With the World Cup approaching, more people are talking about it, including Dan Ioos and his friends and co-workers.
Ioos often shares a tidbit of information with anyone when discussing the U.S. men’s national soccer team. Back in the day, Ioos played with team captain Tyler Adams, who grew up in Wappinger in Dutchess County.
Mentioning Adams is not a name drop for Ioos. Talking about his former teammate is a source of pride. Dutchess County is getting ready to root for Adams, a 27-year-old midfielder, in the World Cup, which begins on Thursday.
The event, which concludes on July 11, will be hosted jointly in 16 cities in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The U.S. opens the tournament at 9 p.m. Friday in a Group D game in Paraguay in Inglewood, California.
“Knowing Tyler is absolutely my claim to fame,” said Ioos, who played with Adams more than a decade ago with the under-14 Poughkeepsie Heat boys soccer team of the Hudson Valley Youth Soccer League (HVYSL) and at Wappingers Junior High School. “I bring up Tyler all the time and make sure to tell everyone the type of person that he is. I think it is neat. Even at a young age, Tyler wanted and demanded more, and it is great to see the leader that he has become.”
Adams was a student in Matt Paino’s social studies class at Roy C. Ketcham High School, where he was a member of the National Honor Society. He was already a budding soccer star, playing for the Red Bulls Academy and the U.S. under-17 national team. Adams made his U.S. national team debut in 2017 and is playing in his second World Cup.
He has continued to give back to the Dutchess County community and the surrounding areas.
“As great a soccer player Tyler is, he is just as great a person,” said Paino, who is also a friend of Adams’ family. “He has had such an influence beyond the pitch. Seeing him walking through the halls of Ketcham High School and now watching him in another World Cup is going to be awesome. Everyone is excited about it.”
Paino’s son, Owen, was a star baseball player at Ketcham High and now plays at Ole Miss. Matt Paino remembers one of the most influential moments of his development. Adams took Paino to a Red Bulls practice to see how professionals work and practice.
“The support from Tyler was unreal,” Matt Paino said. “It meant everything to us. Tyler doesn’t have to give back, but he always does.”
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