OUSC BACKGROUND

The Oceanside United Soccer Club began in 1962 as a single team of 15 boys. It was co-founded by Ian McDougall, Joe Goldberg and Orlando Maglia.

The team began play in the German-American league. Today that league is known as the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League (CJSL). As the only Nassau County, Long Island team represented in the league, the club choose the orange & blue colors that their teams wear today for it's uniform.

Girls soccer was started in 1972 by Bessie & Phil Lamonica when they entered a team in the Long Island Junior Soccer League. In 1979 the Oceanside United Soccer Club formally joined the LIJSL.

From the humble beginings of a single, 15 player team the club now fields over 125 teams consisting of 1,700 youth and senior soccer players.

The club's founders were truly prophetic when they choose as the club's motto the phrase ...


        "From Tiny Acorns Mighty Oaks Can Grow"

Phil Lamonica passed away in January of 2007. Please read the following memorial to him:

January 29, 2007-
As America's oldest youth indoor soccer tournament reached its midway point
this year, the Long Island Junior Soccer League is in mourning over
the passing of Rudy's father, Phil Lamonica. He died of natural causes on
January 26 at the age of 72.

Phil and his wife Bessie, both Eastern New York Soccer Hall of Famers, have
been very active with the Oceanside United Soccer Club since its inception
in 1962. Phil continued to be involved in the program until recent health
issues curtailed his club activities.
 
In the early club years, the native of Calabria , Italy was a coach. Later,
he and Bessie saw to it that girls have the same opportunities as boys by
founding the girls program in 1972 and watched the entrance of the first
Oceanside girls team into the LIJSL.
 
Their son, Rudy, was a member of Oceanside United's first travel team. After
Rudy's death in 1970 of cancer, the annual indoor tournament was renamed in
his honor, and Phil would always be there with Bessie to hand out trophies
with the always present smile on his face.
 
In addition to Bessie, Phil is survived by his daughter, Donna, who played
on that first girls team and later became a coach when her own children
began to play. Watching his grandchildren Taylor (Girls Under 14 Freedom)
and Austin (Boys Under 12 Cyclone Force) wearing Oceanside United's orange
and navy blue was one of Phil's most enjoyable moments.
 
We have lost a very good man. May he rest in peace