The St. Aidan’s 8th grade girls CYO soccer team participated in the benefit game on Sunday Nov. 11 at the Mineola High School for the Long Beach community hit by Hurricane Sandy.
The Benefit game was the idea of the Our Lady of Lourdes 8th grade coach John Gottimer who runs a charity called hotshots.org. Working thru the Long Beach Knights of Columbus Council, he was able to determine specific needs that the families in the Long Beach area required.
The Long Beach community has long been a major participant in the CYO soccer program and many of the families that competed against the St. Aidan’s and Our Lady of Lourdes teams were directly impacted.
The game was pulled together in just a few days and the weather was accommodating as the 60-degree temperature made everyone forget about the 6 inches of snow that the Northeaster dumped on the area the Thursday before.
The entire St Aidan’s Soccer community turned out and the benefit took in $1100, and a ton of clothes and supplies for the Long Beach families.
The self-named “Mighty Goldfish” started their day with a team mass at 10:30 at St Aidan’s. Then they went home and collected their supplies and met at the Mineola High School field ready to play what was to be there final game as a team. The CYO Soccer program ends after 8th grade, and these girls have competed together since kindergarten.
The team rallied and won 2-0 on goals from Rachel Brooks and Katie Collins, but the game wasn’t really about wining, it was more about sharing one more day on the field and helping their rival community recover. Both teams lingered on the field taking pictures and eating cupcakes, and holding back tears after the game.
“It was a great day”, said coach Vinny Cardinal. They are a special group of girls and this is a fitting way to end their CYO Careers.”
