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Lombardi era begins Thursday at Brooklyn Bridge Park

SFC women's soccer program plays inaugural game vs. Lafayette

August 21, 2019 JT Torenli
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It’s been almost a year since St. Francis College Brooklyn women’s head soccer coach Justine Lombardi took on the challenge of starting a Division I program from scratch.

Come Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Lombardi will finally get a first-hand look at the players she has brought aboard to be a part of this historic inaugural season in action.

The Terriers will play their first match ever against visiting Lafayette, ending an odyssey that began when Lombardi was hired back on Aug. 28, 2018.

After roaming the nation, and the international scene, for recruits, Lombardi and her coaching staff will finally get down to the business of soccer here in Downtown Brooklyn.

“We realized that [creating the women’s soccer program] wouldn’t be possible without everybody’s [support],” Lombardi said in a recent interview on the SFC website.

“Even the first person, whoever it was so, so long ago, who put the idea in somebody’s head that got things rolling, and finally got this off the ground. I think we have them to thank and we won’t forget those people along the way.”

Nor will she forget the first players she brought in to be the anchors of this initial squad.

“Hannah Russel, Trystan Thompson-Cotterell, Eva Papista and Klil Keshwar were the first ones to sign,” Lombardi noted.

“They were like, ‘yeah, let’s do this.’ They were all in and without those four, I don’t think I could’ve built the rest of this roster. They helped me get footing to move forward.”

That initial footing eventually led to a 24-player roster that features student-athletes from Bay Ridge to California to Germany to Australia and virtually everywhere in between, a roster befitting our borough’s diversity, according to the first-year head coach.

“I’ve got one (player) from Long Island, one from Staten Island, three from Brooklyn. Those are my only New York players,” Lombardi revealed.”The rest are from all over. Five are from California. So that was another very, very pleasant surprise that I had in the recruiting process.

“Everybody wants to come to New York. Everybody loves New York City. The geographic diversity of the team fits what the school is all about and just what Brooklyn is about in general.”

Jazzmin Forwood (left), a defender from Australia by way of Arizona Western College, is part of the first team in St. Francis women’s soccer history, which will kick off its initial campaign Thursday here at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo courtesy of SFC Brooklyn Athletics

After six years of coaching at her alma mater, Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Connecticut, Lombardi is finally ready to lead this team on to the pitch Thursday afternoon as her very own.

She has helped to shape and mold the identity of the program as well as selecting the type of players she wants representing the diminutive Remsen Street school.

“I have a unique coaching style and personality,” Lombardi said. “I want to bring in players who relate well to me, who are going to have good chemistry with each other, who fit the values of the school, [and who are] going to get along with and support the other athletics teams here.

“[That’s part of the] culture that they’ve built here, which I love.”

Sharing their home field with the SFC men’s squad should inspire Lombardi’s charges.

Men’s head coach Tom Giovatto has guided his Terriers, selected to finish second in the league this year based on the NEC preseason coaches’ poll, to four Northeast Conference titles in the past six years and the program leads the league with eight NCAA Tournament bids overall.

Though it might take a while for the Terriers to compete with the well-established programs in the NEC, Lombardi is eager for the chance to see how well her team responds when the action kicks off this week.

“The opportunity to start something from square one is always a great undertaking, and this will be no exception,” she said. “But it is something I have dreamed of doing and that I think will be extremely satisfying.”

Lombardi is also still filling her roster, which figures to expand as the season goes on and officially announced the additions of assistants Sarah Harmon, Matthew Anderson, Ellis Riley, and goalkeeper coach Katie Turner on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be holding a tryout in September, once school starts,” she revealed.

“Twenty-four is a lower number for a college soccer team roster. The reason I like that number is because it gives
us a little bit of leeway to add a few players if we’d like.”

As for life in Brooklyn, the Connecticut native is hitting her stride here after admitting that she went through “a little bit of adjusting upon arrival.”

“I actually ended up finding a pretty good space and it wasn’t too big of a culture shock for me,” Lombardi said.
“Now that I know my way around, I absolutely love it. It’s great.”

It will be even better if the Terriers can celebrate their first-ever game here in Downtown Brooklyn with a win.

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