Soccer Coach,

The coach and co-leader of a Forest Hills soccer school who molested six boys while on team trips in 2001 has been sentenced to up to 66 years in prison, authorities announced last week.
Fernando Colman, 37, a former resident of Elmont, was found guilty May 15 on 19 charges of sodomy, sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
"The defendant preyed upon children entrusted to his care and destroyed their innocence to satisfy his own sexual desires," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. "The crimes were all the more offensive because the victims were children."
Colman, a construction worker and vice president of the Argentina Soccer School at 67-50 Thornton Avenue in Forest Hills, is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for sexual attacks on boys in Nassau County.
Kew Gardens Supreme Court Judge Justice Richard Buchter called Colman "a wolf in sheep’s clothing," and "a pedophile who step by step . . . insidiously effectuates his crimes. This defendant is so dangerous and unscrupulous as to make one nostalgic for a time when judges could sentence criminals to a lifetime at hard labor."
According to Brown, the investigation began last year when one of the victims told his mother that he had been molested by Colman at the coachs home in Elmont.
According to trial testimony, Colman had sodomized and sexually abused five soccer players, ages 10 to 13, and one of their brothers, at two Queens hotels between January and April 2001. The attacks occurred at the Best Western Hotel at 113-10 Corona Avenue in Flushing and the Clarion Hotel at 9400 Ditmars Boulevard in East Elmhurst during overnight trips for soccer competitions.
Said Brown, "I hope the severe punishment imposed by the court brings solace to the children and their families."