Plainview Old Bethpage JFK High School Celebrates 25th Anniversary State Championship Win

Oct. 28, 2008 - PRLog -- Team Reunites at Homecoming - Twenty-five years ago Plainview Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School sent its varsity soccer team to the State Championships.  Never before had the school been in this position (and never has since) but in 1983, it was magic. They defeated the defending state champions and returned home to ecstatic classmates and teachers.
     On Saturday, October 25, that magic was relived when the state championship soccer team reunited at the school’s Homecoming Weekend. The returning heroes were honored with a pre-game brunch as well as ceremony prior to the Homecoming football game.
     Jeffrey M. Kimmel, who was the center forward and captain of the State Champs, organized the reunion.  “Winning the State Championship was an accomplishment that has not diminished with time,” he said.  “We learned how to work as a team, maintain our composure, strategize and think fast under pressure; and we’ve carried the characteristics that made us successful on the soccer field into our professions.”  
    Today Jeff Kimmel is a highly regarded personal injury attorney and partner at Salenger, Sack, Schwartz & Kimmel LLP, with offices in Manhattan and Woodbury, sweeper Michael Brown is a criminal defense attorney in Suffolk County and goalie Chris Lynch is an Executive Vice President and publisher at Simon & Schuster and Al Risi is a branch manager for Citibank in Hewlett.
  But at Saturday’s reunion, the former state champs were first and foremost soccer enthusiasts.
Pictured back row, left to right: Ralph Dreyer (coach), Jeff Stein, John Gurcan, Albert Risi, Howard Landsberg, Chris Lynch, Roy Futterman.  Front row, left to right: Mark Newfield, Michael Finkelstein, Chris Kelly, Jeff Kimmel (team captain), Marty Gillman.

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Plainview Old Bethpage JFK High School’s 1983 State Championship soccer team was feted recently at the school’s Homecoming Weekend. Former teammates and coaches traveled with their families to their alma mater to celebrate their singular accomplishment.