The Story of A 13 year-old Immigrant From Sicily, John Carollo

The year John Carollo planted his feet on USA soil was 1970.

It was a dramatic change from a wee town of 3000 people in Sicily to Brooklyn for a 13 year old boy who did not speak English.

But John adjusted almost overnight while attending the Senior Class of the local Cavallaro Junior High School. It helped that his neighborhood was home to many immigrant Sicilian Families. Then it was moving on to the local High School named Lafayette. He was an excellent student despite the facts that his English was still improving and he had to work very hard in the timeless Sicilian tradition of helping the family, especially when there was no Father, who died so young in Sicily, and his passion for soccer, which earned him a scholarship to St. Francis College In Brooklyn. So it was becoming clear that John was a very special young man, remarkably serious person with goals, a strong character, resolve, values and the ability to multi-task.

St. Francis College had high standards for both scholars and athletes, especially soccer players, which John was one of the best.

So good in fact that he played a key role in helping the College becoming the 1978 NCAA State Champions, no small feat.

While College soccer playing and winning for John was wonderful and exciting, there is more to the John Carollo soccer story.

John always loved soccer from the time he could run and kick in Sicily, so it was natural that he play soccer in Brooklyn as soon as he could. Not just kicking around the ball on an empty lot with his pals, he joined the “Palermo Soccer Club” in the German American Soccer League”. As time moved on, everyone tried to Americanize the team names, so the “Palermo Soccer Club” became the “Brooklyn Dodgers Club”, but called itself the “Brooklyn Italians”.

Unlike college soccer, the “Brooklyn Dodgers Soccer Club” & “German American Soccer League” played much more often against many more opponents. The “Brooklyn Italians” were the best in the League which got them in the National Play-Offs of the “United States Soccer Challenge Club”. And they won in 1979 by beating the Croation Team in Chicago. We are talking World Series and Super Bowl stuff.

The reality is that John had all the qualities of a potential Pro soccer player, but he knew that was a short term career and he had a long term vision. However, John never lost his passion for soccer as is evidenced by how he became a volunteer soccer coach for the young people in Orangetown for many years and follows the sport wherever and whenever there is a Pro game played on this planet.

So, it is evident that John Carollo was not an average young man. He was not a typical youngster and certainly not a couch potato.

It is evident that his DNA was in-part the Sicilian tradition and in part the American & immigrant DNA to take America’s opportunities to rise to as far as your gifts of life and your willingness to work hard.

Our next segment will deal with his post college years.