Lisa Reisman photos
Doug Rae with Dave Rodriguez of CT Junior Soccer Association ...
... at Saturday's dedication ceremony in East Shore Park.
A spirited group of 75 gathered on the edge of the East Shore Park soccer fields on a sunny, wind-swept Saturday morning for a dedication ceremony honoring Doug Rae — who founded New Haven Youth Soccer in the early 1980s with a vision that “players from all backgrounds can develop as members of the community through mentoring, teamwork, and friendship.”
“New Haven Youth Soccer is a joyful thing, and the world is a little short on joyful things just now,” said Rae, a professor emeritus at the Yale School of Management, the author of City: Urbanism and its End, a former top city official in Mayor John C. Daniels’s administration, and a longtime youth soccer advocate. “It’s a place where people have a lot of fun, learn to cooperate, learn to get over small insults, and learn to recover from injury.”
He thanked, among many others, NHYS coaching director Todd Hill, a former player who “has had blood, sweat, and tears pour out of him for this organization”; the “irrepressible” Gigi Garafano, an early member; and former Mayor John DeStefano for his long-time support, as well as legendary players John Vigliotti, Karen Rodriguez, and Vinnie Supa.
“The real founders were the players,” he said, amid the thock of a soccer ball and a shout from a nearby field. “The distinctive quality of the soccer that was played in the ‘80s and ‘90s defined the club going forward.”
He also reminisced on his early days of working to expand youth soccer through New Haven in the early 1980s, when he called on Sylvia Hare, a phys ed teacher at Winchester School, for help.
“She said ‘I can help,’ and she signed up maybe 50 kids from that neighborhood,” he said. “She was unbelievably important in balancing the club so it felt like it was the whole city’s club, not just one neighborhood or one nationality.”
Saturday’s ceremony included the announcement of a $50,000 donation to the New Haven Youth Soccer organization from the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation Sports Matter Program, which helps under-resourced community teams provide opportunities for youth to play sports. Plans include lining the walkways with bricks to honor legendary players, as well as buying a shipping container to store nets and equipment, according to board member Michael Galbicsek.
Gathering at the Doug Rae Youth Soccer Complex.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa was among those celebrating the dedication. “Being a soccer mom to three boys who grew up with New Haven Youth Soccer and continue to play through high school and college, it’s amazing what this little black and white ball does to bring kids together from various backgrounds,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where you live, who you are, it’s beautiful to see youth come together over this ball.”
NHYS Recreation Director Nicole Rodriguez-Vega, who’s also a coach, sounded a similar refrain. When her daughter Dariana Crudup took to soccer at age five, Rodriguez taught herself the sport so she could teach her daughter, then ended up teaching “a whole bunch of kids,” she said.
“There’s a lot of children that are coming from far away, there are refugees, they arrive in New Haven and we take them in with open arms, we give them a home,” she said, as a gull cawed in the sea-salt air drifting from Lighthouse Park. “Some of our coaches are learning Spanish, Italian, Russian, just so we can talk with these kids.”
The goal, she said, “is to teach them not only how to play soccer but how to be part of a team, and on top of being part of a team, what is going to help them become successful as a person.”
Above all, though, “they’re playing together and they’re having fun, and that’s what we’re all about.”