overview:
Howard Rubenstein, a mainstay in youth and amateur soccer for the Eastern New York Youth Association and the Eastern New York State Soccer Association, has died.
Rubenstein in the center, ENYYSA President Richard Cristiano on the left, and First Vice President Bill Smith on the right. (Photo provided by ENYYSA)
Howard Rubenstein, a mainstay in youth and amateur soccer for the Eastern New York Youth Association and the Eastern New York State Soccer Association, has died.
Rubenstein died on March 20th after sustaining a neck injury in a fall last week.
He worked in both associations and made significant contributions.
Rubenstein served as ENYYSA president from 1980 to 1984, vice president of the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League in the late 1980s, and then treasurer of the Eastern New York Adult Association. In the early 1990s, Rubenstein and Alfonso Mondello were coaching in Eastern New York. He also served as the state youth umpiring administrator for his 10 years around the turn of the century, and then as state umpiring administrator he held three stints.
Howard's last public appearance with many in the world of football was in 2022, when he received a standing ovation after receiving the Distinguished Service Award at the Hall of Fame Banquet in East New York celebrating the organization's 50th anniversary.
“He has been an invaluable and dedicated volunteer with us for 50 years,” a press release from ENYYSA said.
Rubenstein was a member of the Eastern New York State Hall of Fame, the U.S. Amateur Soccer Association, and the Long Island Junior Soccer League.
In fact, it turns out that East New York's name comes from Rubenstein. Once the new league was created, the ENY's original name, the Southern New York Soccer Association, was no longer appropriate, as the youth and adult associations began accepting clubs north of Albany. ENY's geographic area encompassed clubs from Long Island to the Canadian border east of Route 81, which connects Binghamton and Syracuse, so in 1984 Rubenstein and incoming president Peter Mazzotto changed the name to Eastern New York. Changed to Youth Soccer Association. Rubenstein and former Adult President Kostas Marios changed the same name from Southern New York to Eastern New York with Adult in 1988.
