By Dylan Butler
It started two years ago, during a college soccer showcase in Fort Dix, N.J. On one side of the field was Whitestone’s Carlo Acquista, coaching the Under-18 East Meadow Juventus, and on the other side of the field was Kurt Palmer, a Springfield Gardens resident who was heading the Under-18 North Rockland Patriots.
After the game, a 1-1 tie, the former St. John’s teammates spoke about the old times as members of the 1996 national championship team and then the conversation switched to coaching. It was that moment that the two hatched a plan to one day coach a Division I soccer program.
Two years later, Acquista and Palmer are together again. After being named the new coach at St. Francis College, Acquista’s first major move was hiring Palmer as his assistant coach.
“I feel privileged that Carlo gave me this opportunity to coach at the Division I level,” said Palmer, a native of Kingston, Jamaica who has lived in Springfield Gardens for 13 years. “It just happened so quickly.”
Palmer, who played at Campus Magnet from 1989-92, first met Acquista at St. John’s in 1996. They got along from the start.
“Me and Carlo and Giancarlo [Petruccelli], we all joked around, we clicked from the beginning.”
Added Acquista: “I think we were brought up the same way. We know when to joke around and when to be focused. When you love the game as much as I do, that’s who I tend to hang around.”
After two years at Rockland Community College, Palmer transferred to St. John’s and was a member of the national championship team, the first ever for the school. Palmer graduated from St. John’s in 1999 and while he still played here and there, his focus was squarely on coaching.
Palmer was the head soccer specialist at the Rockland Community College sport academy for four years and then became the assistant soccer coach in 1999.
Palmer is currently the head soccer specialist for the National Youth Sports Program, which is funded by the NCAA and is at York College. The program is run by Ron St. John, the school’s head basketball coach, and the assistant director is St. John’s assistant coach, Jessica Cherry.
While at Rockland Community College, Palmer dealt with Acquista, who was cutting his teeth at St. John’s and Hofstra, about some of the players at Rockland, many of whom were from the New York City area.
When Palmer’s phone rang a couple weeks ago, he thought Acquista was still working at Hofstra and wanted to talk about a player.
“He called me in the afternoon and said [St. Francis Athletic Director Ed Aquilone] spoke to him at 10 a.m.,” Palmer said. “He then said on the machine, ‘Kurt, you know what that means.’ “
When he got the job, Acquista said it was important to find some of the local blue-collar athletes and Palmer, who just turned 28, will help recruit some of the city’s relatively unknown players.
After all, he was one himself.
“Playing at Campus Magnet, no coaches ever came to our home games,” Palmer said. “A lot of local soccer players go undiscovered because many Division I colleges will bypass them based on the reputation of city soccer players — that they’re lazy, they have no grades. But there are a lot of hard workers out there who are hoping to hear from Division I schools.”
Palmer, who said he finally got noticed by playing for Roger Paris on the Cambria Heights Kickers in the Long Island Junior Soccer League, was one of several standouts at Campus Magnet, including Gerneil Lorne, who played at the University of Connecticut, Harlon Smith and Lance Peterson who played at Division II Franklin Pearce and Douglas Louis, who played at Adelphi.
“I didn’t want someone who knows the same people I knew because then you’d have to work double,” Acquista said. “He knows the junior college players, he knows the Caribbean players and I know all of the players from around here I need to know so it worked out great.”
“It’s perfect,” Palmer said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better pair.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
