Franklin Square Raiders soccer team celebrates 40 years

In 1982, a group of almost 100 soccer players in three divisions founded the Franklin Square Raiders Soccer Club, which played in area parks and used a truck to lug around equipment to tournaments.

This year marks the club’s 40th anniversary, and during the last four decades, 7,500 children have participated in the program. This year, the Raiders count more than 700 kids, ages 2 to 12, playing on 60 intramural teams on Sunday mornings and 11 travel teams in the Long Island Junior Soccer League and Elite Development Program soccer leagues.

“It’s actually unbelievable because years ago, when I started, to have 350 kids on a Sunday in the intramural program, we were doing well, and some years if we broke 500, we were very excited,” Alex McKendry, president of the Franklin Square Raiders, said. “And now, looking at numbers, we’ve had over 600 kids recently play one season, which is phenomenal. Those numbers are just unheard of.”

The Raiders’ Sunday intramural soccer has transformed into a more friendly, community-based program that provides opportunities to players from diverse backgrounds to grow an admiration for the sport.

McKendry has been part of the soccer club for 20 years and became club president in 2002. He said in addition to attracting more members and cultivating a passion for soccer among children, one goal that has remained the same the last 40 years is building strong community connections.

This includes supporting local elementary school fundraisers and giving scholarship money to graduating high school seniors who have played for the club. McKendry said he feels gratified seeing former team members, who started as 5- or 6-year-olds, continue to play soccer as seniors in high school and in college.

“I love going up on a Sunday morning and being up in the field at Sewanhaka and looking across the field at like 9:30 in the morning and seeing hundreds of little kids out there playing,” McKendry said. “It really, really gets to my heart.”

McKendry said he has seen the club go through its share of challenges. The pandemic proved to be difficult, but the club survived and pushed through. There were times permits were taken away from the team as well, McKendry said, forcing them to find other accommodations.

However, the Franklin Square Raiders have pulled through and in recent years introduced several new and innovative supplemental programs for intramural players, such as ball mastery, pre-travel academy, street soccer, goalie training clinics, and other youth soccer programs. Royal Sporting Group now professionally trains the newest travel teams.

Steven Navarro, supplemental pre-travel and field coordinator for the Raiders, said he grew up in a household that emphasized building character through playing team sports. He remembered always admiring the Franklin Square Raiders, who, at the time, were on a consistent winning streak.

“I was from a neighboring town, and we had a good travel program, but the Franklin Square Raiders were the team to play on,” Navarro said. “And I was like, you know what, let me get involved with my daughter and give her an opportunity to play for a good program, and then it just grew from there.”

For the last two years on the team’s board, Navarro has been part of this transformative moment for the team. In September, he and fellow board member Bridget Giammarino created its newest division, “Lil Kickers’ U3,”after local parents desired to give their children an opportunity to learn basic soccer skills at an earlier age.

“We planned a six-week program out for two-year-olds that worked on movements, socialization, just kind of figuring out the game a little bit,” Navarro said. “It was a successful season, and we’re just going to build off of it because obviously there is a community want for it.”

Giammarino, the club’s assistant intramural registrar, said the soccer club feels a sense of pride for what it has been able to achieve.

“I just think the kids are so lucky to have such a nice place to go, where they have great trainers, they have great friends and parent-coaches that are willing to give up their Sunday morning to help these little kids build confidence on the field,” she said. “It’s just a really nice thing.”