It's fair to say that Dr. Antonio Hernandez, the long-serving principal of Lexington Academy, can consider himself a day-one fan of New York City FC.
“I say, this is the flag ship school for New York City FC,” he said with a smile. “This is where it was announced.”
In 2010, Manchester City FC and the UAE Embassy built a rooftop soccer pitch at PS72 in East Harlem.
“I remember when I met with Paul Jeffries, and I met with other members from Man City and they came here with this amazing idea to convert a rooftop in New York City,” he said.
“I thought for a while, they're going to build a rooftop soccer field and then that's it. But what's amazing is that we've had amazing coaches, still to this day, supporting us, supporting our kids, giving back to our kids.”
Fast forward three years and it was on that same blue pitch that New York City FC was officially launched.
“This is the original groundbreaking,” Hernandez said with pride. “This is really the groundbreaking place that has transformed the services our kids have gotten right because now it's localized. Being localized with NYCFC and being able to continue that support and being able to provide for our kids [is wonderful].”
As Hernandez begins to list off the positive impacts felt by the children he works with his passion for his profession envelops his words.
“I can't even remember how many years it's been since we launched the pitch,” he said. “It was 2010 so it's been about 14 years. 500 students every year that's how many people, how many kids, have been benefactors of the kindness and that generosity.
“The provisions and the supports that we continue to get from NYCFC, that our kids continue to get, is immeasurable. The impact isn't just the after-school programming or the day school program, which is phenomenal. When I tell people what we get here, they're shocked.”
He added: “Our kids get world-class coaching during the school day - free of charge. Our kids pay nothing for it. That transcends beyond just the coaching because our kids learn how to take care of their bodies.
“When our kids understand taking care of their body in order to become a better athlete that completely changes the rate of obesity, the rate of asthma - all of those rates that you don't want to be first in.”
While soccer didn’t play a huge part in Hernandez’s childhood, he is pleased it is now influencing so many kids in the local area. Hernandez describes himself as a ‘South Bronx Boy’ and someone that grew up in the ‘Boogie Down’. His pride in the area is best seen in the almost three decades he has dedicated to education and Lexington Academy, with soccer helping to serve his ethos.
“We have a model at our school that it's the whole child,” he said.
“It's not just writing arithmetic, it's not just reading. Those are important, and they're life skills that are necessary no matter what you do, but the whole child is important. We are a Title I school, so 95% of our kids live at or below the poverty level and many of our families are recent immigrants. We have immigrants from other countries, but we have migrants from, say, Puerto Rico, for example, who come here in search of a better life.
“The partnership between the UAE and Man City has been a game changer. They came just at the right time - at the crossroads of a cultural shift in our in our community. We shifted from kids who were primarily baseball and basketball players to kids who were soccer players and we didn’t have that in our school. We didn’t have a place to play.”
Hernandez’s work and the legacy it has produced are now in sharp focus as he approaches retirement.
“This is my home,” he said, his emotion taking hold for a moment.
“I started out as a classroom teacher and I've been here now 25 years, with 14 or 15 of those years as a principal, and the other 10 or so as classroom teacher and educator at the grassroots level.”
And it is in taking a moment to reflect on the decades spent dedicated to the children of Lexington Academy that Hernandez is able to articulate succinctly just what a partnership with New York City FC has done for the kids he cares so much about and why soccer for all matters now more than ever.
“We've given them an opportunity to flourish,” he said.
