Sharing a lifelong love of soccer

Posted

Soccer has been a big part of Tudor Livadaru’s life for as long as he can remember. When he was growing up in Romania, it was part of his daily routine – school, soccer, sleep, repeat – a simple agenda, but one that fit Livadaru.

That is, until he moved to America at age 10, as his family left the former Communist state to chase the American dream. Livadaru wanted no part of his new home, mostly because it lacked the one thing that was crucial for him – soccer.

“I remember when I moved to Riverdale, soccer wasn’t that developed in the States and there weren’t a lot of program going on,” Livadaru said. “I was only 10 and it was really hard for me to get accustomed to the culture here, because I was always used to just going to the park everyday and everyone was playing soccer. That’s just kind of how it is in Europe, there’s soccer everywhere. So when I moved here I was pretty sad and I told my parents every day I can’t live here. I want to move back to Romania. No one plays soccer here.” 

“Obviously we stayed here, because I moved here with my whole family and we were trying to assimilate into society,” he said. “But the one thing I always held onto was that I would never let go of soccer. I never wanted to let it go because it was such a big part of my life.”

It was the early to mid-2000s, and soccer was not exactly dominating the sports landscape in the United States. Major League Soccer (MLS) was still trying to find its foothold in a country dominated by baseball and football. Soccer was an afterthought at best. But Livadaru managed to find soccer-club teams to join, and then enjoyed a rather successful soccer career at the Riverdale-Kingsbridge Academy high school.

Community connection

“We won the Bronx ‘B’ Division championship in my senior year,” Livadaru said. “But when I was with the Riverdale Soccer Club growing up, it helped me to connect with the community. I played with them, I coached with them, I refereed games, I was really involved with soccer in the community. I coached kids as young as 4, up to high school–aged kids, and it was a really nice way for me to stay with the sport and do what I always wanted to do, because I never wanted to let go of the part of me that I came from Europe with.”

His high school success led to a four-year playing career at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

“We did really well,” Livadaru said. “We went to the NCAA Tournament three years in a row, and then when I graduated, I went to Europe and played professionally in Romania. I went there for the experience and I wanted to reconnect with my culture. I wanted to reconnect with where I was raised and remember what it was like there. I wanted to take a year off after graduating Brandeis and not start working. I wanted to figure some stuff out. But I wasn’t ready to let go of soccer.”

So what is a lifelong soccer junkie to do with his life after college? Although he earned a master’s in business and finance at Brandeis, the business and finance world did not hold much appeal to Livadaru. So the answer was simple, even if Livadaru was the last in his circle of family and friends to realize it.

He started a program called Riverdale Soccer.

“It just kind of happened. It was something that has been inside of me my whole life and it was something that everyone, my friends and family, knew was my true calling and something that I should be doing,” Livadaru said. “It was one of those things where everyone around me was kind of waiting for me to figure out that this is what I should be doing, because it’s so fitting to what I am as a person.”

Livadaru’s program kicked off earlier this summer and meets every Sunday at Seton Park for three hours. His campers range in age from 4 to 13, and they receive hands-on instruction in everything from the basics of the game to passing, dribbling and proper technique.

“The way I run the camp is it is based on the player’s capabilities,” Livadaru said. His campers “come with different skill sets and different athletic abilities, but I feel I have the soccer knowledge to make a whole group environment work, even if the kids have different athletic or technical abilities. It’s been working really well so far.”

The camp runs from 9 a.m. until noon, and Livadaru splits his campers into groups based on their age. The 4- to 7-year-olds go from 9 a.m. until 10 a.m., followed by the 8- to 11-year-olds from 10 a.m. through 11 a.m., and by 12- and 13-year-olds from 11 a.m. until noon.

“We do a lot of technical skills in the beginning, which includes getting a lot of touches on the ball,” Livadaru said. “I want to introduce them to that at an early age, that they touch the ball a lot and get really comfortable with using both their feet. I also teach them how to dribble through opponents and to be able to pass the ball the right way. There are also a lot of passing drills and just teaching the basics of the game.”

But while he is teaching them the game of soccer, Livadaru said his campers also learn a lot of life lessons along the way.

Life lessons

“I like soccer for what it does for people’s development as they are growing up,” Livadaru said. “Soccer has always been very big for me and it kept me out of trouble growing up. It also helped create numerous friendships and I learned the culture of the U.S. through it. So the reason I want to work with young kids is so they can learn the lessons that the sport can teach. You can learn so many life lessons just by playing this sport.”

And many of those lessons will benefit his campers long after they leave Riverdale Soccer.

“One of the first things they learn is how to function within a team, learning how to be in a community where everyone is different and there are so many ideologies at play,” Livadaru said. “They learn there are so many ways to get a job done, and at the end of the day, it’s all about how you come together and to go through the adversity to reach your goals.” 

“Soccer does a good job of teaching people how to get along with others. I went to business school and I think the reason I did so well in business school, how I got along with my teachers and did well in group projects and stuff like that, is 100 percent related to the fact that I played soccer my whole life,” he said. “It also helps you to focus on a specific goal and fight for what you want to achieve. It teaches you to persevere through adversity.”

Livadaru currently has about a dozen kids enrolled in his program, which he hopes to expand this fall, once kids are back from vacations and school begins again. He also hopes to enhance his staff with middle-school and high school-aged kids who share his passion for the sport. He is a staff of one right now.   

It took over a decade after arriving in his new country and struggling to fit, but Livadaru finally seems to have found his calling – teaching and preaching the sport of soccer to his small but growing audience.

“The kids are loving it,” Livadaru said. “We connect soccer with having fun and learning at the same time. It’s a good balance. It’s important for them to enjoy what they are doing. I always try to change things up and keep things fresh and keep things fun. I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now and I think the community is ready for something like this.”

 

To learn more about Riverdale Soccer, check out the program’s website at www.riverdalesoccer.com.

Tudor Livadaru, Sean Brennan

Comments