Community Corner

Two Sachem Coaches Love The Program

Both played varsity soccer, now coach the summer league team at North.

There's something to say about young alumni that enjoy volunteering to coach a summer league soccer team.

A couple nights per week, Kristina Micucci and Kim Wodiska grab a whistle and clipboard and head to the fields to coach the Sachem North girls varsity summer league squad, a team they both played on not so long ago.

"I know how I was with my team and how important that was to my whole high school career," said Micucci. "I like to make sure that goes on for these girls."

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Both Micucci and Wodiska understand North head coach Claude Amallobietta's vision and implement as much of his in-season plan as they can during the quick summer season.

"It makes them stronger," Micucci said. "It lets the new and old girls mesh together easier in the fall."

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Micucci is in her fifth year coaching, while Wodiska has been at it for three. Both have known each other around the game since junior high. For the girls on the team, it's a break from the stresses of performing for their varsity coach. Instead, they can still represent Sachem like usual, but with a different sense coming from the sidelines.

"Coach A and [assistant] coach [John] Glasser like to have some distance from the summer league," said Wodiska, who played lacrosse at Stony Brook after high school and is grateful to be back involved with the game. "I do try and remind the girls of things that coach A and Glasser would say. I don't give my own perspective, I give theirs. That's what they need."

Micucci, who graduated in 2004, was a forward and presents more of an offensive tutelage, which is perfect, since Wodiska, who graduated a year later in 2005, has the defensive minded strength down pat.

Both girls played two years of varsity soccer at Sachem. While Wodiska works in the athletic department at Stony Brook and wouldn't mind getting into teaching and coaching more permanently, Micucci is trying hard to land a full-time gig. Last year she was a permanent substitute teacher at Lynwood Elementary School and is hoping to advance in the district eventually. Still, soccer is the root of her passion.

"It was the best two years of my life," said Micucci of playing at Sachem. "I wouldn't have been the same if I didn't have soccer. It wasn't just us playing a game. We were like a family."


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