{"id":380492,"date":"2026-10-23T05:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/380492\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T05:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:20:09","slug":"queens-college-soccer-coach-frank-vertullo-bringing-game-to-special-needs-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/380492\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens College soccer coach Frank Vertullo bringing game to special needs kids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody is a winner playing for Frank Vertullo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Queens College men\u2019s soccer coach is making a difference in Deer Park by rolling out a unified soccer program for students with special needs, inspired by leagues his autistic son, Michael, played in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018You know what, with my soccer background, let\u2019s start it here,\u2019\u201d Vertullo, who teaches life skills to special needs students in the district, told The Post. \u201cThey get so excited, they see me in school, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Hi, coach! I\u2019m so happy.\u2019 It\u2019s really, really awesome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.29456384;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41476604\" width=\"764\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/coach-frank-vertullo-started-soccer-146107936.jpg\" alt=\"Coach Frank Vertullo poses with soccer players on a field in Deer Park.\" class=\"wp-image-41476604\"\/>Coach Frank Vertullo has started a soccer program for special needs children in Deer Park. Frank Vertullo<\/p>\n<p>Varsity players at Deer Park now spend Sunday mornings helping coach and run intramural games with unified athletes from the middle school and high school, which has touched Vertullo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re wonderful with the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really means a lot because it takes a special person to help kids with special needs. It teaches them humility and patience, and it\u2019s really nice that they\u2019re giving back as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Vertullo plans to expand the new program to K-12 by next year, then broaden it to include other districts in Suffolk County for a season-finale festival and tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The long-term goal is to have it sanctioned by Section XI one day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.29456384;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41476599\" width=\"764\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/coach-frank-vertullo-started-soccer-146107935.jpg\" alt=\"Coach Frank Vertullo stands on a soccer field, instructing a young player in a hoodie while another player looks on nearby.\" class=\"wp-image-41476599\"\/>Coach Frank Vertullo has started a soccer program for special needs kids in Deer Park. Frank Vertullo<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s already scored a huge goal by making these kids feel like all-stars, and their parents are elated to see it week in and week out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re always so grateful and thankful,\u201d Vertullo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everybody is a winner playing for Frank Vertullo.\u00a0 The Queens College men\u2019s soccer coach is making a difference&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[776,9,24,63,122,124,123,400,27470,319,773,23681],"class_list":["post-380492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-long-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-soccer","tag-special-needs","tag-sports","tag-suffolk-county","tag-us-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}