Four St. Mary’s boys soccer players participated in a training camp in Calabria, Italy last week hosted by the Italian soccer club Reggina Calcio.
Seniors Fred Stark, Matt Giaconelli, Kenny Joseph and recent graduate Karl-Germain Cesar attended the week-long session July 21-28 after qualifying for the team of New York-based players at tryout sessions at Manhasset Valley Park with representatives from Regal Sporting Group and Atlantic Sports and Performance and Next Champions, who coordinated the training camp with Reggina Calcio.
The team underwent training sessions twice a day for the first three days of the camp with Reggina academy staff at its facilities at St. Agata, and played in matches against Italian youth academies Catania and Palermo FC on its last two days of play.
“It was good to get out there, but it also felt like we had a lot to prove and you didn’t want to make it seem like we weren’t very good,” said Stark, who along with Giaconelli and Joseph play for the FC New York academy. “There was definitely a lot of pressure to show our talent, both as New Yorkers and American players.”
During their training sessions, Stark said the players learned nuances to the game that hadn’t always been made apparent in playing American soccer.
“They taught us how to form your body and push out when you’re making a tackle,” Stark said. “We worked on our balance and the different ways of tackling and going in strong. They also showed us how to keep your coordination and run properly so you’ll go faster when you need to, and run the field as a team to close in quick without leaving gaps in other areas of the field on defense.”
Giaconelli said he noticed differences between the style of play in Italy as opposed to in America.
“[In America], we play a lot more physical, with more of a running style and more contact, but over there they like to move the ball side to side and really take their time setting up their offense,” Giaconelli said.
Stark said he felt comfortable playing with American teammates overseas, which made it easier for him to learn from the Italian coaches with whom he worked.
“We still had that connection that we had over here, but we were forced to play faster because they play faster over there than we play over here, so it pushed us to our limits to play smarter as well as faster, which was challenging,” Stark said.
Stark said even though the team matched up well against Catania, who were closer to the Americans in age, the match was close and required playing with greater intensity than he expected.
The Palermo club was comprised of players in their early 20s, he added, who moved the ball much quicker and were much tougher to defend.
“It definitely got us feeling like we have to work harder because we want to play to the best of our abilities and just get out there and develop more as players and work together,” Stark said.
When the boys were not playing, they toured the Italian countryside and visited local museums with their guides from the Reggina Calcio academy.
“It basically opened the door for that club over here in America,” said Jason Miradoli, the varsity boy’s soccer coach at St. Mary’s. “They’re not really one of the major clubs in Italy like AC Milan or whoever, so they wanted help getting the word out there and thought it’d be a good opportunity to grow the game in America to bring American kids over there to go up against international teams.”
St. Mary’s last reached the NSCHSAA playoffs in 2011 finishing one game out of postseason play last year.
Tryouts for the fall season begin Aug. 19.
