Athlete of the week is New Hyde Park's Santangelo

Lucas Santangelo

New Hyde Park, soccer

Most of the Long Island soccer community was caught up in the World Cup this past summer. Lucas Santangelo and his family were no different.

Santangelo's grandfather played professionally in Uruguay and several members of the national team are family friends. Thus, every time Uruguay played, his mother cooked Uruguayan dishes and dozens of fans of La Celeste (the blue sky) packed his New Hyde Park home.

"We enjoyed every match," Santangelo said. "It was so much fun. My whole family would get together and people from Uruguay would come by. My mom did a great job cooking."

That Uruguay reached the semifinals made the party last a little longer. Now, Santangelo is hoping to give his family another reason to celebrate. A junior forward for New Hyde Park, Santangelo had four goals and two assists in two Nassau Conference IV games last week to earn Newsday Athlete of the Week honors. "I'm not doing this single-handedly, my whole team is doing very well," said Santangelo, who has 11 goals in six games. "My teammates know how to pass the ball and move it. They know the game very well."

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So does Santangelo. His grandfather, Julio Gabrin, began training him at age 3. His older brother Zach is a former All-State player at New Hyde Park who currently plays for Molloy College. The family is so obsessed with soccer that after a recent game in Wantagh, Lucas and his father drove from the field to catch the second half of Zach's game at Molloy.

"One thing that's not coachable is the ability to find the back of the net," New Hyde Park coach Jeff Kaiser said. "You can't teach that. It's innate. Lucas knows where to place the ball."

New Hyde Park is the defending Conference IV champion and lost in overtime to eventual county champion South Side in last year's quarterfinals. If the Gladiators are going to make a run in the playoffs this season, Santangelo will have a lot to do with it. "He's our top goal scorer right now and we lean on him for production," Kaiser said. "But he can settle things down in the middle of the field. So I can put him there, too. He's our most versatile player."

Santangelo has played varsity since his freshman year and is hoping this is the year the Gladiators put it all together. "It's really important to get off to a good start," he said. "And we've done that. We just have to keep the momentum and keep playing hard. We want to make an impact this year."