New York City FC was delighted to announce the launch of its 2021 Bronx Blue primary kit. As part of the launch, we wanted to celebrate some of the people that make both the club and the city special. We caught up with nurse practitioner Jamie Nemrow, one of the faces of this kit launch, to discuss her first impressions of the new uniform, her rec league soccer career, and the challenges of the past twelve months.
Tell us a little bit about you…
My name is Jamie. I was born in California. I moved to New York in 2014 for nursing school, which is how I found out about NYCFC, because one of my co-workers, her husband, was playing on a soccer team that needed more female players. She asked me to play, and they're talking about NYCFC constantly. That's how I got here and ended up being a season ticket holder.
Tell us a little bit about your experience of being an NYCFC fan, being a season ticket holder, and coming to games.
It's been really fun. At first, I was just coming with the people that I knew from my soccer team. I ended up going to all the bars nearby, and I met like a ton of people, and ended up meeting people from the Third Rail [Supporters group]. That's how I ended up being part of that group, and then went to a bunch of watch parties and things like that with them. So it's been really nice to actually meet a bunch of people with similar interests and things that I didn't expect myself getting involved in.
Do you have any favorite players or memories from games?
My favorite player is Alex Ring, so I’m a little bit upset. I also love [Maxime] Chanot, and I've been watching [James] Sands for a while. I feel him because of all of his broken bones that happened at a very similar time as me. I was very empathetic with him.
Are you excited for this upcoming season? Hopefully, you know, we have some fans back. Will we see you there?
I will definitely be going. I think we're getting to a place where it’s a little bit safer. I personally have been vaccinated, and I'm hoping that everybody else decides to get vaccinated. I think looking forward to the next year, I think we should be able to go back to a pretty normal year.
As a nurse practitioner, how has this past year been for you in the hospitals?
It's been crazy. I do hematology and bone marrow transplant. Our patients are completely immunocompromised. In the beginning, we were trying really hard to separate ourselves from COVID patients, and it ended up being impossible because the entire hospital was taken over by COVID. We could only separate our patients a little bit and we were all going back and forth between COVID floors and our floor. It took about four months for us to get back to taking care of solely our patients without having to also be involved with COVID. The last couple of months, it's kind of gone back to a little bit of COVID involvement, but less than it was in the beginning.
So do you feel a little bit optimistic now?
I do. The numbers are going down. We're seeing less people get as sick than we were before. Of course there are still people that are very sick and you need to take this very seriously, but I do feel like things are looking in the right direction.
Back to a positive note, how do you feel about the kit?
It’s gorgeous and very similar to the original kit. I really like it, it’s really nice.
