LONG ISLAND ROUGH RIDERS

Long Island Rough Riders

The Long Island Rough Riders are a soccer team which is a member of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. They normally play in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference against teams from Denville, New Rochelle, New York, Newark, and Ocean City. The Long Island Rough Riders Women is the team’s sister organization, who play in the women's USL W-League, and also enters a team in the Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age run under the United Soccer Leagues Umbrella. The Rough Riders play their home games at the Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale, Long Island. The team's colors are white and blue.

In 1994, the Rough Riders played their first season fielding a team in the USISL that featured future US national team player Chris Armas, who would lead the team in scoring eight goals and four assists. Then, the Rough Riders added several more players on their second season, including national team goalkeeper Tony Meola, Jim Rooney, and Giovanni Savarese, who would be named the USISL regular season and playoff MVP. The Rough Riders finished that season with a 19-1 record, and went on to win the USISL Championship.

The Rough Riders lost several players to the nascent MLS in 1996, but went on to have a successful season nevertheless, finishing with an 11-7 record before losing to the Richmond Kickers in the playoffs. With the merger of the USISL and the APSL in 1997, the Rough Riders decided to move up and began their first season in theA-Leagu in that year. The Rough Riders played the next five years in the A-League, before moving down to the PSL for the 2002 season. During 2006 season, it was arguably the worst season in the history of the team, finishing the year at the bottom of the table with just three wins and fifteen goals to their credit. But the team never lost hope and try their best to bounce back in the upcoming seasons.

Rough Riders play their home games at Michael Tully Field in the village of New Hyde Park, Long Island, with some additional games played in the stadium at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington, Long Island. The team is currently owned by Long Island Professional Soccer, LLC with Frank Boulton acting as chairman / president and Jim Kilmeade as the team manager. Kilmeade returns to the Long Island Rough Riders professional soccer club with twenty years of experience in sports marketing and sales. Most recently, he was Head of Umbro International, North America and Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the United Soccer Leagues. He is also extremely active in the youth soccer community and serves on the board of directors for many not for profit organizations as well as being the founder of the Hofstra University Soccer Alumni Foundation.

For more information please visit: www.liroughriders.com

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