Friday night Jalkapallo in O’side

On Oct. 13, the Oceanside Middle School Sailors played a good old-fashioned scrimmage game of Amerikkalainen Jalkapallo — football — against the Helsinki Roosters, a youth team visiting from Finland, which was sponsored by the Oceanside Stallions football team.

“A couple of months ago, USA Football asked if anybody wanted to host a team from Finland,” said Chris Spirou, president of the Oceanside Stallions. USA Football is the official youth football development partner of the NFL. “And the Oceanside Stallions were the first ones to respond.”

The Helsinki team — 25 boys and 22 adults — arrived in New York last week, with a busy schedule already laid out for them. On Monday, they played scrimmage games against local teams from Roosevelt, Plainview and one from North Huntington, N.J. at Hofstra University.

The only official game the Roosters played was against the Stallions on Friday night. The game was shortened, however, because of the cold and the rain (the Roosters won, 21-7).

The trip has been in planning since August. The Stallions sponsored the team to come to America, funding much of their trip at a cost of about $5,000. Sponsors from around the area funded part of the expenses. “They sponsored half of what we spent, which was great,” Spirou said. “It helped us out.”

On Tuesday evening, the Roosters scrimmaged against the middle school Sailors (no official score was kept, but the Sailors scored about 10 touchdowns to the Roosters’ one). That day, the students from the Helsinki team spent the day in the Oceanside Middle and High schools with the Stallions.

“They just love it,” said Roosters coach Jarno Lahtr of his team's experience in America before their scrimmage against the Sailors. “Today they were in the school, the high school and the middle school, and they just loved it.”