No one at NYCFC knows Orangeburg quite like Tommy McNamara.
The 25-year old grew up just a mile away from the site of our new training facility in Rockland County.
Orangeburg is where it all began for McNamara in soccer as a three-year old and, for that reason, the club’s plans to construct a new home hold extra special significance for him.
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He told NYCFC.com: “When I first starting playing at three years old, I played rec soccer in Orangeburg – that was my first experience playing for a team so that’s where it all started for me.
“From there, I moved on and continued playing in Rockland County until I was a bit older.
“It’s an important step because we want to cement and lay roots here in the community. To finally find our training facility and to start developing it, it’s great for the community and it’s great for us.”
Tommy also revealed that the team is moving to a town with an inbuilt passion for the game and is excited at the prospect of laying down permanent, bespoke roots in New York for the first time.
Introducing Orangeburg to supporters who may not be familiar with this town 19 miles north of New York City, which posted a population of 4,658 in the 2010 census, McNamara emphasized that the team can expect a warm welcome.
“It’s a very nice area – residential, outside of New York City with very friendly, welcoming people – there are also a lot of kids interested in soccer there,” the NYCFC no.15 declared.
“It will be very nice to have a permanent facility. Everything’s been great at the current one at SUNY Purchase, it’s worked out phenomenally well so far but to have a permanent home and to know that’s where we’re going to be for a long time to come is very exciting to us.”
As for the benefits to the first-team with these plans, McNamara is sure that having a place to train of our very own will enable the squad to prepare for matchdays even better than ever before.
In a game of fine margins, Tommy believes the City Football Academy training facility could make a decisive difference.
McNamara added: “I expect the club is going to have a beautiful training facility and it’s nice for us to be at a place you enjoy being – a place you look forward to going.
“It helps when you have long days, when you have double sessions, when you want to do extra work to prepare yourself when there’s a game coming up, if you’re comfortable and wanting to spend more time at the place you’re going to work every day.”
