Carmine Pisacreta
History
Eastchester Youth Soccer was formed in 1976 and began functioning in the Fall of 1977.
The league was the creation of Carmine Pisacreta who
desired to bring to the community the sport he played and loved in his native Italy. He banded together a
group of friends, relatives and neighbors and formed the Eastchester Soccer Club as the parent organization
and the Eastchester Youth Soccer Association, EYSA, as the operating entity.
Every Sunday afternoon that fall, Carmine brought his bag of eight soccer balls, donated by the Town of
Eastchester's Recreation Department, along with some broomsticks and strings for goals posts, and pinnies
of different colors to distinguish among the choose-up teams. We played on the Eastchester Middle School
field — still years away from becoming "the soccer field." By the end of the first season, 72 players signed up.
The hand-written mailing list barely filled two pages.
In the spring of 1978, we were up to twelve teams. Six teams of 10-year-olds and up played in the Westchester
Youth Soccer League, a newly formed travel team league, while six younger teams played amongst themselves in
our recreation league. Girls made up at most 10% of the players, certainly not enough to form all-girls teams.
That was still 10 years away.
The league continues to grow. There are now 1500 players and over 100 teams! Almost half of all youngsters 5
through 14-years old in Eastchester, Bronxville and Tuckahoe play soccer. There are over twenty travel teams for
players who wish to compete at a higher level. The recreation program with its three divisions, each has
boys and girls teams. Both the travel and rec programs play a split season, September through November, and
April through early June. In the rec league, no standings are kept; there are neither individual statistics
nor honors. This formula has worked since 1978. Girls make up over 40% of participants.
The governing body is composed of the Officers (the Executive Board) and the Board of Directors. The 10-member
Board of Directors deals with matters of policy, strategy and finance. Traditionally, the Executive Board
and the Directors meet jointly. There is also a Senior Lifetime Board of Directors, composed of individuals
who have served for many years; they attend and participate in matters, but no longer have voting power.
The official name of the Eastchester Youth Soccer Association (EYSA for short) is the Eastchester Soccer Club;
we are a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation. We are affiliated with the Westchester Youth Soccer League
(which is the umbrella league for our travel teams), with Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association,
with the United States Soccer Federation. We operate under the auspices of the Recreation Department
of the Town of Eastchester, who, among other things, provides fields for the program and marks and
maintains them.