East Meadow Soccer Club gears up for Aug. 28-29 tourney

The East Meadow Soccer Club is gearing up for the 32nd annual East Meadow Soccer Tournament, sponsored by the Westbury-based Covanta Energy. It one of the largest and oldest soccer competitions in the Northeast. This year, the club is expecting more than 400 teams to attend, with a number of squads from as far as Canada already signed up.

The event is scheduled for Aug. 28-29.

Steve Epstein, the club's executive vice president, is now in his sixth year as the East Meadow Soccer Tournament director. Epstein said a committee comprising 30 parent volunteers began working on plans for the competition last October. In August, 300 to 500 parent volunteers will run the tournament, which will take place on 60 fields at 15 different sites, including the Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale, the Bethpage State Park polo fields and Soccer Park in Plainview.

The tournament, Epstein said, "is a great example of families coming together to volunteer their time, and time is a precious commodity. They volunteer their time for a greater cause."

Epstein said the tournament committee selects only competition sites with quality fields, and it works hard to ensure that players and parents are not left waiting for long periods of time between games. In most cases, he said, teams play a game, are off the field for a game, and then return to playing.

Epstein said the tournament offers teams the opportunity to play in a well-established competition before the fall soccer season begins. "Most importantly," he said, "it is Long Island teams' kickoff, their tune-up, before the season starts."

He added that the tournament is "the bedrock of our reputation as a club and a demonstration to the community that we can, as a volunteer organization, pull together the resources of our membership to host a tournament of this magnitude."

All funds raised at the tournament are returned to EMSC teams to help defray training costs. The Westbury-based Covanta Energy is the tournament's principal sponsor. Astoria Federal Savings is another important sponsor. Epstein said that any business interested in sponsoring the competition can e-mail him at emscvp@aol.com.

"Every year we get high marks for the professionalism of the tournament, and yet we're a volunteer organization," Epstein said.

Sign up for the competition at the East Meadow Soccer Club website at eastmeadowsoccer.com or covantatournament.com. The tournament, Epstein added, is especially popular with South Shore soccer clubs.

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