Come Play With Me! LIJSL TOPSoccer Spring Season to Kick Off in April
New York Youth Soccer News: The LIJSL has 28 clubs with TOPSoccer Programs
Although New York has experienced three snowy Nor’easters this month, the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) TOPSoccer Committee is busily preparing for the Spring Season which will kick off in April after Easter and Passover and also after all the snow clears. The program has grown by leaps and bounds since the Huntington Boys Club (HBC) and Massapequa Soccer Club separately kicked off programs 40 years ago, back in 1978. Those LIJSL clubs started the first soccer program ever for children with special needs, not only in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) but in the entire world.
TOPSoccer stands for The Outreach Program for Soccer, an innovative program run by volunteers, which provides a safe and fun environment plus an opportunity for the child who deviates from the average kid in mental, physical or social characteristics and requires modified educational practices and services in order to develop to his or her potential. Using the slogan of “Come Play With Me,” today there are 28 LIJSL clubs with TOPSoccer Programs stretching from Queens to the East End of Long Island:
“Our TOPSoccer players are the nicest and most loyal people that you will ever meet,” commented LIJSL TOPSoccer Program Chairperson Ann Marie Toth.
Andy and Marlene Kasman of the Commack Youth Soccer League, honored by Eastern New York as our January Personalities of the Month, also recently received the 2018 Marg McGory Award at the LIJSL Convention on March 9. The award is for a person(s) who makes a huge difference in the LIJSL TOPSoccer Program.
The two highlights of the Spring Season are the 3rd Annual Commack TOPSoccer Festival on Saturday, April 28 at the Burr Intermediate School and the LIJSL TOPSoccer Tournament and Barbecue on Saturday, June 2 at Plainview’s Peter Collins Soccer Park, where TOPSoccer has been playing since the 1980’s. Both big events kick off at 9 am.
For more info or to register your child for the LIJSL TOPSoccer Special Children’s Program, please call Ann Marie Toth at 516-694-3567.
Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association: 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) reaches 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.
