Boys soccer: Return of summer league is another step toward a normal season

MIKE DOUGHERTY | ROCKLAND/WESTCHESTER JOURNAL NEWS | 3 hours ago

SHRUB OAK – A year ago, Ross Eagle was at home working out with teammates online.

It was something to do in the midst of a pandemic.

“We did a bunch of training sessions via Zoom,” the senior forward said. “All of us were doing our jobs, doing what we had to do in order to be prepared for a season. Especially given the circumstances, it was important to come out stronger and faster than all the other teams.”

Byram Hills senior Ross Eagle (right) was back participating in the Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League on July 13, 2021. A year ago, the Bobcats were limited to doing home workouts via Zoom due to the ongoing pandemic.
Byram Hills senior Ross Eagle (right) was back participating in the Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League on July 13, 2021. A year ago, the Bobcats were limited to doing home workouts via Zoom due to the ongoing pandemic.
MIKE DOUGHERTY/THE JOURNAL NEWS
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The Bobcats were impressive start to finish and claimed a regional title before they were done.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was something.

Byram Hills is back to a more familiar process this summer along with 14 other teams from across Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess that are participating in the Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League.

This feels more like normal.

“It’s a lot of fun being out there with the guys,” Eagle said after playing Briarcliff to a 1-1 draw on a sticky Tuesday evening. “Obviously, it’s quite a change from what we were doing a year ago. It’s really fun to be running around, playing again. It feels good to be back to this. Summer league is a great way to get ready for the season, get everyone familiar with the physicality and pace of play. We’re lucky to have this.”

Lakeland boys soccer coach Tim Hourahan started the summer league in 2007 with four teams. With two turf fields on campus, the league expanded this season to 15 teams.
Lakeland boys soccer coach Tim Hourahan started the summer league in 2007 with four teams. With two turf fields on campus, the league expanded this season to 15 teams.
MIKE DOUGHERTY/THE JOURNAL NEWS
The league is the brainchild of longtime Hornets coach Tim Hourahan.

“We started in 2007 with four teams,” he said. “The only other summer league around was the Lakeland field hockey league. Sharon Sarsen has been my idol since I started coaching and she is the one who suggested I get something like this going so I banged a bunch of ideas off her and here we are.”

Games are 50 minutes, played with running time.

“The scoreboard is on. The refs are here. The lights are on. The music is playing,” Hourahan added. “It’s pretty intense, but this is about getting ready for the fall.”

And with the state removing COVID-19 protocols for outdoor sports, the masks are gone.

“This is way better,” John Jay-East Fishkill central midfielder Zach Rabadi said. “We’re out here without masks and we can sit next to each other without the social distancing on the bench. We’re getting the chemistry back. This is as close to normal as I’ve been since the start of the pandemic and it feels great, obviously. It’s like a warm-up before the season for us so I love this.”

Rye and Harrison were hardly in midseason form, but summer league is giving the rivals a chance to build chemistry and knowledge before the first day of practice August 23. The Garnets won 2-0 on goals from Charlie O’Rourke and Peter Nemeth on July 13, 2021 at Lakeland High School.
Rye and Harrison were hardly in midseason form, but summer league is giving the rivals a chance to build chemistry and knowledge before the first day of practice August 23. The Garnets won 2-0 on goals from Charlie O’Rourke and Peter Nemeth on July 13, 2021 at Lakeland High School.
MIKE DOUGHERTY/THE JOURNAL NEWS
It’s an opportunity for coaches to do some advance work before official practices begin August 23. The players are free to come and go, so the league doesn’t interfere with summer vacations or commitments to club teams.

There’s a lot of teaching on the fly.

“It’s going to be sloppy, guys,” Briarcliff coach Brandon Beck yelled from the sideline. “It’s fine. Just keep fixing it.”

And that’s kind of the point here.

“We’ve talked about it a lot,” Hourahan said. “Just being able to play soccer last fall was fantastic, but it wasn’t the same without all of the normal stuff that happens in the summer. Now it feels real again. A lot of the conditioning and bonding you see, all that starts right here.”

The games are done in a hour, but the intensity and pace are high at the Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League. John Jay-East Fishkill (blue) and John Jay-Cross River (pink) played to a 2-2 tie on July 13, 2021 at Lakeland High School.
The games are done in a hour, but the intensity and pace are high at the Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League. John Jay-East Fishkill (blue) and John Jay-Cross River (pink) played to a 2-2 tie on July 13, 2021 at Lakeland High School.
MIKE DOUGHERTY/THE JOURNAL NEWS
There is no shortage of highly competitive teams here and several teams are likely to bump heads in the fall. And the level of play climbs when the summer league playoffs get under way. The semifinals and championship are scheduled for July 30.

“It’s great to get out here and build chemistry with our teams before the start of the season. That’s something that was missing last year,” Rye center back Jack Forman said. “The momentum that comes from winning games together and sharing that feeling is so important. We’ve seen how that success in summer league translates. You come out here, you learn about each other, you win and you get the feeling that you can do something that carries over and gives you a good feeling going into the fall.”

Lakeland Boys Soccer Summer League
Teams and Standings

Through July 13

Rye 4-1-2

Byram Hills 4-1-2

Yorktown 4-0-1

Somers 4-2

Eastchester 4-1

Lakeland 3-1-2

John Jay-East Fishkill 2-3-1

Harrison 2-2-1

Panas 2-2-1

Ketcham 2-2

John Jay-Cross River 1-2-1

Valhalla 1-4

Briarcliff 0-3-2

Putnam Valley 0-4-1

Brewster 0-5

Boys Soccer: Lakeland Summer League Is Back
By MIKE SABINI

SHRUB OAK, N.Y. – After not being able to play last summer because of the pandemic, the Lakeland Boys Summer Soccer League is back in action for its 14th season.

The league was founded by Lakeland coach Tim Hourahan in 2007. It started with four teams: Lakeland, Mahopac, Hendrick Hudson, and Putnam Valley, playing one game a week for four weeks.

A year later, Yorktown and Walter Panas were added.

For the last five years or so, the league has consisted of 10 teams playing twice a week for a nine-game, round-robin schedule before the playoffs.

“Last summer, I had made the decision to move it to 12 teams, but the pandemic had shut all sports down,” Hourahan said. “When I was preparing to get the league back up and running in 2021, I had an outpouring of programs looking to play this summer. So, we now have 15 teams competing, playing two or three games a week for the next six weeks.”

John Jay-East Fishkill, Roy C. Ketcham, Yorktown, Byram Hills, Panas, Lakeland, Rye, Harrison, Eastchester, Briarcliff, Somers, Putnam Valley, Brewster, Valhalla, and John Jay-Cross River are the teams in the league this summer, with all games being played at Lakeland High School.

Hourahan credits 13-time state champion, Lakeland field hockey coach Sharon Sarsen, for giving him the idea of having a summer league.

“She had an established field hockey summer league for many years and I had just decided that we had nothing like it for high-school soccer and that it was time to get something together,” Hourahan said. “I asked her a zillion questions on what I needed to do and how to run a proper league.”

The league has had an effect on schools all over Section 1 and beyond.

“We started small and now it has exploded,” Hourahan said. “Fifteen teams is just more than 20 percent of all Section 1 soccer teams. It is amazing. This boys soccer league has now even spurned off a boys league down in Rockland over the past few summers. Even a few coaches up in Section 9 at Goshen and Cornwall have reached out to speak on what to do and they are putting together a 7v7 league this summer for teams up there. And there is also a girls summer league run by the Lakeland girls coach (Shawn Sullivan) at Granite Knolls Park this summer.”

Hourahan said many teams that participate in the summer league go on to achieve success in the traditional high-school fall season.

“Of the 12 teams playing over the past decade or so, six of those programs went on to win a sectional title the fall after playing in the summer league: Briarcliff, Byram Hills, Lakeland, Rye, Somers and Yorktown,” Hourahan said. “We even had a Somers team capture a state title in 2016. There is something to be said for teams getting extra opportunities to play together, to help bring along the players rising up from JV, to get game action to work on formations and moving players into different positions on the field. All of it has been so beneficial for me and I think all the other coaches feel the same way.”

On July 13, the league is going to have games at both the stadium field and top field. The latter is the multi-purpose field that Lakeland’s baseball team calls home in the spring.

“Lakeland is such a beautiful campus and our administration had done an incredible job bringing these facilities to the level they are at now,” Hourahan said. “All of our coaches at Lakeland do a tremendous job working together to share these all-purpose fields. We are all so lucky to be able to have the opportunity to coach in a district with such great fields.”

Yorktown, which won its league title last fall, started its summer-league campaign with a 2-0 victory against Briarcliff on Sunday, June 20, led by Derek Beloff-Davis (2 goals) and Vicente Lyon (3 saves).

Lakeland started the same night, tying Rye, 0-0, with the Hornets’ Chris Ciraco making 3 saves.

Jordan Fein, (class of 2017) 4 year Varsity starter and 2x captain signs with Hudson Valley Hammers

Hudson Valley College ID Camp a Success

By MIKE SABINI
December 26, 2020

SHRUB OAK, N.Y. – It was months after it was originally scheduled for in the summer, and at a different location, but the wait was well worth it for those participants in the third annual Hudson Valley College ID Camp.

The camp was held Dec. 12-13 at Mamaroneck High School, drawing 70 players and 27 college coaches.

The camp actually had more than 100 players registered for it, but because of COVID-19 rules, it had to limit the participants on campus, according to its director and founder, Lakeland coach Tim Hourahan.

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Mamaroneck coach Rick Becker and Somers coach Brian Lanzetta assisted Hourahan with the running of the camp.

“As for the college coach turnout, I could not be more grateful to the coaches who came on campus,” Hourahan said. “That is a big draw of this event, having these college coaches in the bleachers and down on the field, watching the boys.”

The camp had more than 40 colleges in the summer of 2019 at Lakeland, but this winter there is still a ban on Division 1 schools attending events like this by the NCAA, and there were many other college coaches who have attended in previous years who were not allowed to travel.

“So, still to have 27 programs on site over two days was just an amazing opportunity for our players, and I know there are dozens of kids that have already been contacted this week from coaches,” Hourahan said.

Speaking to the campers was 2017 Lakeland graduate and current Plattsburgh standout, Jordan Fein.

“For this past weekend, I reached out to Jordan and asked him if he wouldn’t mind to come speak to all the Hudson Valley prospects on the differences between high school and college soccer, what practice sessions, and road trips look like, and even what college class requirements may look like,” Hourahan said. “Not only did my man ‘J Fein’ come prepared with notes and talking points to go over, I then asked him if he wouldn’t mind to take on some questions our prospects may have. He was just so well spoken and personable, to our players, that it was a great addition to this ID camp.

“I think bringing in alumni Hudson Valley camp players to speak about what their recruiting process was like will certainly be a part of this program going forward now,” Hourahan added.

The camp usually has a one-hour portion on each ID camp day to bring in college coaches and their staffs to run practice sessions. This gets the players a great feel of what a college soccer practice will look like in the fall, Hourahan said.

“However, what college coaches really want to see is players playing, not practicing; so while that aspect is great for the players, we really just wanted to showcase our guys as much as possible over two days for the college coaches, to recruit,” Hourahan said. “So, we got rid of the one-hour training session, and we had 60 minutes of 6v6 small-sided games and just about three hours per day of 11v11 full-sided.”

On the camp’s second day, it concluded with a senior vs. senior game, as well as a ’21s vs. ’22s all-star game, pitting the top juniors against the top seniors in the camp.

Hourahan said he is thankful to Mamaroneck and its administration for allowing use of its field, but added that he looks forward to bringing the camp back to Lakeland this upcoming July.

“We now have two full-sized soccer fields on campus, and even a third turf field we could use for small-sided games,” Hourahan said. “So, this summer, as we continue to grow this brand, we will be looking at more than 100 athletes easy, and the fourth annual Hudson Valley College ID camp will be the biggest one to date, as we continue to draw top players not only from Section 1 and Section 9, but now even players from Long Island and Albany look to be in the mix this summer.”

While the camp may be over, the work isn’t.

“I will continue to talk to college coaches over the next few months on our graduating seniors, as well as posting highlight videos of our players, in helping them find a college-roster spot,” Hourahan said.

Boys soccer: Hudson Valley College I.D. Camp provides a chance to see and be seen
Mike Dougherty
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Time and attention are hard to come by in a pandemic.

A number of restrictions continue to impact the recruiting process, but nearly 30 coaches from men’s soccer programs within driving distance of Mamaroneck High School spent part of the weekend in the bleachers evaluating hopefuls from Section 1 and Section 9.

There were 70 players from the region on hand for the Hudson Valley College I.D. Camp, working to make an impression.

“It’s definitely important to be here,” Byram Hills senior midfielder Bailey Goldstein said. “Plus it’s a chance to play a bunch of different positions against a bunch of kids I haven’t played against before. It definitely raises the morale. It was a bummer we couldn’t have done this earlier, but I’m glad to be part of this. It’s probably a little bit late for me, but I am looking to playing in college so whatever opportunity I get, I’m going to do everything I can.”

The camp is typically held over three days in July, but was postponed by the COVID-19 shutdown.

It’s a venture coordinated by Lakeland coach Tim Hourahan, Somers coach Brian Lanzetta and Mamaroneck coach Rich Becker.

Field closures forced a last-minute site change.

“It was a scramble,” said Hourahan. “Thank God for Mamaroneck. We usually have college coaches on the field running parts of the camp, but they wanted to see the kids play as much as possible, so we changed up a little.”

High School soccer players from throughout the Hudson Valley scrimmage during the 2020 Hudson Valley College ID Soccer Camp at Mamaroneck High School Dec. 13, 2020. College coaches were on hand to watch the high school soccer prospects during the two day showcase.

A chance to be seen at full speed inspired prospects from Albany to Long Island to reach out for information on the camp. Organizers turned 30 players away.

With seniors coming back to play a lost season, college coaches are being selective.

“That impacts how many spots we have to offer the kids,” Plattsburgh State coach Chris Taylor said. “We don’t have many spots to fill so it’s going to be a smaller recruiting class, which allows us to be pickier and maybe a bit more deliberate.”

A number of coaches are not allowed to be on the road yet.

“Early on, there were a lot of restrictions and there wasn’t much soccer to watch,” Taylor said. “It’s been difficult. We’ve looked at a lot of video and talked with a lot of coaches trying to do it that way so it’s been really different.”

Hourahan is providing updates to recruiters stranded by the pandemic.

“Some of them have asked for video and I’ll reach and let them know who had a good weekend,” he said. “It’s been a long spring, summer and fall for all of these kids, so just to have a weekend like this is magical. If nothing else, it’s a chance to compete with a lot of like-minded players.”

After warming up with short-field games on Sunday, the seniors got 35 minutes to go end-to-end.

“This is really important for a player like me,” said Alexander Hamilton midfielder Andy Cespedes. “It’s great exposure for each player and we have a lot of talent here, so it’s great for the colleges, too. I just try to be the best team player I can be. I fight for every ball and play simple soccer. That’s pretty much all you can do.”

High School soccer players from throughout the Hudson Valley scrimmage during the 2020 Hudson Valley College ID Soccer Camp at Mamaroneck High School Dec. 13, 2020. College coaches were on hand to watch the high school soccer prospects during the two day showcase.
It’s getting late in the game for seniors who have not found a roster spot yet.

“For sure,” Cespedes said. “I’ve been really anxious. I’m blessed to have one offer, but it’s been a stressful time. I was concerned I wasn’t going to be able to play in college, but my hopes are up and I’ll keep training hard.”

Next came the juniors, who also got 35 minutes to go back and forth.

“I really wanted to get back out there,” said Brendan Cunningham, a goalie at Minisink Valley, which did not play this fall. “It was really hard, sitting at home doing nothing. I’ve been working out and this is really helpful. It’s a place to get noticed, to show what we can do. Playing in college is a huge goal for me, but I still have another year to go so there is a little more time to find options.”

The level of talent in Section 1 has been rising in recent years. And with teams having more and more success in the postseason, colleges are taking notice.

“For me, this has always been a fertile ground,” Taylor said. “Over the last few years, I’ve gotten probably eight players who came from this showcase. This has been a really brilliant opportunity to see the kids up close.”