By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
September 12, 2017-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) is very pleased to announce that James Volpe is being honored as our Personality of the Month for September.
The Baldwin, Long Island resident grew up in neighboring Oceanside and has been involved in soccer his entire life. His “real job” is serving as the Manager of Summit Security Services, which provides security guards for companies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Jim’s soccer career kicked off when he began playing for the Oceanside Dynamo in the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League (CJSL) even before the Oceanside United Soccer Club was founded by Joe Goldberg and Ian McDougall in 1962. Jim then played at Oceanside High School and on the men’s team of Oceanside United in those days when soccer was not as popular on the sports landscape as it is today.
He became a coach in Oceanside United’s intramural program in 1977. He coached a half-dozen Oceanside United travel teams in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) over the years, starting with the Oceanside Aztecs, a squad of boys born in 1970. For decades, if there was a soccer game being played in Oceanside, Jim could be spotted at the field, including at the Rudy Lamonica Indoor Tournament, the oldest indoor youth tourney in the United States, and at the Bob Schrager Memorial Long Island Cup. Jim has attained the United Soccer Coaches National Diploma and had many of his former players there at the Huntington Hilton when he was inducted into the LIJSL Hall of Fame in 2015.
Jim volunteered as President of Oceanside United for 1989 to 2000 and his dozen years leading the club is one of the longest reigns for a club president in LIJSL history.
He has been Eastern New York’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) Administrator since 2014. Because of the vast size and population of Eastern New York, the program is split into North and South teams and Jim coached in the program for a dozen years. ODP tryouts are currently taking place throughout the state. On Jim’s watch as Administrator, the Eastern New York 1999 Boys South ODP team won the national championship last year.
Jim’s children, Chelsea (named after the London soccer club) and Shaun, grew up competing in the LIJSL, played for the Manhattan Jaspers over a decade ago, now live in Long Beach and both still play soccer today for the Oceanside women’s team. Older daughter Chelsea also is the varsity coach of the Fieldston School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, near her alma mater.
The Volpes have been organizing the Marianne Volpe 5K and Fun Run during the past five years, raising $150,000 total for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the North Shore Long Island Jewish Monter Cancer Center. The donations are in honor of Jim’s wife Marianne, who died of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL), an aggressive form of blood cancer, at the age of 56 on October 14, 2011. The 6th annual event will take place on Saturday, October 28 at Baldwin Park and you can register by clicking here:
“We are very pleased to honor soccer lifer Jim Volpe as our Personality of the Month for September,” commented Eastern New York President Richard Christiano. “If you ever need something done, you contact Jim and get fantastic results.”
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.