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Massapequa Park resident inducted into Long Island Junior Soccer League Congratulations go to Pat McComiskey, for being inducted into the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) Hall of Fame at the LIJSL Convention from March 4 to 6 at the Hilton Long Island in Melville. McComiskey immigrated to the USA from Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1948, married and has five children. The McComiskey family lived in Massapequa Park. Presently, he is living in Florida with his wife of 50 years, Mickey. He is not directly involved in the game anymore but still attends games with his son, Eddie, coaching his high school team in the Tampa area. McComiskey created a soccer dynasty in Massapequa, by first founding a soccer program through the CYO, with Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park. As a volunteer, he recruited any and all kids who had an interest in participating in a sport. Most of these children were rejects from the football team and had never even heard of the sport of soccer. He organized them and proceeded to teach them the sport while arranging for equipment and fields. Within a few short years he had created a soccer powerhouse and established the footprint, for what would become the largest youth soccer club in North America, the Massapequa Soccer Club. With a powerful combination of passion for soccer and an infectious personality, McComiskey brought children, parents, local politicians and school administrators together. After spending some 20 years coaching and volunteering in Long Island soccer, Pat went on to work for the Washington Diplomats in the NASL and much more. A close friend of New York Cosmos and Washington Diplomats coach Gordon Bradley, he would go on to form relationships with international soccer legends like Carlos Alberto, Johan Cruyff and Gerd Muller and even the great Pelé. However, McComiskey was about developing youth soccer for children. He would coach any age group and any level at any point in his volunteer career. It did not matter if he was the assistant coach or head coach. What mattered is that he would be working with children and imparting his vast knowledge and love for the sport of soccer. McComiskey has spent a lifetime in soccer and created a unique organization called the Massapequa Soccer Club. McComiskey was nominated to the LIJSL Hall of Fame by two well-known graduates of the Massapequa Soccer Club––Long Island Rough Riders General Manager Jim Kilmeade and his brother, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. The Long Island Junior Soccer League is the world’s largest soccer league with 1,498 travel teams on Long Island and in Queens.
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