Marc My Words!

Marc Maturo’s official sports column        

Turn pro, go west young man; GG bouts on tap

Soccer has taken Tom McNamara throughout the country, from his days as a teenager playing travel soccer and then at Brown University where he helped lead the Bears to the Ivy League Championship.

Now, the 22-year-old West Nyack native is headed west, after being drafted to play professional soccer in Los Angeles with Chivas USA.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, when I first saw soccer on TV when I was about five or six years old,” said McNamara, who is headed to Los Angeles this weekend to begin preseason workouts.

Chivas USA, which became the 11^th Major League Soccer (MLS) team in 2004, plays its home games at the Stub Hub Center in Carson but will also hold preseason sessions in Arizona and maybe Las Vegas, noted McNamara.

The team opens a 34-game schedule on March 9 when it hosts the Chicago Fire at The Stub Hub Center at 12 p.m. Pacific Time.

“My expectations are to work hard, learn as much as I can in the preseason and in the season and see how it shakes out,” said McNamara, an alum of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., where the Ironmen came close to winning a state title but never won it.

McNamara, a 5-foot-9 lifelong midfielder, first hit the road to play the game with FC Westchester .

“We traveled all over the country, from D.C. up to Maine, time to time to California and West Virginia,” McNamara recalls, who played seven years with the club and was coached by his dad, Tom, and uncle Matt McGuire of Nanuet. Also playing a big hand in shaping the future pro were the three Quirogas brothers – Jimmy, Marcello and Eddie.

“That was probably the biggest thing for me, playing with Westchester,” offers McNamara. “That was probably the most important moments in my career, to the point where I am now.”

McNamara doesn’t seem daunted by the upcoming pro schedule, having played soccer year-round throughout the years.

“I played high school in the fall, and travel soccer in the spring, summer and fall,” said McNamara.

McNamara also said he had no special desire to play with the Red Bulls, the local MSL team based in Harrison, N.J.

“I’m excited, very excited, it will be fun. I can’t argue with it,” added McNamara, who played at Clemson in 2013 as a graduate student, earning first-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference honors as the Tigers’ leading scorer.

McNamara earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brown, and is midway into completing his master’s degree in Finance and Statistics.

At Brown, McNamara helped lead the Bears to four NCAA Tournament appearances in addition to the Ivy League crown in 2011, and shared team-high scoring honors with 12 points on four goals and four assists.
Chivas USA kick off the 2014 regular season when they host Eastern Conference side the Chicago Fire at The StubHub Center on Sunday, March 9, starting at 12 p.m. PT.

          GOLDEN GLOVES: The storied New York Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament, one of the largest and most competitive in the nation, returns once again to the county on February 1.

                The Town of Ramapo, in conjunction with the New   York Daily News, will present a preliminary card in the 87^th annual tournament at the Joseph T. St. Lawrence Community, Health & Sports Center, 115 Torne Valley Road, in Hillburn. Doors open at 2:15 p.m., with the first punch scheduled to be thrown at 3 p.m.

Once again, the bouts are to be held in memory of Patrick Faherty, a former principal of Suffern High School, and are also sponsored by Rhodes North Sloatsburg and the Tisi Family, with proceeds earmarked for the Daily News Charities, Vietnam Veterans of Rockland County Chapter 333 and the Ramapo P.A.L.

Tickets are scaled at $20 (cash only) for adults, and $10 for senior citizens (60 and over) and youngsters 14 and under. Tickets are available at the door and pre-sale at Ramapo Town Hall in Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence’s  office.

For information contact Phil Tisi at Town of Ramapo at 845-357-5100 ext. 201.

ON THE RUN: Winslow Dorsainvil of Monsey finished as the top collegiate runner in the meet as St. Thomas Aquinas College competed at the NYU Saturday Night shootout at the Armory in Washington Heights.   Dorsainvil, a Spring Valley HS alum, placed third in the 60 with a time of 6.90. George Erazo of North Babylon hit an indoor personal best in the 200 with a time of 22.56 finishing ninth overall as well as finishing in seventh in the 400 with a time of 49.70.  Garvenchy Nicolas of Brooklyn ran 1:58.08 to finish 13th in the 800. Allison Borriello of Montgomery hit a season best in the 800 with a time of 2:22.65 while Gabriela Sloezen of Westwood, N.J., also hit a season best in the 400 with a time of 1:01.76. Tiana Kirkland of New City hit an indoor person best in the 200 with a time of 26.76. The Spartans are back in action January 24-25 at the Terrier Invite in Boston.

QUICK HITTERS: Freshman Ben Davis of Suffern was a member of the victorious 200-yard medley relay as the SUNY Cortland swimming and diving team dropped a 144-101 decision to visiting New Paltz. Cortland will visit Oneonta on February 1 at 1 p.m. … The brother combo of freshman Kevin Schaub and junior Bryan Schaub, both of Blauvelt, compete on the swimming team at Geneseo, which hosts Oswego on January 25 at 1 p.m. … Jessica Bullock of Thiells ranks third in assists and steals on the Purchase College women’s basketball team. Bullock, an alumna of North Rockland HS, is averaging 5.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, with 26 assists and 16 steals. The Panthers meet St. Joseph’s-Long Island in Patchogue on January 25 at 2 p.m., and return home on January 30 at 6 p.m. to challenge Mount Saint Mary. … Senior Aaron Schwartz of Nyack placed second in the 500-yard freestyle and third in the 1,000, and helped the 200-yard freestyle relay to victory as the Purchase College men’s swimming team posted non-conference wins against host Bard and Cazenovia at Annandale-on-Hudson. Schwartz followed up with a victory in the 100-yard freestyle as Purchase celebrated its final regular-season home meet of the winter by defeating the College of Mount Saint Vincent, 109-16.The Panthers next compete at the Skyline Conference Championships in Old Westbury on January 31-February 1. … Clarkstown North HS alum Paul Fields of New City won three matches and dropped two at 125 pounds, all via decision, as the nationally 10^th-ranked Cortland wrestling team captured three individual titles and placed second out of eight teams at the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference (ECWC) Championships at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa. … A. J. Burton of New Rochelle scored a career-high 27 points and Joe Clinton of Pearl River had a team-high seven assists as the Dominican College men’s basketball team defeated Felician College, 80-71. … KC Jentzen of Pearl River, a senior forward on the women’s basketball team at Dominican College, was named Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) player of the week for the second time this season. Jentzen averaged 24 points and 9.5 rebounds in a 1-­1 week.  She had a career high 34 points and added 10 rebounds in an overtime victory over Bloomfield, while leading the team with 14 points and nine rebounds in a loss to Felician. The Lady Chargers host Georgian Court (N.J.) University at the Hennessy Center in Orangeburg on January 25 at 2 p.m. in the 13^th Sue Heller Memorial Game, with the respective men’s teams meeting at 4 p.m. in the 26^th Bobby Mulligan Memorial Game.

THIS & THAT: Pace University baseball coach Henry Manning had added player agent Billy Martin Jr. to the hot stove speaker line-up. Martin, the son of manager Billy Martin, is vice president of Pro Agents, a pro player agency that operates out of Texas. The Pace Baseball Hot Stove Dinner  is set for January 25 at 3:30 pm at Aleo Restaurant at 7 W 20th St in Manhattan.