Elmont girls ‘Fire’ soccer team advances

The girls Jigs Fire 02 soccer team, which includes girls from throughout Nassau County and Queens and is part of the Elmont Youth Soccer Club, will be competing in the second round of the New York Club Soccer League Cup on April 30, at 5:30 p.m., at the Dutch Broadway School soccer field in Elmont. The all-girls club, which has included the same group of second- and third-grade girls for the past two years, recently made it out of the first round of the New York Cup — a tournament established earlier this year by the Just Say Soccer league — and are one of 16 teams competing in the second round.

  The Elmont Soccer Club is affiliated with the Just Implement Good Soccer Academy, at 147 Sycamore St. in West Hempstead, which is a training center dedicated to developing young athletes and helping expand their career in soccer. The Jigs Academy is open to players ages 6 and older.

  Ken Kilimet, who has been coaching the 15-member Jigs Fire 02 team since the fall, said that after the first round of the New York Cup, it only takes one defeat to eliminate teams. Kilimet explained that if the girls win the New York Cup’s second round, they’ll advance to the third round, which will include eight teams. They will then have the chance to compete in the fourth round, with four teams, and the final round.

  “If they win, for 9-year-old girls, it’s going to be a tremendous athletic achievement. Right now, you are playing the best teams,” Kilimet said, explaining that many girls in the Elmont Soccer Club and other clubs are serious soccer players, who plan on playing soccer in high school and beyond. The Jigs Academy provides trainers to the Elmont Soccer Club and several other Clubs in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens, and Jigs Academy trainer John DeSena works with the Jigs Fire 02 team twice a week, he added. “The academy is really for parents that are taking it seriously, and whose daughters want to become better soccer players. It’s a good thing,” Kilimet said.