After the cancellation of two consecutive seasons during the height of Covid, Dorchester Youth Soccer (DYS) is regaining traction and players as it looks to exceed pre-pandemic numbers in the new year. Registration for the spring season is already underway and league leaders are optimistic about the renewal.

“I feel like we’ve revived from Covid for sure,” said Matt O’Shea, a board member and assistant coach. “We actually have more kids participating now than we did in 2019. I would say DYS has rebounded well.”

Michael Hegarty, the league’s president, said the fall season, which ended in November, was a big success. “The numbers of participants are definitely up, especially now that kids are feeling some sense of getting back to normal life. The program is getting there again,” he said.

DYS caters to children ages 4 to 14, and in 2019, DYS had a total of around 450 kids registered. This past fall, the in-house league of younger kids that meets on Sundays at Pope John Paul II Park had more than 500 kids. The travel team program of boys and girls in grades 3 to 8 boasted 119 kids on nine teams.

“I think it’s a really well-run program and we have a lot of dedicated board members,” said Randal Walker, who currently coaches the boy’s 8th grade team. “We have board members who have kids that aged out years ago from DYS and they’re still there giving their time. My kids have grown up in the program and enjoyed it. Lots of neighborhood kids have had the same experience.”

O’Shea is an assistant coach on the girls 3-4 grade travel team. The head coach is Harold Miller, and both said that beyond the goals and the wins and losses, they’ve seen their daughters develop friendships and life skills.

“It’s not just about developing athletics and physical fitness, but also they’re developing friendships,” said O’Shea. “I’ve seen the girls gel and create friendships, more so with the travel teams than the in-house league. Once they are on a travel team, they really grow closer. They end up going to birthdays and some of them even got together to watch the World Cup recently. Being in competition also teaches them to navigate conflict.”

Miller, a onetime college basketball player, has found a great deal of enjoyment guiding his daughter and her friends as a coach. Overall, he said, he has enjoyed watching them become more confident on the field and in school.

Hegarty has been involved with the program for many years and is one of many examples of leaders who stuck with DYS even after their children left. His daughter went from DYS to play varsity soccer at Fontbonne.

“My daughter is a sophomore in college now and I’m still coaching,” he said. “It’s really the enjoyment you get out of it, and I enjoy coaching the kindergartners. There’s nothing like a kid that’s never played soccer and they get their first goal – there’s a lot of enjoyment in that. It really becomes like a family.”

Hegarty said the magic of the program has been the good start players get at the in-house league. In both spring and fall, hundreds of parents can be found assembled at Pope John Paul II Park on Sundays, with youngsters from age 4 up to grade 2 learning to play. Through that in-house program, DYS has been able to introduce all kinds of players to the game, and many have stuck with it through grade 8.

“Our travel teams are great programs, but the in-house is a great start for so many of our younger players,” he said. “If they’re new to soccer, it gives them a good place to learn. They can ease their way into it. We do get a lot of kids within the neighborhood, and they get into it and their friends get into it.”

Walker coached for five years in the in-house league, and then moved up with his kids. Now in his third year of coaching 8th graders, he said it does become more difficult to keep a team together as kids get older – especially with other sports and club teams competing for kids.

“That’s one thing that happens: As they get older it becomes harder to play multiple sports if you’re particularly good at one of them,” he said.
“Some of my players decided not to play this year because they went with club soccer teams, and they have three practices per week and a lot of games.

“Dorchester is huge and maybe we’re missing something in regard to recruiting,” Walker added.

For more information on DYS or to register for the spring season online, log onto dyssoccer.com.