One thing I remember about growing up on the border of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in the 1970’s was the unbelievable
focus on sports in the town of Massapequa. Certainly, Massapequa and Berner High Schools were both athletic powers in several sports. But on the youth level I remember seeing the Massapequa Little League playing on fields everywhere from Carmans Road School to Burns Park. The Massapequa Mustangs midget football league was a known powerhouse. And then there was the all too familiar maroon and gold of the Massapequa Soccer Club. To see the Photo Gallery click here.
They had the gold t-shirts and jerseys, and the maroon shorts. It seemed like 100’s of kids were walking around in their maroon MSC soccer jackets with the gold stick figure soccer player on the back. Massapequa Soccer was everywhere. In an era when most kids were still focused on the mainstream sports of football, basketball, and baseball, soccer had found a home in the Massapequas.
The club got its’ start in 1970 with a meeting organized by Massapequans Pat McComiskey and Hank Oustecky. Thanks to the efforts of a host of local parents and volunteers, the league began its’ first season of play in the Spring of 1971. But the club really got a shot in the arm from a man named Gordon Bradley. Then a player/coach with the New York Cosmos, Bradly had moved into a house in Massapequa and become part of the community. In the process, he introduced 100’s, maybe thousands of kids to the game of soccer. In addition to showing up at fields and playgrounds with soccer balls and showing kids how to play, he ran clinics for players and coaches and generated unprecedented interest in the game with both boys and girls. Soon, the number of kids playing was in the thousands, and Massapequa had taken to hosting intramural and travel team tournaments, some that are still in existence. In 1978, the M.S.C., in cooperation with Nassau County, presented the largest youth indoor soccer tournament for travel teams which was held at the Nassau Coliseum. In 1980, the M.S.C. hosted the first of its annual Memorial Day Travel Tournaments. The MSC’s Memorial Day Tournament is still an annual event, as is their Father’s Day Tournament and their annual Winter College Showcase.
The league continues to grow and evolve, and serves as a model for youth soccer on many levels. They run a referee training program, coaching and youth player clinics, a TOPSoccer program, and have an impressive list of alumni players that includes players like the DiMartino sisters, who have gone on to tremendous soccer success at the collegiate and national level. Their teams have also been successful and competed internationally, while also winning national championships (their U19 girls team won the first National Championship by a Long Island team in 1988).
But as much as things have grown and changed, some things will always stay the same. "Soccer is Fun" is still the philosophy that drives the club, and they continue to be a hub for the Long Island soccer community, hosting one of the largest clubs on the Island in terms of membership.
And then, of course, there are those maroon and gold uniforms…