It’s an amateur soccer story as old as time.
Sean Kelly, the head coach, knows it better than most. Once a promising academy player at Arsenal, and a full pro in his native Ireland, he took up an offer from Lansdowne Yonkers that brought both work, in the New York City building trades, and high-level play with the club’s first team.
“You’ve got work and life and training to consider – and maybe a mid-week game out in Morristown, New Jersey – it never stops from early in the morning to late at night,” said Kelly who, alongside assistant coach Craig Purcell, reached the Open Cup and won a National Amateur Cup with the club as a player.
“You have to find the time to train and play and coach and travel with all the [academy] kids all over,” added Mullings, happy for the opportunity if worn-out by the demands. “New York don’t sleep – you gotta’ hustle here.”
Open Cup Dreaming Again
Now the men from Yonkers, twice national amateur champions and back for their second-straight Open Cup, have booked a place in a second-straight Second Round. With that comes a chance for all the players, but one that’s particularly poignant for Mullings, coming, as it does, against that very Hartford Athletic pro side that turned down his services two years ago.
