focus on competing in three sports growing up. She would only resume lessons and fully rekindle her love for playing music during her junior year of high school.
Musco came from an athletically centered family, with her father Frank being a former All-State baseball catcher ranked by The Newark Star Ledger, and her older brother Frankie being a multi-sport varsity athlete who eventually went on to play football at Salve Regina University, and then professionally in Germany.
Playing basketball, soccer, and softball, Musco consistently moved up to play with the older teams in her town of Montvale, New Jersey. She also broke gender boundaries and played on the boys’ travel teams, even playing baseball for a few seasons.
“Playing up in terms of age and skill level definitely strengthened me as an athlete in the long run, especially in terms of mental toughness,” said Musco. “My main motivation was that I just always wanted to win.”
As a rising athlete in the Bergen County area, Musco was generally known as a fierce competitor to all those that she faced.
Kelly Streaser, an athlete from Glen Rock grew up playing Musco in basketball and softball.
“Not very often do you find a player who is so well rounded, and so ahead of the competition, that as soon as they walk onto the playing field, the other team is immediately concerned. Brianna was one of those players.” Streaser said, “You just knew that when you were against her team, the main priority would be trying to stop her.”
Even with her natural athletic talent, Musco was dedicated to pushing herself towards constant improvement.
Regardless of the season, Musco practiced for a minimum of two hours on her own every day, in addition to team practices. She also competed on various club teams in the off-season, such as the Ramapo Valley Tornados Elite for soccer, and the New Jersey Blast for basketball.
This hard work showed.
By the end of high school, Musco received first-team, all-state, all-county and all-league honors from both The Bergen Record and The Star Ledger in girls’ soccer. She was consistently named one of the top ten strikers in Bergen County each year by these newspapers, and also held the scoring record at Pascack Hills with over 100 career goals. In basketball, Musco was named first-team all-league and second team all County, and in softball was first-team all-league and thir- team all County.
Despite Musco’s accomplishments, she felt she lacked adequate time to devote to both of her passions, and this steadily became challenging.
“I could definitely tell my senior year of high school sports was not as strong as it could have been if I was not trying to balance music and sports,” said Musco.
After her freshman year at Monmouth University, and first time away from athletics, Musco came to a realization.
“I missed playing sports and I felt that I ended my career the wrong way in high school. Delaware State University gave me the best opportunity to return to playing soccer,” said Musco.
As a second-year transfer, Musco pursued Music Education as a major, but let more of her focus go back to soccer. Still, Musco said, “I was really nervous that my year off would take a big toll on my body.”
Prior to the start of the 2015 season, Delaware State University head coach, Kerri Scroope, said of Musco in an article about her recruits, “Brianna will add great strength to the striker position. We look for her to fit right in and help grow our scoring ability.”
And Musco did just that. She contributed to a team with the best overall winning percentage (.475) in program single-season history, and helped them win an Independent Conference Tournament against South Carolina State in their final game. By the end of the season, she led the team in goals, with a total of five.
Unfortunately, even with the victory, that final conference tournament still did not end smoothly for Musco. She suffered a head injury on the last play of the championship game.
“As an athlete, I felt that after multiple concussions, it was not worth trying to continue. I ended on a league championship win – I’ll take that again any day,” said Musco.
She took this injury as a sign that it was time to leave sports again, this time for good. Music was her future, and she said, “Monmouth offered me the opportunity of time, where I could concentrate completely on my music. If I continued to play a sport, it would be very time consuming.”
College athletes are often stuck between wanting to continue to dedicate themselves to the sport they love, while also beginning to realize that their time with the sport is limited. In some cases, such as Musco’s, athletes make the difficult decision to spend their ever-limited time working towards career goals that they know will last long past they graduate.
“When I realized my sports career was over, I just wanted to travel,” said Musco. Upon returning to Monmouth, Musco decided to spend a semester abroad in Italy. This experience, which she had not been able to fit into her previously packed schedule, allowed her to make clear her post-graduation plan of traveling and playing gigs for the next few years.
Musco starting performing music with her high school band, which won their Battle of the Bands contest her senior year of high school. This past February, Musco transitioned into playing shows as a solo artist.
Just as she excelled in multiple sports, Musco now brings her versatility into the music realm. She plays all styles of guitar, sings, plays the piano, and dabbles in the drums and bass. In college, she studies classical music. Musco also shares her knowledge by giving music lessons to people of all ages, calling it “the greatest feeling in the world.”
Musco is an avid listener of all genres of music, but cites some of her main influences as James Taylor, Ed Sheeran, Carole King, and Taylor Swift. The similarity among these artists? They are all songwriters – and so is Musco. She is currently working on a demo of original work that will be released on Jan. 5.
Between giving lessons, recording song covers on YouTube, playing shows all along the East Coast, and writing and producing her own music, Musco has begun to notice a common connection.
“Regardless of their differences on the surface, sports and music are similar in that a great work ethic is crucial to success,” said Musco.