By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
May 27, 2016-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) continues its unprecedented video series educating soccer parents with an interview with longtime Major League Soccer player Chris Wingert.
Chris comes from Babylon and grew up playing in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) with the clubs in North Babylon, Deer Park and Commack and for Eastern New York's Olympic Development Program (ODP). He must like patterns as he played for four years for St. John the Baptist High School, winning the state championship in 1996 and ’98, then played four years for St. John’s University and made the national final with the Red Storm in 2003. Chris always did well both academically and athletically and received a LIJSL Scholarship because of this and is the only Academic All-American to be honored with the Hermann Trophy (2003), soccer’s version of the Heisman Trophy, plus also received the NSCAA Scholar-Athlete Award.
In Major League Soccer, the now 33-year-old has played for the Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids, NYCFC and has had two tours of duty with Real Salt Lake, his current team. He has also represented the United States internationally with different age groups, playing primarily at the Under-23 level, and had one cap for the US Men’s National Team, against Sweden in 2009.
“I’m just happy to still be playing (professionally),” Chris explained. “I love the game and I feel that I will be involved with it for the rest of my life."
The video is linked here:
Part of Chris' advice is “to play as much as you can without getting burned-out. If you get in a lot of good soccer environments, that’s only going to help you and the more you play, the better, but you still have to find a balance. I played a lot of different sports growing up and I think that helped me. It was a balancing act trying to find how much I could train and push myself without going overboard and making sure it was still enjoyable.“
Eastern New York consulted with Kevin L. McCrudden to produce the video series with Aurora Productions of Huntington, Long Island. McCrudden is an international author and speaker, known as “Mr. Motivation” and “America’s CMO – Chief Motivation Officer,” Publisher of Soccer Long Island Magazine and Founder of the Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame, as well as an alumnus of both the LIJSL and Eastern New York.
With over 100,000 youth soccer players––both boys and girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 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 Children With Special Needs. 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.