About HLSC
OUR ORIGINS
It would seem an easy task to write the history of a club such as the Hewlett-Lawrence Soccer Club, which was founded in the late 1960s, however, the roots of HLSC go much deeper into the past. They can be traced all the way back to the late 1930s. It was then, during a wave of European immigration, that newcomers formed two sports and social clubs called the New World Club and the Prospect Unity Club. These clubs provided their members with a place for their social gatherings as well as their sporting activities. Of course, soccer was their major sport and both clubs fielded exceptional teams. Membership reached its peak during the early post World War II years with the influx of many more immigrants (Henry Kissinger's parents were members). The highlight of each week was the Sunday soccer game at Sterling Oval or at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. At that time, soccer was strictly an ethnic sport, but some games attracted as many as five or six thousand fans. With time, as these newcomers became established, they started to move away from the Bronx and Washington Heights to the more affluent suburbs. In 1953, with membership declining in both clubs, the remaining members joined together to form a single club called Blue Star Soccer Club. Its main activity was to field several adult teams as well as Junior teams (at that time youth soccer consisted of only under 19s and a few under 16s). The teams played in the strong semi-pro German-American Soccer League, now known as the Cosmopolitan League. In the late fifties. Blue Star started organizing youth teams in the German-American Junior Soccer League. This was the beginning of the great youth soccer boom, which would come in the 70s. Blue Star was thus a pioneer in the youth soccer movement. Two of its presidents, Walter Marburg and Herbert Heilpern, were also presidents of the Cosmopolitan Junior League.
FRED SCHOENFELD STARTS BLUE STAR JUNIOR
In 1970, Fred Schoenfeld, who had played for Blue Star for more than ten years, decided that it was time for his son to play soccer. Along with John Nadasi, another former Blue Star player, he decided to field a youth team in the Five Towns. As a new resident in the area, Fred was unable to obtain a soccer field. After "recruiting" 14 lads who lived in Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, and the Five Towns, he finally secured a field in Flushing. It was very tough picking up players all around the metropolitan area each week, transporting them to Flushing for their game, and then taking them home.
Soccer was not "in" in those days.
ENTIRE HISTORY HERE>>