Playing for Dad

Nikki and Kyle Sliwak, with their choice of uniform number for the Wantagh Warriors, honor their father, Robert, who played football and baseball for the Seaford Vikings, and died on Sept. 11.

Andrew Hackmack/Herald

WHen Kyle Sliwak’s lacrosse career wraps up in Wantagh, he will play for Hofstra University.

Peter Frutkoff/Herald

Nikki Sliwak wears her father’s number in all sports she plays.

J. Heck/Herald

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Kyle and Nikki Sliwak have few memories of their father, Robert, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when they were just 3. Yet he plays a major role in their lives, especially when they suit up for the Wantagh Warriors.

The 18-year-old twins wear the number 34 for all the high school teams on which they compete — the same number their father wore for the Seaford Vikings in the 1970s. Kyle just finished his third year on the varsity football squad, which made it to the county championships, and will play his fourth season on the varsity lacrosse team next spring.

Nikki’s senior year at Wantagh High School is her fifth season of girls’ varsity soccer, basketball and lacrosse. “Everything we did was always 34,” she said, adding that the few times they didn’t get the number, at the beginning of a season, an understanding teammate eventually gave it up.

Robert Sliwak, a captain of the Seaford High football team in his senior year, helped lead the Vikings to their first county championship. The 1977 Seaford High School graduate also played varsity baseball.

Although 34 had no special meaning to him — it was just the number he was assigned — it means much to his survivors. Sliwak was working for Cantor Fitzgerald, in the north tower of the World Trade Center, when he died at age 42.

“For me, it kept him alive,” his sister, Lucille Ficara, said of Kyle’s and Nikki’s — and their older brother, Ryan’s — determination to wear their father’s number. “It kept him in their lives. It made that number special to all of us.”

They wore it as early as their days playing youth sports with CYO and PAL leagues. “If they didn’t ask, I did,” their mother, Susan, said of the number.

The twins have found other ways to honor their father through sports. Kyle puts a piece of tape, bearing his dad’s name and “9/11,” on his arm before each game. Nikki writes his initials on her wrist. “When we go onto a field, it’s like we’re playing for him,” she said. “We’re playing in memory of him, every time.”

Added Kyle, “I want to be just like him after hearing of how great a player he was. Every time I step in between those white lines, it’s always for him. Wearing his number, it’s an honor.”