Wantagh/Seaford Thunderbolts

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association

August 22, 2018-The Wantagh/Seaford Thunderbolts of the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) made some new friends, played against a strong team and received a geography lesson to boot. All in all, it was a good weekend for the Girls-Under-19 team.

On Friday night, August 10 at Cedar Creek Park in Seaford, Wantagh/Seaford played Lions Gibraltar FC, which has players who have already aged out of youth soccer as well as players on the country’s youth national teams. The Long Island girls learned that Gibraltar is a British territory of over 30,000 people strategically positioned on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula.

The friendly presented a good learning experience for the LIJSL team coached by Wantagh/Seaford PAL’s Director of Coaching Tim Nolan. 

“I think we held our own and played very well,” Nolan said.

The experience was also much more than about the action on the field. The teams got a chance to hang out and talk after the final whistle.

“Afterwards, we sat around, had some pizza and pasta, talked, exchanged numbers and had a lot of laughs,” Nolan said. 

Lions Gibraltar FC

In addition to the friendly on Friday night, the two teams met on Saturday, August 11 in New York City and visited the World Trade Center Memorial. 

Wantagh/Seaford finished the Spring Season with a 2-6-1 record in Girls-Under-19, Division 1 and advanced to the Long Island Cup quarterfinals.

With over 100,000 youth soccer players––both boys and girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with nine leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Children With Special Needs. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.