Tuesday night’s rainfall didn’t discourage the members of the West New York recreation soccer league from practicing at Memorial Field on Broadway.
In fact, according to West New York Commissioner Sal Vega, who is also the athletic director for Memorial High School, it is the popularity of the recreation soccer program that sparked interest in a girls’ soccer team at Memorial High School.
Vega said that the high school will start the girls’ team this year at the high school. Memorial has had a boys’ soccer team since the 1970s.
Growing in popularity
There may be enough girls interested in soccer to begin a girls’ soccer team at Memorial High School, but with the recreation league, the girls still have to play with the boys.
“We have girls of various age groups on our teams,” said Dennis DeSocio, the director of West New York’s Recreation program. “But we don’t have enough girls to create a girls league. We might have enough [girls] to form an [all-girls] team in each age group, but not a whole league.”
“The sport has grown so much,” said Tito Pallarez, the coordinator for the recreation department. “We have a lot of girls playing on the boys’ teams.”
The recreation department now has five boys’ traveling teams that play throughout New Jersey, for boys ages 8 through 18. They also have in-house recreation programs for both boys and girls ages 5 through 18.
“I think a girls’ team would do very well,” said Gus Ochoa, the volunteer director of the recreation soccer program. “Based on the way the girls train and like the sport. We have girls playing with the boys now. That is how good they are.”
According to Pedro Rosero, one of the recreation team coaches, one of the best players in the recreation league is a girl.
Much of the program’s success is also due to the quality coaching staff that the recreation league has.
Many of the coaches in the recreation leagues have played soccer their whole lives in their countries.
Ochoa was a semi-professional player in Ecuador and Jorge Rosero, one of the team coaches, also played professional soccer for Ecuador.
“I pass everything I know along to the kids,” said Ochoa, who runs the league with his wife Sophia.
New lights
According to Vega, there are already more than 50 girls interested in the sport at Memorial.
“We will be able to start off with a varsity and junior varsity team.”
However, right now, the Centennial Field in West New York at Port Imperial, the new soccer field on River Road, has no lighting, forcing the teams to end practice early.
At a special meeting on July 22, the Board of Commissioners approved a resolution allowing the town to re-advertise for bids on lighting. The new deadline for receiving bids is Aug. 19 at 10 a.m.
“The new lights will give the teams the ability to practice into the late evening,” said Vega.
“Right now that field has no lights,” said West New York Mayor Albio Sires after the meeting. “This is something that is sorely needed.”
Centennial Field was built by Roseland Property Inc., the development company based out of Short Hills that is a main developer of the West New York waterfront.
This facility was part of an agreement made between Roseland and the town to build a recreational facility for the town’s soccer program.
Also as part of Roseland’s agreement with the town, Roseland has to fund a series of community development projects throughout West New York.
Besides the soccer field, Roseland also built the $650,000 fountain on the corner of 60th Street and Boulevard East in Donnelly Park, and they made the renovations to the town’s Little League Field on Broadway. As part of those renovations, Roseland replaced the fencing, added new lighting and built a new club house.
Roseland also agreed to donate $4,000 to the town’s affordable housing trust fund for each unit built on the waterfront at market value. $1.2 million of that money was used to help fund the three-site affordable housing project currently underway in West New York.