By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
May 20, 2016-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) continues its unprecedented video series in educating soccer parents with an interview with former Stony Brook University women’s coach Sue Ryan and St. John’s University men’s coach Dr. Dave Masur. Both coaches talk about how players are honest with themselves in assessing their ability.
The video is here:
Coach Ryan talks about the "creep effect” and the concept of a college scholarship in the young players' future. Their parents start to think that more is better––more teams to play on, more training sessions to attend to attain the parent's goal of a college scholarship.
“Sometimes, the end result is young players wind up quitting because they cannot succeed at the level that they perceive that their parents want the player to succeed at.“
Coach Ryan grew up playing in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) for the Northport Sea Devils, and for Eastern New York’s Olympic Development Program (ODP). She coached the Stony Brook University women’s team for an amazing 31 years and, along with EJ Schwarz, coached the LIJSL’s Northport/Cow Harbor Piranha to the Girls-Under-16 national championship in 1997 and the Girls-Under-18 national title in 1999. She is an inductee of the Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame and was also the first coach to receive the New York Metro Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association (NYMISOA) Sportsmanship Award two times.
Dr. Dave Masur discusses players “building up their technical abilities and having a passion to do it” and for parents to help their children “find a good club that will develop the player and not worrying about wins and losses.”
Coach Masur concludes that “players need to be able to accept feedback, be able to accept not being perfect all the time, and it hopefully gives them the drive and determination to stay in the game and continue to improve and battle, whether it’s school, in a job, personal situations. Those are the character values and process that we talk about a lot at St. John’s and that is taught on an everyday basis in sport.“
Coach Masur has been the head coach at St. John’s for the past quarter-century, attaining over 400 victories and becoming the first St. John’s team in any sport to win the NCAA national championship when Red Storm men’s soccer did it in 1996. He has coached Eastern New York youth teams and played professionally with the Chicago Sting, Toledo Pride, New Jersey Eagles, Penn Jersey Spirit and New Jersey Imperials.
ENYYSA is providing this video series, as a service to its 11 member leagues throughout New York State and its over 100,000 players, in response to the increased pressure on parents and players regarding college scholarships.
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.