The New Hyde Park Wildcats TOP soccer program held its 14th fall tournament on Oct. 22nd.
The tournament began with the sun rising over the Denton Avenue field at 7 a.m. Dawn Ward brought over the goals and nets with the help of Lady Lynx travel team parents and their coach Kevin Fox.
With assistance from Dave Gilroy, Ken Simon, Pat Lopez, and other volunteers, the venue was ready by 8 am. By this time, the sun was shining brightly, the air was crisp and clean. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
The TOP soccer players started to arrive around 8:30 am.
Clubs from Auburndale, Rockville Centre, Commack, West Hempstead, Garden City, Sachem, New Hyde Park, Plainview-Old Bethpage were a few of the clubs which came from all over Long Island.
More than 125 athletes participated in the Tournament on this beautiful day.
The New Hyde Park senior team consisted of Justin Durso, Stefani Egre, David Glass, Sebastian Gonzalez, Andrea Matteo, Billy Russo, Harrison Stein, Adam Strominger, and Patrick Williams.
The seniors had a fantastic tournament with three wins and one tie.
The team was coached by Danny Naso (welcome back) and Matthew Bletsch who really fired the team up. On display were some key passes, powerful goals, and great teamwork. Even though they were all exhausted at the end, they played really well together.
The New Hyde Park Intermediate team, with some of the athletes playing on a larger field for the first time, also had terrific games.
Frank LaPinta had several outstanding saves as NHP’s goalie. The rest of the field was made up of Samantha Duggan, Daniel Durso, Mary Glass, Charlie Hinz, Nicolas Mininson, Vincent Schifino, and Tristan Yang.
The key to their success was switching up their positions and playing solidly together as a team.
Coach Victoria Stivanelio was proud of their hard work and soccer skills.
The juniors represented the biggest group from New Hyde Park.
Coached by Casey Mangin, they impressed parents, families and friends with their domination on the field.
Petros D’Amico played his usual strong goalie game even though he had to defend a larger net. The offense of Alex Laroia, Sophocles Gianakis, Kyle Hanratty, and Joshua Horn had opportunities to score and many of them were able to send it to the back of the net.
The defense of Nickolas Mazariegos, Lucas Mitacchione, and Luke Swartz was just as strong and helped the strikers continue their offensive ways.
Rounding out the team as midfielders who kept the ball flying up to the strikers were Jhaisyn Almazar, David Cheung, Sebastian Pinto, James Sarro, and Chris Cooney. Jesse Sarro and Mary Musella also saw some soccer action. It was really a sight to see how involved the juniors were in the game of soccer.
Of course, a tournament doesn’t run itself and there are so many people to thank. We were very fortunate to have the entire Kellenberg Memorial High School Boys Varsity Soccer team come down and referee all the games and also help out as linesmen, and coaches.
Other coaches who were always with players and helped out included Katie Bletsch, Neil Duggan, Jaime and Sabrina Rodgers, Jack Mangin, Edna Dydek, Krys Abberton and Matthew Bursig. Thank you all.
If I missed any one, thank you for being the unsung heroes out on the field. The food committee headed up by Brenda Bletsch (she has now cooked more than 7,000 hot dogs), Kathy Abberton and Eileen Stevens, were, as always, very efficient in preparing the hot dogs, snacks, drinks etc. Kudos to the blacktop crew who helped with the food, drinks, awards, T shirt – thank you Dominic Marrano and his Lady Storm Cats, Jay Abberton, Rich Bursig, Tony Minerva and all the other volunteers.
A very special thank you to Sean McGonigle who gives up a week of afternoons to line the fields. Sean McGonigle does this every year and we are so grateful for the time that he gives to the tournament. We couldn’t do it without him. His crew of Brian Evers, Rich Bursig, Andrew Abberton, and Jay Abberton were there to help out but we all know that Sean is the “brains” behind the operation.
And of course, last but not least, Kevin Oster, Brian Evers, and Richard Bletsch, we thank you the field marshals who coordinate all the athletes and games.
Without them, it would be soccer chaos. So thank you to everyone from myself and the athletes for making our 14th tournament a huge success.
