By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer 
Association
November 14, 2023-The new President of the Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL), Paul Bascomb, is familiar to many soccer families in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) partly because he was honored as Eastern New York’s Personality of the Month in February 2018. Nearly 7,000 kids have fun playing soccer in the CDYSL.
Paul, a Cobleskill resident, has been involved in soccer nearly his entire life. Amazingly, he went to high school and college in the same town as he played midfield at Cobleskill High School and then at SUNY Cobleskill in the 1970’s. Paul did not play club soccer as his playing career started long before the CDYSL was founded in 1978.
Paul coached his daughter Kelly in the Valley Soccer Club on various teams from 1996 to 2003 while he and his wife Mary Ann’s other child, Katie, played soccer a little but was more into cheerleading.
Paul started refereeing as he wanted “to find another way to stay involved in soccer.” He has refereed in the CDYSL for over a quarter-century, local high school games since around the turn of the millennium and college soccer for nearly 20 years. Paul was on the Board of Directors of the Capital District Referee Association (CD-REF) and was honored as their Referee of the Year in 2008. He has stepped back from the referee org’s Board of Directors.
“We have some outstanding young members on the Board and I’m still involved with the Mentoring Program,” Paul explained.
Prior to becoming CDYSL President, perhaps Paul’s biggest contribution to local youth soccer had been volunteering as President of the Valley Soccer Club for nearly two decades. He became involved in the construction of the Valley Soccer Complex, with three large fields and two small-sided fields. Paul personally maintained the fields, mowed and aerated them plus bush-hogged the perimeter so the kids of the Valley Soccer Club could have good grass fields to play on.
Paul volunteered on the CDYSL Executive Committee and served for over a decade as Chairperson of the Games Committee, a huge task whose responsibilities include ensuring that the league’s games go smoothly every weekend during the spring and fall. He stepped aside as Chairperson of the Games Committee to concentrate on his new role as CDYSL President.
“I took a very roundabout way of getting here as I was inducted into the CDYSL Hall of Fame before I became President,” he said.
Paul explained that he has two goals:
1. He would like to see what the CDYSL can do to encourage local Premier/Division 1 and 2 teams to stay and play home. In the different leagues, he said that it seems the local teams wind up playing each other anyway and other teams don’t like to travel up here, so why not stay home and play some “Limited Play” games in a separate league that we could establish?
2. He's looking into the feasibility of establishing a “Club Roster” for the lower division teams that would essentially eliminate a “Guest Players” roster. This would allow the smaller clubs/teams the ability to move players around easily without more paperwork for them and the CDYSL office while still recognizing the age groups and division eligibility.
With these changes, he’s hoping to increase the number of teams and players within the CDYSL.