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By Tim Bradbury, Director of Coaching Instruction, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association

One of the key changes in the US Soccer coaching license pathway has been a recognition and inclusion of a task entitled managing the performance environment. A key part of this task is in building relationships with parents and creating an environment in which coaches -players-parents work together to create the best possible learning opportunity for their players.

For a long time, I have believed and promoted the fact that coaches must work with and alongside parents. This they should do all within their power to help the parents understand the importance of their role in their child’s developmental journey. I have encouraged coaches to have frequent meetings and communications with all parental groups. I have to be honest and confess that often these ideas are met with disbelief and derision.

What is obvious is that often the coach-parent relationship is a fractured one. The heart of this I have come to realize is a series of disconnections. In an attempt to help both parties build a positive rapport that can best serve the players I attempt to break down some of these disconnections below.

1. Individual vs. Team – It makes absolute sense that a parent's love for a child will always lead to a set view of the world and sports and their child’s place within it. This view, regardless of context, is built on love. The coach's view and perspective is typically built on what is best for the team. They run the gauntlet and get torn between making decisions that may be best for the team as opposed to what is best for an individual player. Perhaps the best example of this is the traditional playing time debate. To protect the team, a coach may decide that player X does not play as long today, mom and dad in this context simply see the wrong done to their child.

2. Hollywood Myth vs. the real deal – Many parents carry with them a vision of a coach that is built on movies like "Miracle" or the behavior of coaches from professional sports that they view on TV. The mannerisms and behavior of coaches working with professional athletes is rarely if ever suitable for youth coaches to employ with players learning the game.

3. Winning vs. Developing – It sometimes appears that we live in a world where the only thing that matters is the result of the game. At different times, it seems both coaches and parents put winning before developing. Both groups forget that learning is a process and that in order to win skills have to be mastered, concepts grasped and team work built. Far too frequently, these three things get put behind the "we must win" mentality. To give a specific example, a team may win with a speedy forward and a goalkeeper or defender who can kick it a long way. If this strategy is employed throughout a game with very few players touching the ball in a controlled fashion, development is unlikely to happen – the result maybe a win but is it worth it ?

4. What values matter? – Most parents want to keep their kids in a protective bubble and most hope that their child stays within it forever. I would like to believe that most coaches believe that certain characteristics that can be developed through participating in sport – resilience, hard work, sacrifice, humility and courage are all traits that they should try to develop. The issue being that developing these traits typically means putting players in challenging situations. These situations are seldom appreciated by parents.

5. Mistakes matter – I know from spending many hours on sidelines that unless it is their child that made the mistake, most parents view these moments as crucial times when the coach, paying attention, must surely take the player off. Most coaches probably see the situation as vital learning moment and hope that a similar situation happens so that the player involved can show how much they learned. Within the game environment where coaches see mistakes as opportunities to learn, parents sometimes see them as a reason for banishment.

6. Player centric vs. Coach centric – THIS IS HUGE. Most parents seem to believe that a real coach is a constant source of instruction and orders. Joy-sticking the players through every kick off the ball and decision made. The louder and more frequent the instructions are given, the better the coach. If you are not up and shouting you don’t care or must be sleeping. Nothing could be further from the truth. Soccer is truly the player's game where players make at least one decision every second in a game. Indeed decision-making is probably the most important skill for a player to develop. This being the case, coaches who truly try to teach the game will probably use questions when they coach, always avoid coaching the player on the ball and at half time probably have the players collaborating and talking more than they do.

7. Team sport commitment vs. personal growth – Most coaches fight tooth and nail for a full commitment to their team. Many parents in an attempt to help their child experience a more well-rounded developmental pathway encourage their child to participate and experience a variety of sports. The tension caused when conflicts happen and commitment to the cause is considered to be lacking are moments of real tension. Few of these conversations end well and the disconnection continues until one sport or the team is abandoned. With every sport seemingly becoming a year round proposition, I understand all aspects of this many sided conundrum.

8. Understanding playing style and developmental philosophy – For parents to be able to support a teaching approach, it makes sense that someone takes the time to explain the key characteristics of the approach to them. Schools have parent nights and teacher conferences where such matters are spelt out in detail. All coaches should be making every effort to ensure their approach is understood and supported.

To be clear, my hope in attempting to highlight all the areas of disconnection is that any coach or parent reading this, with an increased understanding of the issues can now work on ensuring that the player and their best interests are placed at the heart of all discussions.

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association

May 11, 2016-No standings, no goalkeepers and the boys play with the girls. That’s the concept of the innovative Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL), which was founded and joined the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) in 1978. The CDYSL is a unique league as it has a Coed Division for travel teams with 31 squads competing this spring in the Coed Under-8 Division. When the players graduate to Under-9, they are then split up by gender.

The CDYSL does not have any quota on how many boys or girls players must be on the field in the Coed Division.

“We’ve had all boys teams playing against all girls teams,“ commented CDYSL Operations Director Italo Carcich. “However, most of the coed teams have a mixture of both boys and girls.“

The CDYSL utilizes two small fields next to each other, approximately 30 x 20 yards, and the two coaches split the teams and play two 4 v 4 games with 12 minutes per quarter. The coaches and substitutes stand between the fields. The maximum of 14 players on the roster can be substituted between fields by the same team. So a player could be playing on one field for the first quarter and play on the next field for the second quarter, and so on.

The concept is to have eight players from the roster of 14 playing at the same time, providing them with many touches of the ball.

With no goalkeepers, the CDYSL asks the coaches to move any player in their defensive area away from the goal by about six yards, especially if he/she appears to acting as a goalkeeper. Also, the offside rule is not used.

“When I watch games at this level, all the kids really have a most enjoyable time,” Carcich explained. “They do not care about winning or losing but simply playing the game.“

The games are not results-oriented and participation awards are given to all players at the end of the season. Only two of the 10 other leagues in Eastern New York, the Central New York State Soccer League and the Mid State New York Soccer League, also have a Coed Division.

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.

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association

December 2, 2014-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) utilizes a Club Pass Program.

Subject to the league approval of each registered team, this innovative program allows teams who are short due to injuries or other commitments to add players to their roster. Teams can add players from the same club in the same age group or a younger age group so that games are 11 vs. 11 and no teams have to play short.

The United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) National League and the National Championship Series (State Open Cups) have been using the Club Pass Program for the past several years with success. To prevent abuse of this system, the rules mandate that “a team must demonstrate continuity of rosters between the league and every level of the National Championships competitions by maintaining a minimum of nine players common to the roster of the team at every level of the competition.”

For example, a Girls-Under-17 team would be short for a game this Sunday afternoon due to some players visiting colleges. That team could add players from another Girls-Under-17 team or younger girls teams in the same club.

Also, say a player on a club’s A team playing Division 1 has not developed as much as his teammates and his confidence is low since he’s struggling. If he accepts the chance to play on the B team playing in a lower division, he could score some goals, get his confidence back and be a better player when he returns to Division 1. Or he might enjoy playing more minutes and being a star in a lower division and has the option to stay with the B team.

The Eastern New York Premier League (ENYPL) has used Club Pass for the past two years. A team may utilize up to four players who were on the roster at the start of the season but could regularly play for another team in the same club.

“The Eastern New York Premier League has utilized the Club Pass Program with much success during the past two years as it affords roster flexibility and can be used as a developmental tool,” commented ENYPL Director Steve Padaetz.

The Club Pass Program is available when registering teams on SportsSignup.

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 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.

Michael Winograd and Kyle Martino

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
 
December 6, 2017-The inability of the US Men’s National Team not to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in three decades led to the resignation of former Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League (CJSL) player Bruce Arena as coach of the team. It has also led to a great deal of soul-searching among the soccer community on how we develop players. US Soccer President Sunil Gulati has announced that he will not seek a fourth term for the election this February.

Yet two alumni of the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL), the largest league in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA), have announced their candidacy: Michael Winograd and Kyle Martino. Both support equal treatment for women and removing the financial barriers in youth soccer.

After growing up in Rockville Centre and playing youth soccer for the LIJSL’s Rockville Centre Red Devils, the LIJSL Select Team and Eastern New York ODP, Winograd played professionally in Israel for three years, then served as assistant men’s coach at the University of Richmond. He has been a corporate lawyer and adjunct professor of law in New York City for the past 17 years plus has coached his son and daughter in youth soccer.

As President of US Soccer, Winograd will begin by focusing on five key strategic initiatives:

• Forming and utilizing inclusive, merit-based and transparent advisor committees for critical decisions
• Ensuring equal treatment for women’s soccer
• Taking down cost barriers in youth soccer and coaching education by incentivizing the private sector to help finance development, in addition to tapping into surplus US Soccer funds and public grants
• Rooting out corruption from the youth level up through mandatory audits, grievance procedures, oversight and transparency
• Building upon and expanding uniform policies and guidelines for key aspects of youth player development

Michael said, “I have such fond memories of Rockville Centre and the LIJSL that when I was coaching my son’s town travel team here in Ridgewood, New Jersey, I reached out to friends in Rockville Centre and set up a scrimmage against them so, as I told my son, he could get a taste of what real soccer was. The kids exchanged patches and I then took both teams out to a lunch at Kasey’s, which is owned by a high school friend and teammate. I also took my son’s team to Long Island to play in an indoor tournament in North Babylon run by an old Long Island Select teammate. I still come back every year on Thanksgiving weekend for the RVC Alumni Game at Bralower Field. Feels like those games have been getting shorter and the annual celebration at Kasey’s afterwards longer. I always smile warmly and longingly when I think of my soccer days growing up on Long Island.”

Kyle Martino grew up in Westport, Connecticut but did play in the LIJSL for Huntington Boys Club (HBC) New York United as a teen. He was the MLS Rookie of the Year in 2002, played for the United States as a youth and with the senior National Team and is now best-known as a studio commentator on NBC Sports’ Premier League studio show.

Martino reminisced, “I loved my years with HBC playing under coach Declan McSheffrey. Edson Buddle, Matt Kelly, Chris Wasner et al were my teammates and they were a talented group who always would beat up on me when I played for Connecticut ODP against their powerhouse Eastern New York ODP team. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. One of my favorite two years of my youth, save for the long drive from Westport out there for practice.”

Martino’s website states a Progress Plan based on Transparency, Equality and Progress.

He writes that “As for the first two, anyone who has followed the current US Soccer leadership, the mistreatment of our female athletes, or the financial barriers at the youth level knows what I mean. But I'd like to focus on progress, as it’s the sense of moving backward that I know has so much of the US soccer community feeling lost and upset. When a nation of more than 300 million fails to qualify for the World Cup, it’s not because of a few bad bounces on a less-than-perfect pitch; it’s because of systemic failures across all levels of the game.” 

“As players, coaches, and fans, we deserve better than this, and I will stake my presidency on my ability to deliver. Our challenge is to maintain the Women’s team’s tradition of success while turning around the Men’s team’s recent struggles. If our Men’s National Team fails to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, I will do the right thing and step aside. (I will do the same if we miss the quarterfinals in 2026.) Likewise for the Women, but with a higher standard: the semifinal round in all international tournaments from 2023 on.”

Winograd’s website can be found at https://www.winogradussf.com and Martino’s website is https://www.everyonesgameusa.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 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.

Photo of the original 2003 Shrub Oak Legends, courtesy of Sportography. Rebecca Sitzer is in the middle row on far left.

By Randy Vogt
 
July 25, 2014-You can go home again, especially in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA).
 
At the turn of the millennium, 5-year-old Rebecca Sitzer of Yorktown Heights and a group of friends started playing intramural soccer on the back fields of a nearby elementary school in the Shrub Oak Athletic Club. After she turned eight, Rebecca told her dad Mike that she and her friends wanted to play more competitive soccer. This was at a time when Shrub Oak had 225 kids in intramurals and 70 travel team players. So her father, along with Eugene Burke and Rick Maurno, started the Shrub Oak Legends travel team to play Under-9 within the East Hudson Youth Soccer League (EHYSL).
 
Rebecca also played on the East Hudson Academy teams for two years, refining her skills and playing tournaments with selected players from around the region. Rebecca stayed with the Legends through their Under-14 season. She made the varsity team at Lakeland High School as a freshman, and was captain for two years. At the club level, Rebecca moved on to the Poughkeepsie Hot Shots at Under-15, a Division 1 and Premier team, and played for the Hot Shots for three years.  

But while she was gone, things at Shrub Oak started to change. Travel teams started underneath the Legends in every age group as the soccer program increased in size. The squad directly below Rebecca's had gone premier, and by the time Rebecca was a senior in high school, there were 550 players in Shrub Oak’s intramural program and 300 travel team players and the oldest of the teams was still the Legends. Not only had the name lived on, but in the spring of 2012, as she graduated from Lakeland High School, there were still eight of the players she had played with at Under-12, including two that had been there in the original Under-9 team.
 
Rebecca went to college out of state and did not think much about playing anymore.
 
Dan Kelly, the head coach of the Legends since Under-12, had not only kept the team going after his first captain left the club, but filled the team with some younger players. In 2013, the last of the Under-12 team players graduated from high school, and Dan thought, that although there was still a team, the Legends were done.
 
But Rebecca wasn't done as an original Legend had moved back to Yorktown Heights. She missed soccer and called her former coach in the fall of 2013. Rebecca was turning 19 in November, and both of them thought that with the age difference between her and the youngest players on the team, it might be uncomfortable to come back as a player.  
 
So Rebecca became an assistant coach of the Legends, helped the girls become better players and leaders plus worked with them through the winter and early spring tournament season. But as time wore on, Rebecca ("Mom" to the players) kept stepping on the field more and more in scrimmages. She truly missed the game in her almost two years off from playing.  
 
When tournament season ended, Dan invited her back to play. “Mom” played two regular season games with the now Girls-Under-19 Legends before an injury made her miss the end of the season. Yet she was able to finish her youth playing career on July 19 and 20 at the Hudson Invitational Tournament, right where she started––center midfielder of the Shrub Oak Legends. Rebecca Sitzer had truly come home.

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.

Photo of Rebecca Sitzer dribbling as a Girls-Under-19 Shrub Oak Legend.

Local players and coaches at Flushing Meadows Park

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association

April 24, 2019-You know that the Second Annual Eastern New York Soccer Festival, hosted by the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA), is a big event when three local radio stations decide to broadcast from it. 1280 AM WADO, 96.3 FM La X and 92.7 FM Que Buena will be live from the Festival at Flushing Meadows Park this Saturday, April 27 from 9 am to 2 pm. The fun happens at Fields 8 and 9 on the east side of the park, a short corner kick from the Queens Botanical Garden. 

The Festival will show kids, both boys and girls, all the good things that youth soccer offers to them, including the health benefits, making new friends and learning ideals such as teamwork and sportsmanship. The children and teenagers will be guided through six different skills mini-sessions by Eastern New York’s nationally-licensed coaches. Giveaway items have been donated by Eastern New York sponsors and soccer volunteers will make sure the day goes smoothly. 
 

The inaugural Eastern New York Soccer Festival was held in Newburgh last spring and we are very happy to bring the Festival to Flushing Meadows Park on the park’s 80th anniversary, as it was constructed for the 1939 World’s Fair. The park also hosted the 1964 World’s Fair and a new addition at that time was the now-famous Unisphere. Although the Unisphere was originally commissioned as a tribute to the Space Age, it’s more appropriate today to symbolize Queens’ multiculturalism as it is New York City’s most international borough with nearly half of Queens residents born in 120 countries other than the United States, speaking more than 135 languages at home. The world’s most popular sport, soccer, has found a home in Queens which will be obvious this Saturday.

Admission is free and it will be held rain or shine. For more information, please call Eastern New York at 516-766-0849.    

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 nine 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 onto http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.