Soccer fanatic and Fox Information host Brian Kilmeade has helped launched a semi-professional group on Lengthy Island — with it nicknamed the “Fighting Tomcats” in a nod to the “Top Gun” F-14 constructed regionally.
Kilmeade, 61, and his brother Jim, 63 — each former native school soccer gamers — are spearheading the group.
“We want to put Long Island, New York metro players back on top again as the epicenter of American soccer — about 90% of the team is local,” stated Jim, a longtime front-office sports activities govt, to The Publish on Monday.
“We believe that we can identify and launch players into European careers,” stated Jim, the final supervisor and a managing accomplice of the group, which began taking part in within the Nationwide Premier Soccer League by the use of Nassau County in Could.
The Massapequa-born brothers stated the group’s identify is in honor of the regionally manufactured, Grumman-built F-14 “Tomcat” fighter jet that Tom Cruise’s character flew within the Eighties Hollywood Hit “Top Gun.”
Brian stated he couldn’t be extra assured in Jim’s management — not as a result of they’re household however due to what he did with the Lengthy Island Tough Riders membership within the Nineteen Nineties.
“Nobody knew any of those players. Within five years, they were all playing at the top level,” Brian stated.
“I could see the same thing happening again” with the Tomcats.
The Tomcats’ matches are at Hofstra College, the identical college Jim performed at simply earlier than Brian cleated up for close by Lengthy Island College.
The group, recognized formally as The American Soccer Membership, faces tri-state space opponents from Queens, Connecticut and the Albany space.
“A lot of times with these new leagues, you see a lot of drop-off, you see uneven play. I couldn’t believe the quality of play I’m seeing,” Brian stated. “Every player is hungry; they’re playing for the right to keep playing.”
Though the season started in Could, the Tomcats — initially meant to kick off in 2020 however derailed by COVID — haven’t reached cruising altitude but, with bigger developments on the horizon, the brothers stated.
“Right now, youth soccer is a very expensive sport to play. We will be launching a youth academy over the next 12 months — and it will cost families nothing,” Jim stated.
“We want to support all the youth clubs across Long Island. We want the aspiration, we want the top players regardless of socioeconomic status.”
Jim, who stated there may be already a neighborhood “band of brothers and sisters” investing within the membership, desires the group to supply new native massive names to hold the torch from present Lengthy Island legends.
He set the bar excessive by naming Nationwide Soccer Corridor of Fame participant and former St. Anthony’s Excessive College coach Chris Armas as somebody to aspire to, in addition to Joe Scally, a 22-year-old participant from Lake Grove who has loved success within the German Bundesliga, with the US Nationwide Workforce and with NYCFC of the MLS.
“That’s our aim, and we know the next generation is here,” Jim stated.
An even bigger objective
The Kilmeades’ father, James, drastically fostered his boys’ love for the sport from a younger age. He tragically handed away in a 1979 automobile accident when his sons have been teenagers preparing for collegiate careers.
“He didn’t know anything about it at all, but he loved that we were involved in it very little, and he fell for the game right away,” Jim stated of their father and soccer.
Brian then urged his dad, an immigrant from Eire, to begin teaching his boys within the Massapequa Soccer Membership, however their father — who started spending his time on the native library to study the sport — did far more than that.
“He helped write the bylaws and constitution of the Massapequa Soccer Club,” Jim stated.
“He was lining fields at seven, eight o’clock in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays, and our life revolved around three, four, five practices a week.”
After James handed away, Jim’s teaching profession was jump-started when he was granted particular dispensation to take over Brian’s group as a 17-year-old highschool senior.
“I think for him to see Jim is taking it to the next level would mean everything,” Brian stated of the Tomcats.
“And this is just the beginning.”
