Matt Rogers from Garden City has been selected to represent Long Island at the under eleven twelve within the Long Island Junior Soccer League - LI United program during the 2008-09 season.

The Long Island United program was developed by the one hundred member clubs of the LIJSL to provide an elite level academy training environment for Long Island's top youth soccer players. The program is now three years old and hosts teams at the u10, u11 and u12 level. A new u10 team is added each year.

The players are trained and mentored by Long Island's top college coaches including Sue Ryan of Stony Brook University; Richard Nuttall, Brian Suskewicz and Lindsay Vanderspiegel of Hofstra University and Jess Clinton, Marc Reeves and Jeff Mateo of St. John's University in a high level, college-like training environment which is unique to youth soccer in the USA.

The program is also linked with the internationally famous Liverpool soccer club in England. Players have the opportunity to train with Liverpool coaching staff and visit Liverpool's own world renowned academy.