THE STORY OF THE WILDCATS

A Look Back

In 1995 Vincent Baldino, a Princeton area construction contractor and long time soccer booster, was approached by a friend and asked if he was interested in acquiring a New Jersey franchise in the USL’s women’s league. His immediate answer was “No.”

Vince was born on the Italian Island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. Vince immigrated to the United States in the late 1960’s and like most Italians he brought his love of the game of soccer with him. Within a few years Vince organized his own amateur men’s team based in Princeton and so the Princeton Soccer Club was born. Almost immediately PSC became a major soccer power in the South Jersey league. Vince was owner, coach and player of PSC until 1988. When approached by dedicated soccer friends about joining them in acquiring a franchise in the American Professional Soccer League (a professional league at the time) the answer then was an immediate “Yes.”

That franchise, the Penn-Jersey Spirit, lasted only two years. For Vince it was a big disappointment. At the time Vince believed he had given all he could to the sport of soccer and decided to dedicate his time to playing tennis, something he still loves today.

When in 1995 he was approached about acquiring a franchise in the Women’s League, he said “No” but after a few words of persuasion from friends it was easy for Vince to jump right back in. His passion for soccer was still strong as he proclaims, “The passion for this game is something that grows inside you when you are a kid and stays with you forever.” The New Jersey Wildcats were born.

Vince has been the driving force behind the team ever since. During their first eight years in the W-League the Wildcats struggled to stay above the .500 mark, but Vince never gave up hope. Every year people asked if he would do it again next year and the answer was always “Yes.” He knew sooner or later something great would happen.

In 2004 Vince decided it was time to make some changes. He hired an entirely new staff including a new head coach. The big coup, however, was when Kelly Smith of England (one of the best players in the world), Marinette Pichon of France (a FIFA All-Star), Anne Makinen of Finland and New Jersey’s very own Olympic team star Heather O’Reilly (of East Brunswick) joined the team and a dynasty was born. In 2004 the Wildcats completed their first perfect regular season (14-0) and advanced to the W-League’s National Championship game in Ottawa but they ultimately had their hearts broken losing the title game to Vancouver in a tiebreaker penalty shootout.

The 2005 season provided a different and happier story. The team finished the regular season 13-1. It defeated Vancouver in the W-League semi-finals and in front of a packed house of 2,233 people at Mercer County Community College it won the W-League Championship defeating Ottawa, 3-0. One headline read “First Revenge then the Cup.”

In 2006 the team completed its second 14-0 season in the last three years. The many top international and American players on the New Jersey Wildcats’ roster made it a true multi-national All-Star team. And with national team players from Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Brazil not only did New Jersey soccer fans have a chance to see the very best the sport has to offer, it also gave many young American players the chance to expand their soccer development by playing and training with these top world athletes.

A Look Forward As We Build upon Success

Vince believes there is still a lot more to be done for the sport of soccer in this country. This year Pat Ruta has joined the Board and with Vince’s help and guidance hopes to take their shared vision of soccer potential to the next level.

Pat is the Executive Vice President of Visible World, a media technology company started in 2000. The company raised $20 Million and is currently the leader in delivering addressable advertising to Cable Networks, Broadcast Stations and Cable companies. Pat was directly responsible for obtaining over $8 million of the company’s initial funding. His experience in dealing with the country’s largest advertisers and television stations and his well-established successes in corporate and fund-raising enterprises is a great asset to the New Jersey Wildcats franchise.

He has quickly brought his skills to the team with several new projects already having been launched, yet he is quick to give credit to others, “In many ways I have the easy job; we have a world class team with world class players. The key now is to use that success to grow the franchise and make the Wildcats ‘America’s team.’ These young ladies are an inspiration to all girls kicking a soccer ball across the country at any level.”

This year the Wildcats have tried some new and exciting things, which have never been done before by any women’s team at any level. Below are some of the 2006 initiatives that we have worked hard to bring you.

Thanks to JVC, we have created CatsTV.  We are now able to provide highlights of all our games to anyone who wants to see them from any part of the world. Over 50,000 people tune in to see the games on Google video. Among these many viewers there is one in particular that, at least for the Wildcats organization, makes the entire venture personally rewarding. Formiga’s mother is able to follow her daughter’s heroics week in and week out from her home in Brazil.

We established a U19 summer tournament team. The Wildcats Future team has already played in the USA Cup in Minnesota and has also participated in two other local tournaments this year.

Additionally, the Wildcats now have our first ever year-round travel club team. The Wildcats U16 team has made extraordinary progress and is nationally ranked. The team will be traveling the country, competing in the top college showcase tournaments throughout the calendar year.

The Wildcats also have applied for acceptance to become a Super-Y League Club. This will give a chance for some of our local clubs to play Super-Y without having to travel for hours to an affiliate club. We want to become partners with the local clubs and help them further develop their girls’ programs but not compete with them.

And arguably our most important initiative is to get the Wildcats organization more involved in women’s causes. Teaming up with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the final regular season home game was our “Kick for the Cure” game. A charity event, which we hope is a first step we have taken to help raise awareness and funding for a cure for breast cancer. As previously mentioned, this was our first time attempting such an important task and although we can do much more, we also learned a lot about the issues and how to fully organize such a meaningful occasion. We hope to build upon this year’s efforts and turn it into a yearly event.