By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
September 23, 2014-The lifelong friends you’ve made. The coaches you will never forget. The fun you had with teammates which taught you there is more to sports than wins, losses and ties. They are just a few of the reasons why you wouldn’t trade your youth sports experiences for anything in the world.
But will your children enjoy similar experiences? Unfortunately, many children aren’t building memories such as these. Why?
Maybe the “win-at-all-costs” mentality that has become part of all levels of youth sports has taken much of the fun out of the game. Maybe the relentless pull of new technology creates fonder memories than they’re getting from fields of play. Whatever the reasons, we hope parents and continue to encourage their kids to continue their youth sports experiences.
Keeping kids involved in sports ensures that they at least have a chance to create those special sports memories and also contributes to their continued physical activity and all the benefits that come with it.
To help get you thinking about the ways to frame and discuss the many rewards of participating in sports to your kids, Liberty Mutual, a sponsor of the United States Youth Soccer Association, created the Insurance and Positive Coaching Alliance that has outlined four of the central benefits of youth sports participation:
• Fitness–Youth sports provide fun reasons for your kids to get off of the couch and get active.
• Friendships–Teammates often become lifelong best friends.
• Wisdom–From learning how to overcome individual challenges to how to succeed on a team, youth sports is the platform from which many of life’s most valuable lessons are learned.
• Focus–The mental preparation that it takes to succeed in youth sports provides the groundwork for success both in school and later in life.
Rocco Amoroso, recently made a Life Member by US Soccer, started a Sportsmanship Program in 1980 in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL), the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association’s (ENYYSA) largest league, after witnessing poor sportsmanship on youth soccer fields. That program has since been copied around the world and gives playing games in Eastern New York the perspective it deserves of kids playing a game, the coaches being volunteers and the refs being human.
“So many kids who I met on the soccer field and who are now adult coaches tell me of the fun they had, the lifelong lessons that they learned in youth soccer and that they are still in touch with their teammates decades later,” commented ENYYSA President Richard Christiano.
With 123,843 youth soccer players––68,587 boys and 55,256 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 12 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.