BETHEL, NY — The Town of Bethel’s inaugural youth summer soccer program, which ran from July 11 to August 22, proved to be a success. More than 30 Sullivan County kids participated in the program, and the town is planning to bring the program back next year.

On the final day of the program, the group of young athletes gathered at the soccer field behind the former Cornelius Duggan Elementary School to practice, then compete in a scrimmage match as parents and community members cheered from the sidelines.

At the program’s end, Town of Bethel Supervisor Dan Sturm, head coach Carlos Matos Jr. and project director Moreen Lerner gave participants certificates and took photos with the players.

“I think it was exceptionally well run. Very pleased with the outcome,” Sturm said.

Lerner said the program exceeded expectations. “When we did the pilot we were hoping for about 15 kids and we ended up with over 30.”

The program came to the town after public comments were made urging the town to create more youth programming, a request that Sturm says the town took “seriously.” Lerner attributed a collaboration between Sullivan 180 and the Town of Bethel in getting the program off the ground.

“It really was a call from the community at one of the town board meetings, thinking that we should do more for kids,” Lerner said. “We then had an opportunity to write a grant with Sullivan 180, and included in the grant was not only playground equipment, but also soccer equipment…so a partnership between the town and Sullivan 180 gave us the opportunity to have the right equipment.”

After securing funding for equipment, the next challenge was finding a coach. Luckily for the town, Bethel board member Wendy Brown knew of one in Matos.

When contacted about the program, Matos said it was an opportunity to rekindle a love for the calling.

“I’ve been retired from coaching almost 20 years, so I was asked and I said, ‘Okay, let me go do this,’” Matos said. “I enjoyed it. I realized I missed it more than I thought.”

The program was open to any child aged six to 11 in Sullivan County, not just Bethel residents. To make sure that the program was accessible as possible, Lerner had all the information available in both English and Spanish.

“Sullivan County as a whole has a growing [Hispanic] population, and we thought it would be beneficial that we opened up the program to Sullivan County and also did it as a bilingual program,” Lerner said. “And that’s probably what added to the success.”

Kathy Kreiter, a Thompson resident whose grandson Niklaus Lane was in the program, was grateful that Bethel put on the program, saying her grandson took a lot from the program.

“It’s been a wonderful summer,” Kreiter said. “I’m so happy they provided this…  He’s made some new friends, he’s picked up a couple skills but he really just had some fun.”

Lerner said that the program’s success can be chalked up to the strength of its volunteers and organizers who “supported the program throughout the summer.”

“This worked out better than my expectations,” Lerner said. “And that was because of the people we had behind it. That’s Carlos, that’s Dan, that’s Sullivan 180 [and] the Town of Bethel. It really was a team and that’s what makes things successful.”

Kreiter also thanked the volunteers, and said that through the volunteers her grandson met his coach for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) team, as well as several of his future teammates.

“The volunteers were wonderful,” Kreiter said. “It turns out that one of the other dads…is going to be my grandson’s AYSO coach in the fall in Monticello, so he made some friends here that are going to be on his AYSO team.”

Next year

Because of the successful first year, the town has plans to hold the program again next year. The town also wants to improve the program and work with its partners to develop the program to be the best possible version of itself.

“We’ll do it again next year,” Lerner said. “This could be a [precursor] to AYSO.”

Sturm supported continuing it, saying that the program this year was something to build on and that he “hopes we’re going to do it every year.”

“It’s very important, especially in the town of Bethel, that we have things for kids to do,” Sturm said. “Whether it be a park, an activity, a camp program, those are the kind of things that we try to do to make sure we have a good, healthy community.

Matos is also excited to return in 2027, saying he greatly enjoyed coaching the program. 

“I enjoy it so much. I like being around the kids, and hopefully [we’ll] develop this into a more developed program,” Matos said.

Lerner agrees that some development for the program will be useful in order to make it more successful. Lerner distributed surveys to parents and promised to use the feedback to “make this bigger and better.”