Press Release

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

September 30, 2025-The Math is very easy. Only one team can win a soccer game but both teams should be having fun. Only one team can win a game but both teams should be learning fundamentals.

Competition, like money, has both good and bad sides to it. If you overemphasize getting more and more material possessions and showing off all your stuff with no regard to others’ financial situations, then you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

If you overemphasize winning without paying any attention to having fun and respecting others, then you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. If the only aspect of having fun playing soccer is when your team wins, then there will obviously be issues when the team loses.

My vantage point as a referee in the middle of the field can be quite illuminating. Soccer is a low-scoring sport but when the number of goals scored during a game exceeds five, youth players at all ages (believe it or not!) start to lose track of the score. Unfortunately, their parents on the touchlines seem to be much more aware of the score and I have heard comments like, “Your team is losing by a goal,” toward the end of the game.

Being too competitive results in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) losing refs as most quit in their first two years with verbal abuse from kids’ parents being the number one reason for quitting. Think about that before the next time that you yell at a ref.

Being too competitive results in injuries, some of them quite serious. The nosebleeds and tummy aches in pee-wee soccer at age 7 where no standings are kept become the broken noses and torn ACL’s at age 14 from overcompetition and overuse. After all, when was the last time that you heard about an 8-year-old being seriously hurt in a game? I wish that we could say the same about teenagers. Look at any roster during the current high school season being played and you will probably spot at least one player who is out for the season due to injury.

The Math is very easy.

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 10 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 US Youth Soccer. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/

By Pat Grecco

September 18, 2025-Lionel Messi is a superstar in every sense of the word and one of the greatest players of all-time. Born in Rosario, Argentina in 1987, he is the consummate number #10 for every team he has played on. 

Messi grew up in a middle-class level family, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. They were a tight-knit, soccer-loving family. His first team at age seven was with Newell’s Old Boys, based in his hometown of Rosario. During his six years with Newell’s Old Boys, he scored almost 500 goals! His future as a professional player was threatened when, at aged 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency and began growth hormone therapy at age 11. Challenges continued when his father’s health insurance covered only two years of therapy, which cost at least 1,000 pesos per month.  

Negative remarks about Messi were that he was “too small, too fragile” but soon it was realized he was a phenomenon and he would be something special. He signed his first contract with Barcelona at 13 years old and by the age of 17, Messi was playing for Barcelona’s first team. 

While some say he is the greatest player of all-time, I am not going to get into that debate but would like to examine how different his life might have been if he grew up today in the United States instead.

Would Messi’s family have been able to afford American pay-to-play clubs? As a parent who had three children in travel soccer in the late 1970’s through 1990’s, the cost to our family was minimal. I’m not certain that Messi’s family could afford to pay for him to play nowadays in the USA, especially with the medical expenses they were incurring.  

Are we missing out on talented players because their families cannot afford pay-to-play club teams? Should American youth soccer programs be aware of financial needs of players and make accommodations for them? We must take a good hard look at youth soccer in the USA, not as just a business but as an investment in our future soccer players, men and women.

And also, Messi is small and likes to dribble while many college coaches look for big players who can withstand the physical demands of college soccer and who play one- or two-touch. How many college coaches would have recruited him based on his considerable talent, even though their preference might be to play a very different style? Would our coaches here think he is “too small, too fragile” just as some coaches back in Argentina once thought way back when?

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 10 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. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/

Pat Grecco is an Eastern New York and Long Island Junior Soccer League Hall of Famer who is CEO of the College-Bound Athlete Scholarship Service. For more info, log on to www.collegeboundathlete.com or contact Pat directly at soccervol@aol.com