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National soccer stars shine at night for Newtown’s children Mia Hamm and Alexi Lalas join other pros, QU athletes and coaches at event planned by Chris Canetti ’92 By John Pettit he unspeakable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in which a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults hit especially close to home for Chris Canetti ’92, president of the Houston Dynamo professional soccer club. “Like everybody else across the country, I was feeling pretty down about what happened in Newtown,” said Canetti, a Guilford, Conn., native and father of two
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young children. “I sat around thinking, ‘This is terrible. What can we do?’” Three days after the shooting, Canetti called Quinnipiac men’s soccer coach Eric Da Costa ’01, MBA ’09. “I had one question for him: ‘What kind of soccer town is Newtown?’” Canetti recalled. “It’s a big soccer town,” Da Costa responded. With that, Soccer Night in Newtown, a collaboration between Quin-
nipiac University soccer, Major League Soccer and CFC Azul, was born. A venerable who’s who of professional soccer, including Landon Donovan, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Cobi Jones, Alexi Lalas and Brian Ching, volunteered their time at the Newtown Youth Academy Sports & Fitness Center in January. “We wanted to bring smiles to the faces of kids in Newtown and give them a diversion from some of the awful reali-
John Hassett
Newtown soccer fans chat with Bobcats, from left: senior Greg DiGiovine, freshman Stevenson Hawkey and senior William Cavallo.
14 | QUINNIPIAC MAGAZINE | SPRING 2013