LIJSL College Convention Forum
By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
October 7, 2015-The Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL), with 1,500 travel teams in Suffolk, Nassau and Queens, is the largest league in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA). Being so large has its advantages as 40 committees serve LIJSL players. One of the more innovative committees is the LIJSL’s College-Bound Player Program, which helps teenagers understand the recruiting process, develop an effective college search strategy and find the proper academic, social and athletic fit that will lead to a successful college experience, both on and off the field.
The program is led by two longtime volunteers named Pat––Pat Grecco and Pat Secko. Grecco was in charge of the committee for many years and continues to help student/athletes from her new home in North Carolina while Secko lives on Long Island. The College-Bound Player Program opens doors for young athletes to the LIJSL's vast network of college coaches, admissions offices plus scholarship and grant sources that can help ease the financial burden of a college education. Yet the program has its challenges.
“The single biggest problem is parents have huge expectations for their kids,” Mrs. Grecco explained. “Some parents might see their child as Division 1 material, where that child would ride the bench, but that Division 2 or 3 college where he or she gets to play might be a much better fit athletically as well as academically.”
Some recent LIJSL players who have been helped by this wonderful program:
• Oluwantosin Akinfeleye, played for the Cambria Heights Soccer Club and Thomas Edison High School, now playing at SUNY-Old Westbury
• Sebastian Archer, played for the Bayside Soccer Club, LIJSL Player Development Program and Kew-Forest School, now starting as a freshman at SUNY-New Paltz
• Christopher Ernest, played for the Brentwood Soccer Club, LIJSL Player Development Program, Eastern New York ODP and Holy Trinity High School, playing at Molloy College
• John Flores-McKenna, played for the LIJSL Player Development Program and South Side High School, now starting for Thomas College in Maine
• Sara Plowman, played for the Farmingdale Soccer Club, LIJSL Player Development Program and St. John the Baptist High School, now playing at Fairfield University
• Tosin See, played for the Cambria Heights Soccer Club and Thomas Edison High School, now playing at SUNY-Old Westbury
• Lauren Worden, played for HBC, Albertson, LIJSL Player Development Program, Eastern New York ODP and Connetquot High School, now playing at Jacksonville University
Oscar Diaz, who was a member of the LIJSL Player Development Program and St. John the Baptist High School varsity, was recently recruited by St. Thomas Aquinas College.
“Oscar is a very good athlete; he has played soccer since the age of five and he had very good school grades. I did not know how to select a college or how to go about it, there was a huge variety of schools and they all differed in size. We were inundated with flyers, applications packages and all kinds of information about colleges,” Oscar’s mother, Maria Elaina Diaz, explained. “Pat Grecco managed and guided us through the whole process in a timely and professional manner. Our son's priority was to have a good academic education. Based on that, she recommended us to focus in colleges with Division 2 and 3 programs. By the beginning of March the following year, he had five offers from Division 3 schools and three offers from Division 2 schools. With Pat’s prudent advice, everything went perfectly. Oscar will attend St. Thomas Aquinas College, Division 2 in New York. I am a very proud Soccer Mom because soccer gave us good financial relief for my son's education and I am so grateful for Pat’s expert guidance.”
One of the first players that this program helped was Frank Vertullo, who played at Dowling College, then competed professionally and was selected as Eastern New York’s Personality of the Month last December after coaching the Suffolk Community College men to two national championships. But before he could do all that, Frank was a teenager who needed the expert guidance of the LIJSL College-Bound Player Program.
Grecco has expanded to helping student/athletes throughout Eastern New York, nationally and internationally as well. She said, “With all the wonderful ways to communicate today, you don’t have to be physically present to be helped.”
Additionally, the two Pat’s lead College-Bound Information Sessions at soccer clubs throughout the year as well as a College Forum at the LIJSL Convention every March. To secure a college-bound session for your team or club, please contact Pat Secko at psecko@optonline.net
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 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.
College-Bound Information Session