By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
January 14, 2020-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) is very pleased to announce that the State Cup finals on May 30 and 31, 2020 will be played at Stringham Park in LaGrange. Both the State Open Cup and Challenge Cup finals, over 30 games, will be played on the last weekend of May in what will be a celebration of New York youth soccer.
“The LaGrange Soccer Club is excited to be hosting the State Cup finals this May! We've had the privilege of hosting the finals before and consider it an honor that Eastern New York has chosen Stringham Park as the location for their event,” said LaGrange Soccer Club President Lisa Murphy. “Our fields are centrally located within Eastern New York and allows them to host the entire event in one location in the beautiful Hudson Valley. We are looking forward to a great weekend of competitive soccer.”
Stringham Park prevailed in the competitive bidding process and has hosted the State Cup finals for the past decade. Hosting the State Cup finals gives a nice little kick to the Dutchess County economy when considering the people from outside the local area coming and buying gas, eating at restaurants plus staying at hotels in nearby Fishkill.
Stringham Park’s history dates back to 1932 although the actual park was constructed over six decades later. Karl Ehmer opened his first butcher shop on 46th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan in 1932. Although Ehmer still has its own stores, his sausages, hams, other meats and specialty foods are also sold today in supermarkets in the Northeast as well as Florida.
He was the owner of a large beef cattle farm near a house he owned in LaGrange. In 1994, he sold the property to a developer and the deal was approved by the town after a portion of the land was donated to them for recreational use. So Stringham Park, ironically with the word “ham” in it, was created just south of Stringham Road and east of Ehmer Drive. The name Stringham comes from a family with long-standing ties to the community. West of Stringham Park, luxury homes were built.
Up until that point, the LaGrange Soccer Club played its East Hudson Youth Soccer League (EHYSL) games on two fields on Noxon Road that it shared with Little League so it was very nice for soccer to have a home of its own. In 1998, Stringham Park opened with one field but as soccer grew, so did the use of the park.
Today, approximately 900 players, both boys and girls, are registered with the LaGrange Soccer Club. The club also has an active TOPSoccer Program of 30 kids with special needs.
Stringham Park now also includes two basketball courts, lacrosse fields, a baseball field, a walking trail and playground.
With approximately 100,000 youth soccer players––both boys and girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Children With Special Needs. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log onto http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.