by CHRISTIAN ARAOS

The Long Island Rough Riders will not be joining USL in the near future but their partnership with New York City FC will expand ahead of their next season in the PDL.

NYCFC are likely to enter a new affiliation agreement with an independent club in the USL for the 2017 season. Their affiliation with the Wilmington Hammerheads will end after this season as the Hammerheads have announced plans to move to the amateur-level PDL.

Rough Riders director of coaching Flavio Ferri said the team will showcase college-aged prospects who City may be interested in acquiring.

“The PDL is more college-based so it’s about getting those older players integrated,” Ferri said. “The other aspect of it too is with the U.S. Development Academy that ends at U-18. If those players were to go to college, NYCFC can’t have direct contact with them. Theoretically, they could play for our PDL team and still be within the system.”

City and Long Island announced their partnership back in April and have spent the past few months primarily working together at the youth level. NYCFC provided the Rough Riders with technical support but also evaluated some Rough Riders players for their own academy teams. Along with their PDL, the Rough Riders currently have youth teams for children born 2004 to 2008 and are in NYCFC’s Affiliate Developmental League.

Recent job postings on the USL’s Teamwork page sparked rumors that the Rough Riders would return to the third-tier of the US Soccer pyramid after a decade at the amateur level. Ferri said he would not rule out an eventual return, but iterated that the postings were more a product of their own growth. As part of the MLS-USL partnership, MLS teams are allowed to field Second Teams in the USL, affiliate with an independent club or manage the technical operations of a separately owned club in the USL.

Though the City-Long Island partnership is expanding, Ferri said it is not yet working towards any of the three.

“It’s not that something that we would ever discount but right now to my knowledge anyway there’s nothing along those lines,” Ferri said. “They’re in year two of their existence and they’re doing wonderfully this year as far as results. They’re really focusing on that, as they should be. We’ve grown a lot internally in terms of services that we provide to the community. If it does happen, it would be something that happens organically over time.”

The Rough Riders will play the 2017 season at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington but hope to have a one-off match somewhere else on the Island. They played their first match of the 2016 season at MacArthur High School in Levittown. Their owners operate an indoor facility at the Mitchel Athletic Complex, adjacent to the New York Cosmos’ practice field.

“Ultimately everyone in this world strives to have their own facilities, NYCFC as well,” Ferri said. “They just announced their training facility and will ultimately have their own stadium. We’re really no different, only at a much smaller scale and understanding what our reality is compared to a MLS team. Facility development is high on our priority list but not something that would occur in the next year or two.”

City and Long Island have the same vision, but on different scales. To go with the expansion of this relationship, City is expanding its partnership with World Class FC who are based across the street from the club’s future First Team Facility and Headquarters in Rockland County. So as City looks to include as many youth clubs in the Tri-State Area as it can, Ferri said, the Rough Riders will look to include as many youth clubs from Long Island in its own network.

The goal the new hires will have to work towards is consolidating and streamlining Long Island’s scattered youth teams, Ferri said. Though Long Island is tough to compare to other parts of the country, Ferri said areas such as the Dallas Metroplex have a fewer number of premier clubs, making it easier for higher level players to enter a development chain for their teenage years.

Long Island’s youth soccer landscape, Ferri said, is fragmented and not producing the talent it once did 10-15 years. He said the Rough Riders want to create a collaborative environment that will lead to the development of more National Team players like Chris Armas and Crystal Dunn.

City, he said, convinced the Rough Riders that they can achieve this in the long term.

“There’s always ways to take shortcuts when it comes to player development and they’re not interested in that,” Ferri said. “That really tied into our philosophy of doing it the right way and the results will come over time.”