Staying sharp on the soccer pitch

New H.S. girls summer league off to successful start

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The Town of Hempstead girls’ soccer summer league has served as a tremendous outlet for high school athletes for more than two decades and continues to do so as teams try to set the tone for a strong regular season.

However, this year there’s been a branching off with the establishment of the Nassau County High School Coaches Association Summer League. It features 14 teams from a dozen districts and kicked off during the last week of June with games at Bellmore-JFK’s turf and grass fields.

“It’s been great so far,” said West Hempstead coach Mike Scaturro, who along with Mepham’s Janine Bizelia poured the foundation for the new league, which offers a few twists. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from coaches and the kids,” he added. “The only glitch so far has been rescheduling a rainout.”

Games consist of two 25-minute halves and are played on a shortened field with a slightly different lineup of 7 field players on each side plus goalkeepers. “It’s a quicker game,” Scaturro said. “Just like any summer league, it allows the kids to continue to improve their fitness and skill levels and bring that into the fall season.”

The playoffs will be held Aug. 8 and 10 with each of the 14 teams participating in 30-minute games. The top three teams from each of two divisions will play a 6-team tournament on the 8th, while the remaining eight squads will play a tournament on the 10th.

“We’re still in the Town of Hempstead league and also doing this new league,” said North Shore coach Lauren Gotta, who guided the Lady Vikings to the Nassau Conference AB-II title in 2016 with a record of 9-1-2. “It’s great for the kids to get their feet wet at the varsity level and take what they’re learned into practice for the real season,” she added.

North Shore is preparing to run with the big dogs in AB-I this fall. Lynbrook, another team in the new summer league, went 2-4-4 in AB-I a year ago but held its own with a goal differential of minus-2. West Hempstead went 6-3-3 in AB-III last season, while East Meadow, which has three separate teams in the summer league due to high numbers, is looking to improve on a 3-5-2 mark in Conference AA-I with a youthful roster.