Levittown Native Inducted into Eastern NY Soccer Hall of Fame

By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, ENYYSA. 

The Eastern New York State Adult Soccer Association and Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association congratulates Levittown native Hank Steinbrecher upon his induction into the Eastern New York Soccer Hall of Fame.

The ceremony took place during a Cruise Around Manhattan on July 13 to celebrate Eastern New York’s 100th anniversary. Eastern New York was founded in 1913, the same year that the United States Soccer Federation, now commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, was founded.

Steinbrecher was born in Queens and grew up in Levittown. He played youth soccer as a teenager in the early 1960’s before the creation of the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL).

“So I went to Hicksville’s Long Island Railroad station and took a train to Jamaica and then made a connection to a subway or bus to get to a soccer field in Queens or Brooklyn,” Steinbrecher said. “That’s what it took for me to get a game back then.”

He went on to West Virginia where he played for Davis & Elkins, winning a NAIA national championship by defeating powerhouse Quincy College of Illinois, 2-1, in five overtime periods in the 1968 final. 

Steinbrecher earned his Masters of Education degree from West Virginia University and went on to teach and coach at Warren Wilson College, Appalachian State University and Boston University. He then directed the soccer venue at Harvard University for the 1984 Olympic Games. From there, he entered the corporate world, directing sports marketing for Quaker Oats.  

From 1990 until the turn of the millennium, Hank served as Secretary General of U.S. Soccer and directed unparalleled growth. As CEO for U.S. Soccer, he was responsible for all aspects of managing a large non-profit organization. It is because of visionary leaders such as Hank that getting a game was no longer difficult for any boy or girl in the United States.