He Left Early So He Could Coach Soccer That Night

By Thomas Maier | STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2001

Rudy Mastrocinque got up early Tuesday, dressed and tried not to awaken his family inside their Kings Park home before making his way to work at the World Trade Center.

"Why are you leaving so early?" his wife, Meryl, asked groggily. She remembers the time was about 6 a.m.

"I want to get in early because I have a goalie clinic tonight," explained Rudy. As a long-time soccer coach and past president of the soccer league in Kings Park, Mastrocinque, 43, always seemed to be running a practice or a game, either for his two children, Peter, 11, and Amy, 15, or dozens of other youngsters in the neighborhood.

Usually, Mastrocinque started his work day about 9 a.m., but he was already at his desk by 8:30 that morning when a plane hijacked by terrorists crashed into Tower One, Meryl said. Mastrocinque worked as a property claims representative for Marsh & McLennan Securities Corp., an insurance firm, and his wife reported him to the police as missing on Wednesday.

Monday afternoon, before her family went off to meet with a grief counselor, Meryl recalled her husband's love of life and how he survived the removal of a cancerous brain tumor last year.

"He had the tumor removed at [New York University Medical Center], went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment and had returned to work," said Meryl. "He thought he had survived a miracle."

The couple met working one summer as counselors at a Huntington day camp. Rudy went to Northport High School and graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1980. Always active in sports, he became increasingly involved with soccer and served as president for two years with the Kings Park soccer club. He also played in an adult league. "He found it a great stress relief, and he played sometime twice a week," recalled his wife of nearly 20 years.

Meryl said her family was hoping for a second miracle, that Rudy might have survived, but, by Monday, they had become resolved to his loss and were trying to deal with their grief.