Boys-Under-17 Rip Van Winkle Raptors
By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
September 15, 2015-If you were very tired and fell asleep for 20 years, you’d be amazed at the progress that soccer has made in the United States in the past generation as our Women’s National Team has now won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, the average attendance of Major League Soccer in its 20th season is above 20,000, the National Women’s Soccer League is trying to gain a foothold and more Americans play organized soccer more than any other sport besides basketball. Far from the limelight of those accomplishments, a generation ago, the Rip Van Winkle Soccer Club was founded and started play in the Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL) and Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA).
Falling asleep for 20 years is obviously what happened to the club’s namesake in the 1819 short story written by Washington Irving. Set in the years around the American Revolution, Rip falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and after he finally wakes up, he discovers that his entire world has changed.
“The past club presidents, Mike Esslie and August Freemann, thought that the Rip Van Winkle name represented our unique area in the Catskill Mountains and wanted to include players from the surrounding school districts, even when the club was founded,” commented Patricia Gibson, in her 12th year as club President. “Our club has players from Cairo, Catskill, Durham, Germantown, Greenville, Saugerties and Windham.”
Rip Van Winkle has 120 travel team players and 118 intramural players with a 50/50 split between genders. It is a non-profit volunteer organization whose mission statement says it promotes the sport of soccer, develops each player to the maximum of his or her ability plus fosters a spirit of sportsmanship and fellowship among its members. Keeping in mind that Rip Van Winkle wants to develop players, they also recognize that soccer has to be fun so that the kids enjoy the experience and develop a lifelong passion for the sport.
Rip Van Winkle has certainly done just that with its Boys-Under-17 team, the Raptors, which recently won a CDYSL division championship. All the players on the squad have been competing for the club since they were 10 years old. The energy of the club volunteers is currently focused on building a new place to play.
“We are in the process of building a new field near the Cairo Town Park on Mountain Avenue,” explained President Gibson. “We have a water retention pond and parking lot completed and just finished putting drainage in and now are waiting for an estimate on the cost of excavation and top soil. We are in the process of fund-raising to finish the project.”
For more info about the Rip Van Winkle Soccer Club, please contact President Gibson at president@ncyasoccer.com or 518-622-2508 or log on to the club website at http://www.ncyasoccer.com
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.