Rudy Lamonica’s soccer dream lives on

Oceanside mother spreads late son’s message

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Eighty soccer squads from around Long Island gathered at Coleman Country Day Camp in Freeport last weekend for the 50th annual Rudy Lamonica Memorial Indoor Tournament. The event, which featured 17 teams from Oceanside alone, honors a teenage soccer star who died of bone cancer in 1970.

Following one of the tournament’s first afternoon sessions, Rudy’s 90-year-old mother, Bessie Lamonica, arrived to hand out awards to the kids.

“Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to you,” she told the room packed with children and parents. “My son lived a short life, but he lived a full life, every moment, and his spirit stuck to me because he wanted to promote soccer in this country.

“To all the young kids today, have fun, try your best,” she continued. “If you don’t win, it’s OK. Make sure you have fun first, because you’re only young once.”

Touted as the oldest indoor youth soccer tournament in the country, the two-day event, hosted by the Oceanside United Soccer Club, ran from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. both days, with girls’ and boys’ teams — 40 each — competing in a total of 20 four-team brackets. After each session, players gathered in the Coleman theater, where awards for best offense, defense and goalie were announced, as well as the winner of the “Rudy.”

“It goes to the player that’s not necessarily the most skilled player,” tournament director Neil Bloom said of the honor. “It may be the most skilled player, but it’s more than that. It’s the player that shows a lot of heart.”

Rudy Lamonica played on one of Oceanside United’s first boys’ teams, after Joe Goldberg and Ian McDougall founded the club in 1962. As a teenager, he scored more than half of the Oceanside High School team’s goals in 1968 and 1969, leading the Sailors to consecutive Long Island championships. He also starred in the indoor tournament that now bears his name in the winters of those years.

Doctors amputated Rudy’s right leg in an attempt to stop the spread of his cancer, but he died at age 17 at the end of the 1970 fall soccer season, during which he volunteered as OHS’s assistant coach.

“He always had a great sense of humor, always kept people smiling and kept people laughing,” recalled Jim Volpe, a longtime Oceanside United volunteer and chairman of the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association’s Olympic Development Program. “It was really a pleasure and an honor for me to know him as a person, and we still miss him 47 years later.”

The tournament, which began in 1967, was named in Lamonica’s honor after his death. Wanting to spread the sport of soccer to as many people as possible — just as her son had dreamed — Bessie founded the girls’ program, which has grown to be as big as the boys’. She returns each year to share her son’s story and to be around the children who bring her so much joy.

“Bessie is a part of history,” said Peter Kasten, the tournament’s assistant director. “Without her, this club would not be around, so it’s really nice being able to have her at all of these events.”

Proceeds from the tournament, as well as those from the club’s outdoor tournament in September, fund a scholarship program for college-bound Oceanside soccer players. More than $300,000 in scholarships has aided graduating seniors since the program started, Kasten said.

Volpe and the OUSC presented Bessie with a plaque in recognition of her efforts to keep Rudy’s memory alive through the decades. As she handed out trophies and medals to the children, she dispersed them only after getting a hug.

“I love you,” she told the room of participants, “and I thank the parents, and I thank the kids that play soccer. Rudy’s watching you. He’s here with us.”