Port Jefferson captured the 2019 Ryder-Vass men’s title. (Photo courtesy of LISFL)

The Long Island Soccer Football League is planning to hold its Ryder-Vass Tournament this summer.

The tournament, open to men’s and women’s teams at the Under-23 and U-20 level, has a projected start date of Sunday, June 14, depending on how things play out with the COVID-19 pandemic along with decisions made by the Eastern New York State Soccer Association and the U.S. Adult Soccer Association.

The league would like to have teams in these divisions:

Brooklyn

Nassau East/Nassau West

Queens

Suffolk East/Suffolk West

Westchester

LISFL president Gus Xikis, who passed away on April 15, put a tremendous amount of work into the Ryder-Vass competition to build it into a top Under-23 tournament in Region 1.

“We feel very strongly about continuing to build upon the work he did,” according to a league official.

“If we can get more teams it will be a better tournament and will create more opportunities for players to get some soccer in before they go back to play for their school and/or club team in the fall.”

To register, visit www.lisfl.org.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.