Staten Island Youth Soccer League kicking off this weekend

(Via ENYYSA) – It’s a question that confronts all of the 11 member leagues of the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA): When will the spring weather be conducive for switching from indoor soccer to the great outdoors? Generally, the Downstate leagues start playing outdoors in March while Upstate leagues kick off their Spring Season in April.

For the Staten Island Youth Soccer League (SIYSL), the southernmost league in Eastern New York, the innovative solution this year was playing both indoor and outdoor tournaments in March before Easter with the Spring Season kicking off outdoors this weekend, April 2 and 3. A total of 312 teams – 175 boys squads and 137 girls teams – will be playing in the SIYSL this spring.

“Our Spring Season has been starting at the end of March or very early April, and our teams often don’t get many touches prior to their first few games. These two tournaments help fire up interest in soccer after the winter lay-off in addition to serving as the first practices for some teams,” explained SIYSL President Bill Smith.

Over 80 youth soccer teams played in the March Madness Indoor Tournament the first three weekends of the month at the Petrides High School gymnasium.

“We’d like to thank the Petrides Soccer Club and their Director, Dan D’Alessandro, for hosting and running the tournament this year,” commented March Madness Tournament Chairman Rich Nellis. “Dan was able to add a new wrinkle this year as our Under-10s and Under-12s had an additional 3 v 3 tournament to play in as well.”

“The indoor tournament, playing 6 v 6, enables the kids to focus on getting touches and getting acclimated to soccer again. With the addition of the 3 v 3 brackets, we had the kids playing more than two hours of non-stop soccer,” D’Alessandro explained. “It also develops skills such as throw-ins for Under-10 and younger as every ball crossing the touch line or goal line results in a throw-in. It is a skill that not many are able to incorporate into practice.”

During March Madness, all participants received a T-Shirt with the league and tournament logos plus first and second place prizes were also awarded to teams in the competitive divisions. Recreational divisions saw all players receive medals for their participation.

The President’s Cup had its return after a three-year hiatus with four Boys-Under-12 and four Girls-Under-12 teams playing at Owl Hollow Fields on March 12 and 19.

“One of the major reasons for the hiatus of this tournament was finding the right time to have it. Now we have field availability in March thanks to our partnership with New York City Parks, giving us the Owl Hollow Fields so early in the spring,” explained President’s Cup Chairperson Anthony Pisciottano. “This will now become a permanent fixture in mid-March and hopefully it will get bigger and bigger each year. We thank the teams for their support and a big thank you to Anthony Mauriello from St. Joseph/St. Thomas and Tom Mazza from St. John Neumann for their roles in organizing the tournament.”

After three pool games, each team entered into a playoff bracket. The boys division saw the St. Joseph/St. Thomas Redbulls defeat the Holy Child Cruziero in the final game in the second overtime, 2-1. EJ Bradley had two goals including the game winner in the last minute of overtime. Marco Carlino stood out in goal for the Redbulls.

In the girls division, the Our Lady Star of the Sea Starfish defeated the Petrides Panthers, 4-1, in the final game. Gabriella Esposito tallied eight goals throughout the day while teammates Stephanie Bruno and Jamie Strahm excelled in goal.