By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
August 15, 2011-When it comes to Manhattan’s Chinatown and soccer, perhaps the only thing that comes to mind is Steve Nash’s annual Showdown in Chinatown, a charity soccer event with NBA and world soccer stars playing at Roosevelt Park in Chinatown. Yet there is one soccer player from the local area, a midfielder and defender, who is playing soccer professionally.
Lexton Moy, now 26 years old, grew up in an apartment on Bayard Street and played for the Region 1 team for three years and Eastern New York Olympic Development Program (ODP) team for four years. He played six years for the Long Island Junior Soccer League’s Merrick Magic Red Storm, coached by Gregg Knight and Steve Cadet. Merrick won two State Cups and the 2001 Sun Bowl in Florida.
“Our team was truly something special. What a great group of players and parents alike! They always say no other team will be as strong and as close-knit club team as Merrick. And understandably, we played together for six years, some on the team for even more,” commented Lexton. “Where else do you get to play with the same people for that long at the highest level in the competitive field? It was a true honor to grow up playing on such a team. I remember such a fulfilling time with such amazing characters and that drives me to develop youth players, in hopes to give them a glimpse of what I was so lucky enough to have experienced.”
“Lexton was a great kid to coach. He was absolutely wonderful,” said Magic Red Storm coach Gregg Knight. “I used to drive him home to Manhattan from Long Island two nights a week after practice.”
The Merrick team once all had a meal with the Moys at a Chinatown restaurant.
“That was a wonderful experience for all the kids on the team, who were around 15 years old at the time,” added Coach Knight.
Lexton also played as a guest player with the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League’s Silver Lake Rams, coached by Burt Wilkes, the current CJSL President. Lexton played for the Rams at the USA Cup.
Lexton attended high school at Friends Seminary in Manhattan, the alma mater of President Theodore Roosevelt, Liev Schreiber, Kyra Sedgwick and Vera Wang. He was honored as the Independent School Athletic League Soccer Player of the Year for three consecutive years from 2001 to 2003. He attended Rutgers for two years, then played for Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he was named LIU’s Scholar/Athlete of the Year in 2008.
“It was an absolute pleasure to have coached Lexton in college. He was driven, bright and always open to learning,” commented LIU Blackbirds coach TJ Kostecky. “During his career, he improved every season by expanding his game and becoming our most consistent and reliable defender. Seeing him live his dream of playing professionally in Hong Kong and now in the Philippines is simply wonderful! He is a deserving young man.”
During the summer of 2007, Lexton captured the Premier Development League national championship with the Laredo Heat. He also played for the New York Athletic Club of the National Premier Soccer League in 2008 and 2009, then it was off to Asia.
“I went to Hong Kong in the summer of 2009 seeking trials with a few clubs,” Lexton stated. “Being that I am half Chinese and I speak Cantonese, I figured Hong Kong would be a good fit for me, as I spoke the language and the city-living transition would be quite smooth. I saw the opportunity to play, live and learn in a different country too enticing to pass up. Not to mention that fact that it would be a great chance for me as an American Born Chinese, ‘ABC,’ to revisit my family heritage and learn more about my culture. My goals were to sign a professional contract playing soccer but really on another level learn about my heritage. So, after hoping a flight overseas, I soon realized what an attribute it was to be an ABC in Hong Kong. Although socially-captivating and interesting, my ABC status really hurt my playing opportunity. My foreigner status became a issue when teams looked to sign me. Since I was an American citizen, I would have to sign as a foreign player, to which each teams had a specific cap and the league only sanctioned eight foreign players for each team and playing a total of five in each game. After trying out with Fourway Rangers, before negotiations began, I opted to seek trials with another team, Shatin. I trained with Shatin for two weeks to which the coach enjoyed the way I played and fit into the team. The manager on the other hand, didn’t want to sign a Chinese player in place of a foreign player spot. Lastly, I went on trial with Tai Chung, an absolutely new team that was promoted from the 2nd Division the year before. Because the team was new, there were less cliques and I felt that the talent and level was more true to the game during training camp. The coach was also a new coach, young and new to the 1st Division. I was signed with not bias to my Chinese heritage nor foreigner status.”
For the 2009-10 season, Tai Chung finished with a record of 4-6-8.
“Throughout the year, I took on other responsibilities on the team as I saw the opportunity to really fulfill my time and potential in Hong Kong. Right from training camp, I became the team translator for our English-speaking foreign players, and our Cantonese-speaking coach. All events, meetings and gatherings became my job to translate for our players and staff. Which really made for a unique experience being able to connect so many people and be a part of most interactions on the team,” Lexton added. “Secondly, the new team didn’t have a website. With my experience with my Spirrs network I had started when I was in South Africa, I told the team that I could build the team website. So I managed that entire site for the whole season. Naturally with the interaction on and off the field with the website, press and fans, I was all ready set up to lead a pretty cool fan base for our newly-formed team. Between the struggles of finding a team due to my foreign status, finding a quality team comparatively, being the team translator, building and running the team website and reintroducing a different life into the soccer fans through our fan club, I really feel I had quite the experience in Hong Kong.”
Lexton was asked by Tai Chung to play another season but opted to come home to Manhattan to recuperate––by training Under-10 and Under-11 players at Chelsea Piers plus giving private training lessons. Plus he created a Chinatown clothing line, CYNONYC.
“A few months back, my buddy Nate Burkey asked me if I ever would be interested in trying out and playing for the Philippines national team. After working and living the working life, I felt the itch and the urge to play really came back. I knew that I had to wait until that passion came back before I could really take on any serious offers or opportunities to play. So, being half Filipino, I made arrangements for citizenship and I’m planning to fly to the Philippines this week. I have trials with Kaya FC and once I get there I will have arrangements to try out for the National Team. Much like my Hong Kong efforts, my goal to the Philippines will not only be to play and represent my mother’s country in the sport I love, but it’s really to reconnect and learn more about my heritage and culture.”
The Philippines could use all the help that it can get soccer-wise. While the United States has not started World Cup qualification yet for Brazil 2014, 35 nations have been eliminated already including the Philippines.
With 120,000 youth soccer players and more than 25,000 volunteers, the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 12 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Special Children. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.
(Photo Courtesy of LIU)
