By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Egg Harbor Township junior Brielle Von Colln has had a pretty good high school career. She’s a solid player on both offense and defense for the Eagles’ girls flag football team, she plays golf, and she already has 38 goals and 36 assists as one of the top scorers on EHT’s girls soccer team in the fall.
She’s had some great moments in her sports career, but the best one — by far — had nothing to do with any of her statistics or big wins.
Earlier this season, after a win over Mainland Regional, Eagles coach Cameron Bell said he had a surprise for Von Colln. She turned around and saw some parents taking her picture, so she figured it was just some kind of thing for the school’s social media. It took a moment to realize what — or, rather, who — coach Bell was pointing at. Striding across the field was older brother Eric, a corporal in the United States Army and a sibling that Brielle hadn’t seen in nearly two years.
“He came straight from the airport when he got here from Germany. He even surprised my mom at the field. My mom quickly texted coach Bell and was like, ‘hey, I need you to distract her for a few minutes. Her brother just got here from Germany.’ After (the handshake line) at the end of the game Bell was like, ‘I need Von Colln.’ He was like, ‘you played your heart out, great game. I have a surprise for you. Turn around,’” Brielle explained. “I turn and I see two photographers taking pictures of me, so I posed for a picture and just kept walking. Then I saw my brother. I had no idea he was there. He usually has a break around the holidays but the military kept him this year, so I haven’t seen him in almost two years. I was so shocked. All I could think of was just to run, and I was running to hug him and started immediately crying. I didn’t even know what to think. I was just like, ‘oh, my God! You’re here!’”
“I had no clue. My husband arranged everything and I didn’t know until they walked down the path on their way to the field, and I looked back and saw my husband walking with him. I was completely shocked,” said Brielle’s mom, Heather. “My husband (Mark, the Northfield Police Chief) was able to fly out to Germany last year to visit him. I’m a teacher, so I wasn’t able to, so I’m in the same boat as Brielle where I wasn’t able to see him for nearly two years. We’re actually very surprised they were able to keep that secret.
“They showed up about 15 minutes before the end of the game,” Heather continued. “It gave me enough time to reach out to coach Bell and see what we could arrange. One of the other players’ parents takes pictures of all the girls, so I was able to reach out to her as well. I asked her to take some pictures because she’s always on the field.”
In one of the feel-good moments of the spring sports season, Brielle and Eric were reunited — albeit briefly. He had a 10-day break from his military service, so after a little more than a week spent home he was flying back to Europe. But, for a brief moment, the Von Colln family was nearly whole again. (Oldest brother, Colten, lives in Pennsylvania).
“It was just nice having him around the house. He stepped right into it, helped out, it’s almost like he never left. He was taking the dogs out, vacuuming,” Heather said. “We do keep in touch. We try to make calls on the weekends because it’s a six-hour difference. So we try to keep in touch at least once every week and we’ll FaceTime once every two or three weeks. It really depends on his schedule. Brielle is extremely busy, so I think that helps. She plays academy soccer, which is 12 months a year, and she swam this winter. Now she’s playing golf, football and club soccer, so she keeps herself busy.”
“Only my dad knew. He surprised my mom when he was walking up to the field. I didn’t even know that (she didn’t know he was coming home). I missed him so much. It was crazy, looking over and just seeing him there. I would never imagine he would be home. It felt so nice just hugging him and having him home,” Brielle said in a recent phone interview. “I had been in contact with him and he said he was at his base doing some field work. I had no idea (he was coming home). We hung out a lot. We share a car, so we went everywhere together. When we dropped him back off at the airport it was sad. I really miss him. We didn’t have a lot of time to say goodbye because I had a soccer game right after.”
The family may be getting to see a lot more of Eric at the start of 2026, when his military commitment is scheduled to end. He’s been in the Army for about three-and-a-half years now, since graduating from Atlantic Christian School in 2021. Heather said it was amazing for Brielle to finally get to see her brother again after being apart for about 18 months.
“It was all worth it. I know that she misses him a lot. They’ve always been close, even when they were younger. When he left, that was hard on her,” Heather said. “He’s getting done (with his military service) this December and he’ll be home. He’s still trying to figure out what he wants to do next, but right now we’re just excited for him to be done with his contract. We’re super proud of him. (After graduating from Atlantic Christian) he wanted to try to find some skill set that could make a difference. He has two grandfathers who were in the military — his grandfather on his dad’s side was in the marines and my father was in the Army.”
For now, Brielle will try to keep her mind off the miles between she and her brother by keeping herself busy with soccer, golf and the flag football season, as Egg Harbor Township (8-3) is one of the top teams in the West Jersey Football League and has three more games scheduled in May before the start of the regional playoffs.
