WI Soccer Club Gets Nod to Build New Field

The West Islip Soccer Club is finally getting its own soccer facility.

It only took 10 years, four New York State governors and three Town of Islip supervisors to get the go ahead. 

Gary Koffsky, who’s been president of the club for 15 years, said he’s dealt with multiple government figures and has been told “no” several times, but is finally seeing his persistence pay off.    

“One of our issues has always been a shortage of fields in West Islip," he said. "Ten years ago, I addressed the issue and one of the solutions to the problem, at least in other places, has been taking recharge basins, and they’ve modified them and made athletic fields.“

And that’s exactly where the new grass field will be; it's going to be constructed on a recharge basin (or sump) just past Casamento Park.

“Basically, what we’re doing is expanding Casamento Park into the recharge basin, so that the WI soccer club can have a field of our own," Koffsky said. "It’s basically like our field of dreams.”

Koffsky said the club has been using WI School District fields throughout his tenure but said since there are so many youth sports clubs, it was difficult to find consistent playing time. That, and the fields were being overused. 

“We’re also restricted with amount of youth groups, between the baseball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, it’s just extremely overcrowded," he said.

Koffsky didn’t know exactly how much the turf facility would cost, but said the club would cover the entire price tag through fundraising and donation efforts. 

“The bottom line here is the soccer club is funding the project,” he said.  “We’re not getting any money from the state or the town."

While Koffsky is waiting for bids from different companies, he said he's glad to see something will come out of his hard work and that the kids should have new fields to enjoy for quite a long time. 

"The end result is, if you try and you persevere, you can get things done," he said. "Hopefully this will be a forever thing for years to come. Because the opportunity for open lands to be made athletic fields isn’t going to happen often.”