Sports
LI Soccer Hall of Fame Inducts St. Anthony's Star
Chris Armas, a 1990 St. Anthony's graduate and Adelphi women's soccer coach, headlines inductees to first Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame.
The inaugural Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame includes one of the great talents of the last quarter century.
Chris Armas, 40, a 1990 St. Anthony's graduate and third-year Adelphi women's soccer coach, played 12 seasons in Major League Soccer before retiring 2007.
He headlines a class that includes two former New York Cosmos stars from the 1970s: Shep Messing and Paul LeSueur. Kim Wyant, a Lady Rough Riders goalkeeper, was also inducted. The foursome was honored at the Long Island Junior Soccer League Soccer Convention Saturday in Melville and in conjunction with Soccer Long Island Magazine.
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“I’m thankful to the Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame for this great honor and am proud to say that I came up through the LIJSL," said Armas, a former star midfielder for the MLS' Chicago Fire. "I learned my most valuable soccer and life lessons on the fields of Long Island as a youth and these lessons built the foundation that I carried throughout my career."
Armas, himself a former All-American at Adelphi, led Adelphi to an 11-7-3 record as coach last fall. He was a member of the U.S. National team with 66 appearances over two decades, begining as a junior at St. Anthony's in 1998.
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"Chris Armas '90 has distinguished himself on and off the pitch," St. Anthony's co-coach Don Corrao said. "A true Hall of Famer and a class act. Most importantly, a fine son, brother, husband and father. St Anthony's could not be more proud."
Messing, a goalkeeper for the Cosmos, currently announces the MLS' New York Red Bulls for MSG.
LeSueur, one of the first Americans to play for the Cosmos in 1972-73, is currently the athletic director at Waldorf School in Garden City.
Wyant was goalkeeper for the first U.S. Women’s National team. She also played for the Lady Rough Riders and is currently an assistant soccer coach at NYU.
Soccer Long Island Magazine Publisher Kevin McCrudden, who founded the hall of fame, said: “I think it’s fitting that two members of our first class are former Cosmos with the rebirth of the Cosmos here on Long Island."
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