Former soccer pro still has love of game
Retired Gino Diflorio dedicates his time to training HMMS athletes
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Retired soccer player Gino Diflorio talks with his U-10 girls soccer team, HMMS United, during a training session Thursday at Hampden Park. Jason Scott/The Sentinel
His playing days may be in the past, but Gino Diflorio is still kicking it full time.
For the past seven years, the retired professional soccer player has been working as the director of player development for the HMMS Youth Soccer Association, an organization that encompasses Hampden, Monroe, Middlesex and Silver Spring townships, hoping to see the area’s young athletes excel at the game he loves.
“I was very fortunate. I had a great career,” Diflorio said, noting his 17 years as a professional. “I just want to give back to the game.”
He sets up all the programs for the kids, runs tryouts in the spring and finds trainers for all the travel teams in the club, which also includes a recreational, or in-house developmental, league and premier program known as Eagle FC.
The developmental program has about 1,600 kids, ranging from age 5 to 16. Another 700 from U-9 to U-18 play in spring and fall travel leagues, while another 14 teams, both girls and boys from U-11 to U-18, play in the premier program.
The “U” designation stands for “under,” so a U-9 league would include kids age 9 and under.
Eagle FC premier teams are an extension of the HMMS travel teams, competing in the highest league and tournament brackets at the local, state and regional levels. They field players from all over the region, including Palmyra, Shippensburg, Gettysburg, Dillsburg and Hershey.
“We’re central for all schools in the area,” Diflorio said about the multitude of teams at each age level.
HMMS has about 40 soccer fields between the four townships that those teams play on during the spring and fall seasons.
Former pros
Most, if not all, of the trainers brought in to work with the kids are former professionals like Diflorio who settled in the Harrisburg area.
He grew up playing the outdoor game as a kid in Italy.
“My uncle played. Everybody played in Italy,” he said. “I just fell in love with the sport.”
Diflorio was raised by his grandparents until he was 8 and then he moved to Toronto with his parents.
At 17, he was playing semi-pro there when he was discovered by the Cleveland Force, a team in the Major Indoor Soccer League. Scouts also recognized his teammate, Hector Marinaro, now the all-time leading scorer in professional indoor soccer, and the two went off to Cleveland.
Diflorio spent five years with the Force, beginning in 1984, before bouncing around to teams in Texas and others in Ohio and New York. It was in 1997 that his contract was picked up by the Harrisburg Heat. He played four years with the team and another as a member of the Hershey Wildcats before a bad knee injury sidelined the midfielder after the 2001-2002 season.
“My body told me enough was enough,” he said, and he retired at the age of 37.
Still, he enjoyed the area and he had already been coaching local youth teams, so he decided to stay. Today, with HMMS, he trains about seven different teams during the course of the year. He works with various age groups, boys and girls, nearly every day of the week.
“I am usually here from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday,” he said Thursday before gearing up for a training session with his U-10 girls’ team, HMMS United. “I am pretty much like the grass that grows on these fields. I’m here always.”
Credits others
Diflorio credits all the volunteers and board members, including President Shannon Dorwart and club administrator Wendy Campbell for all they have done to make HMMS soccer what it is today and for giving him the opportunity to be director of player development.
“I was fortunate they were looking for someone,” he said.
There are about 260 coaches between the leagues and about another 30 with the club who make it all possible, he explained.
And though he misses being with the guys before, during and after practice, Diflorio said he loves working with the kids and hopes one day to see some of them playing professional soccer. He preaches hard work and never saying “no.”
“He works just as hard as the kids do during training,” said John Durle, coach of the U-10 HMMS United team and group coordinator for the U-8 boys. “His energy is incredible.”
Whatever experience level or age group Diflorio works with, he brings the appropriate training and skill needed, Durle explained.
“We knew right away he would be able to take them to the next level,” he said, watching as Diflorio worked with the girls. “It’s hard to find somebody like that.”
For more information on HMMS, visit www.hmms-soccer.org.
