Soccer has history in Shenandoah
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE - The Shenandoah Youth Soccer 7th and 8th Grade squad plays for a championship in 2020.
SHENANDOAH – While the Blue Devils embark on their first ever soccer season, the sport is nothing new to this valley.
In fact, this year marks 35 years since the formation of the Shenandoah Youth Soccer Association.
“SYSA was formed in 1988,” Dave Krusinsky, longtime president of the association, told the Sentinel Saturday. “There was a group of people that said ‘We need a soccer association, we’re going to start one.'”
Shortly after, they acquired land in Lost Creek, built a field, “and it just progressed from there.”
Krusinsky said that, during the 22 years he was at the organization, they have fielded no less than 5 travel teams — teams that compete in the Schuylkill County Youth Soccer League and travel to face teams across the county — though some would leave the organization for sports they could continue in high school.
“The kids had nowhere to go,” Krusinsky said. “They say ‘I’m going to play soccer until 8th grade and then what? Now I’m going to switch to football.”
“A lot of times, kids would switch to football a little earlier, because they had nowhere else to go,” Krusinsky said. “As soon as we got a high school team, I did see, last year, an influx in a lot of younger kids.”
He said that influx has continued this year.
Prior to this season, Shenandoah Valley had a co-op agreement with Nativity BVM in Pottsville for soccer, though several SYSA products went on to become star kickers for the Shenandoah Valley football team, including the school record holder for the longest field goal.
SYSA has produced several championship teams and playoff contenders in the Schuylkill County Youth Soccer League over the years, as well, Krusinsky said.
The addition of soccer comes after decades of intermittent requests by parents and players alike in the district.
“It never organized enough [to convince the school board],” Krusinsky said. “There’s been at least two pushes to get a soccer organization in the high school [since I’ve been involved in SYSA].”
The efforts to bring a soccer program to Shenandoah Valley date back as far as SYSA’s founding.
According to local newspaper archives, in Oct. 1989, 30 students, parents, and SYSA officials asked the school board to add the sport for the 1990 school year.
At that meeting, John Greshock, then-president, said the league had 146 players in only its second year.
Intermittent efforts occurred in the years since, and finally found success last year, spearheaded by Kim Mentusky, who helped secure a grant for the team.
“It was a huge win for the soccer community and I was ecstatic that they finally got it,” Krusinsky said of last year’s approval. “I couldn’t have been happier for the town, the area, because that’s what this area needed.”
“This year might be a learning curve, but I do see in coming years, the soccer team is going to do very, very well,” Krusinsky said.
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