January 26, 2022-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) was founded in 1972 and is celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2022. ENYYSA has not had any in-person meetings since February 2020 because of the pandemic so plans for a formal golden anniversary acknowledgment will depend on the virus protocols later this year.
Interestingly, we were founded under a different name and our two largest leagues are older than ENYYSA.
The German-American Junior Soccer League, now the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League (CJSL), was founded in New York City in 1933. It’s the oldest and most historic youth soccer league in the United States. An original purpose of the league was for its graduates to become players in the adult league, now known as the Cosmopolitan Soccer League.
In 1966, the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) was founded. The first steps to create the LIJSL were taken by Jack Maher of the Deer Park Celtics. Maher wrote to Pat Ryder, who was then President of the Long Island Soccer Football League, requesting the formation of a youth league to support the adult league, similar to what had occurred in New York City three decades before. Ryder had the foresight to see the benefit of a self-organized youth program and appointed Maher as the first Junior Commissioner.
With youth soccer starting to grow exponentially, George Donnelly and Enzo Magnozzi founded the Southern New York Youth Soccer Association in 1972 and Tony Perez became the first President.
In 1974, the West-Put Youth Soccer League, serving Westchester and Putnam Counties, was created and joined Southern New York. Now known as the East Hudson Youth Soccer League (EHYSL), it continues to serve soccer clubs in Westchester and Putnam but now also has clubs in Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties plus the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania.
Steve LaRosa became President of the Southern New York youth in 1976. The Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL) was founded at Shenendehowa High School that year by Peter Clinton, Larry Henry, Cesare Maniccia, Roy Pfeil and others.
1978 was a very important year as Ivor Foster was elected President, the Staten Island Youth Soccer League (SIYSL) and our Children With Special Needs Program kicked off.
Sal Davilo, Joe Licata and Sal Parello founded our league on Staten Island.
Children With Special Needs playing in an organized league actually started in Southern New York when two LIJSL clubs, the Huntington Boys Club (HBC) and Massapequa Soccer Club, separately began programs in an era when these kids playing sports is not as accepted as it is today. Craig Ludin, who has Down Syndrome and has been playing for HBC since he was a young boy, has so many medals from the Special Olympics that he has been inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Two years later in 1980, the same year that Howard Rubenstein was elected President of Southern New York, Rocco Amoroso started the LIJSL Sportsmanship Program as he was concerned about a lack of discipline and respect on soccer fields. The program spread locally, then nationally and internationally.
As new leagues were created, both the senior and youth association started admitting clubs north of Albany so “Southern New York” was obviously no longer appropriate. Since our geographic area now encompassed clubs from Long Island to the Canadian border east of Route 81, which connects Binghamton and Syracuse, in 1984 Rubenstein and the incoming President, Peter Masotto, changed the name from the Southern New York Youth Soccer Association to our present name of Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA). Rubenstein and Costas Mallios made the same name change from Southern New York to Eastern New York with the adults in 1988.
In 1997, the Mid State New York Soccer League started playing in ENYYSA. Previously, its teams played in the New York West state association. Teams come from a vast geographical region of Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Herkimer, Oneida and Madison counties.
Also in 1997, Luis Montoya founded the Big Apple Youth Soccer League to serve the growing Latino community in New York City. Two years later, the Metrokids Interregional Soccer League was founded, also to serve the increasing number of Latino families in New York City.
The Central New York State Soccer League was founded in 2001 and it serves Oneida, Madison and Herkimer counties.
Masotto served as the ENYYSA President for more than two decades, from 1984 to 2006. Then Barry Salter was President from 2006 to 2010 and he was succeeded by Richard Christiano, Eastern New York’s President for the past dozen years.