Strong Island FC retires No. 44 in honor of Miller Place’s Andrew Salgado

Strong Island FC has retired No. 44 — the number Andrew Salgado wore — in a permanent tribute to the 14-year-old Miller Place soccer player who died this week from traumatic injuries he sustained in a Route 25A bicycle crash fiver weeks earlier.

The Centereach-based youth travel soccer club announced the decision in a social media post featuring Andrew in his neon green Strong Island FC jersey.

“There will never be another person that will wear #44 for Strong Island FC. heartbroken is an understatement,” the post reads.

“I’ll never understand why this happened! Was blessed to have gotten the chance to coach you, and you were taken from us way too soon.”

Balloon release memorial on Sunday

A community balloon release memorial for Andrew is planned for Sunday at Heritage Park in Mount Sinai, where a pizza fundraiser last month raised more than $6,500 for the Salgado family.

The event is scheduled for 1 p.m., with organizers encouraging attendees to bring blue balloons and to arrive at any time.

Funeral services this week

Andrew’s funeral services are scheduled over two days, beginning Monday with visitation at Branch Funeral Home of Miller Place.

Visitation will be held from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Monday at the funeral home, located at 551 Route 25A in Miller Place.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Louis de Montfort R.C. Church, 75 New York Ave. in Sound Beach.

An eighth-grade student at North Country Middle School and varsity soccer player at Miller Place High School, died Thursday after being treated for over a month at Stony Brook University Hospital.

He was critically injured March 24 when his bicycle struck a Ford F-550 truck that was turning left into L Delea & Sons Sod Farms on Route 25A in Miller Place. Andrew was riding eastbound on the shoulder of the roadway when the crash occurred about 3:20 p.m.

Andrew’s older brother, Joseph, wrote a message to Andrew in an Instagram post Thursday afternoon, calling him his “built-in best friend” and “the strongest kid I have ever met.”

He said additionally that “the support that everyone has given us and the love the community has shown we could never thank everyone enough.

Andrew is also survived by his parents, Manny Salgado and Kristianna Giordano-Salgado, and a younger brother.

_{Top: Faceboook/Strong Island FC and Branch Funeral Homes}