Welcome to the Billerica Youth Soccer Hall of Fame

The BYSA Hall of Fame honors individuals who have been instrumental in the success of BYSA, have excelled at representing the sport of soccer and have been positive contributors to the Billerica soccer community. The Hall of Fame began in 2014 and instates new members each year with an induction ceremony held in the spring.

The innaugural class of the BYSA Hall of Fame was welcomed into the Hall of Fame at the BYSA Annual Casino Night Fundraiser that was held at the Billerica Elks Hall on May 31, 2014.

Peter Annuziata

Peter Annuziata or “Papa”, as most us know him as, joined BYSA in 1978, as most of us did because his oldest son wanted to play soccer. Peter instantly became a U8 Boys coach with 22 children on the team. This was the beginning of 15 wonderful years of coaching. In 1979 Peter was elected to the BYSA Board of Directors and served continuously until retiring in 2013.

During Peter’s tenure on the board, he served as Instructional Coordinator, a program he started), Referee Assignor, Field Coordinator (in those days it was for travel and intramural), Executive Vice President and more recently and familiar to most of us, Treasurer of BYSA.

Peter started BYSAs scholarship program and along with Joe Caruso, Gil Moreira and Mike Colby, began the Memorial Day Tournament.

Peter has given so much to BYSA and has set the bar very high for all of us following in his footsteps, to equal his dedication to the sport of soccer and the commitment to the children of Billerica.

Dan Baker

Dan Baker started with BYSA as an Assistant Coach in the clinic program in 1989. Dan coached through intramural and Travel programs as his children aged and continued thru U14.

Dan’s first board position was Equipment Manager back in 1991. After getting a feel for how the Board of Directors operated, Dan felt that it was time to take on President in 1994 and was in that position for nearly 10 years. During his time as president, Dan also filled in as Tournament Director and one season as Intramural Coordinator.

Dan finished up his time on the BYSA as Field Coordinator in 2003.

In addition to his work with BYSA, Dan was a FIFA certified referee from 2000 –2006.

Overlapping all his work on the BYSA board and his refereeing, Dan also represented BYSA on Middlesex League Board from 1998 all the way to 2011.

Dan advised us that “The best part of my time with BYSA was working with all the great people dedicated to improving the children in Billerica.”

Among the accomplishments of his tenure in Billerica Soccer, was getting water and power to the VVP and starting the first phase of expansion to this field complex. We also started a professional field turf maintenance program for the Akeson and Dutile fields. On the program side of things, Dan assisted in moving to single gender teams at the U8 level, and although not very popular at the time, helped revitalize the girls program. Dan is amazed to see the number of travel teams BYSA fields each year.

We commend Dan for being a dedicated, wonderful board member and leader at BYSA, as well as committing his talents and time to Middlesex League.

Feature 3

Playing Experience

Olympic Development

Massachusetts State Team u-14, u-16, u-18
Region 1 Olympic Development Team U-14, U16, U-18

UNITED STATES YOUTH NATIONAL TEAM

Youth World Cup, Beijing China
World Cup Qualifier, CONCACAF, Trinidad and Tobago

BMHS

4 year Starter
Team leading goal scorer as a freshmen
MVC leading goal scorer as a sophomore
All Scholastic as a goalkeeper
All-America as a goalkeeper

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT 1987-1991

NCAA Tournament Participants, 1987, 1988, 1989
Big East Tournament Participants, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990
Big East Tournament Finalist, 1987, 1988, 1989
Big East Champions, 1989
Soccer America - Freshmen All-American, 1987
Big East Freshmen of the Year, 1987
University of Connecticut and Big East Most Valuable Player, 1989

Education

Master of Arts in Sports Management - University of Connecticut
Bachelor of Science in Sports Communication - University of Connecticut

College Coaching History

JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY – Harrisonburg, VA August 2009 – Present
- Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Men’s Soccer
JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY – Harrisonburg, VA
- Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS – Lowell, MA
- Men’s Head Soccer Coach
COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS – Worcester, MA
- Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT – Storrs, CT
- Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach

Highlights

3 NCAA Tournament appearances
1 Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2011
9 Years Nationally Ranked
Coached 12 professional players, most recent CJ Sapong (MLS Champion for Sporting Kansas City)
Coached 2 players who have represented Jamaica and Panama
Coached 2 Herman finalist (Soccer’s version of the Heisman trophy)
Coached numerous All-Americans and Academic All-Americans

US YOUTH SOCCER OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Region 1 ODP Staff Coach

BILLERICA MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL – Billerica, MA August 2006-August 2009

Men’s Head Soccer Coach
Won conference championships and or qualified for state tournament each year

As illustrious a resume as it is, Tom has also given back to Billerica and BYSA. Tom has conducted clinics for the children of BYSA. He has assisted at coaches practices, provided guidance to former players and offered many positive suggestions and teaching techniques for BYSA to implement.

Gil Moreira

In 1981 Gil Moreira joined BYSA as an assistant coach for an Intramural Under 8 team because his twin sons were interested in playing soccer. The following year he made the leap to coach. Gil is extremely proud that several of those players from that original U8 team are now coaching their children in either Billerica or other towns.

In 1984, Gil became a member of the BYSA BOD. This particular board was involved in the development of the fields at the VVP, a terrific opportunity to provide much needed fields for a growing program. Gil recalls working with a gas powered post hole digger to put in the first fence posts at the field as well as helping to install the first goal posts (built by Shawsheen Tech. students) at the field.

In 1986 Gil helped put together the first Billerica Memorial Day Tournament. It was very exciting to be part of one of the first Memorial Day Tournaments in the state. At one point the tournament grew to as much as 120 teams competing from all around New England and New York.

Gil continued coaching his son’s teams and in 1986 also started coaching his daughter’s U-6 clinic team. In 1991 Gil became coach of the Girls U-10 A Travel Team and stayed with that team until they finished at the U-18s. Some of those girls are now coaching their children’s teams. Gil continued coaching long after his children grew out of the program and in fact continues today with the U18 Girls Team.

After a brief four year hiatus, Gil returned in 1990 to the Board as publicity director and the Board’s Parliamentarian. Gil worked tirelessly to establish positive relationships at the local, state and county level by getting the news out about what a positive influence sporting organizations like BYSA can be on the development of a child. Gil also worked at revamping BYSA’s Bylaws and added policies to help make them clearer.

In 2007 Gil was appointed as BYSA president, a position that he held for about six years. Immediately, he set out to begin the much needed development of two new playing fields at the VVP. Several of our past presidents who had identified the need had begun some of the design phase, however, under his term, BYSA began the actual development of the new fields. Gil worked tirelessly to raise funds, through grants and other avenues, worked with developers as well as the town and was instrumental in removing obstacles and solving problems that slowed or stalled progress. Once the fields began to be used in 2013, Gil felt a great sense of accomplishment and felt that it was time to begin to ease away from the responsibilities of the Board. Gil felt very confident that there was a nucleus of great, hardworking people on the board that would continue the progress that had been made since the start of BYSA.

Gil wrote ”my involvement in BYSA has been a great ride. Not only coaching my children, but also helping to develop a program that has grown from about 750 children to over 1,200 today. I have made many wonderful life-long friends and had great times.”

Gil has provided leadership and creativity to assist BYSA to grow to where we are today. He is both an inspiration and model for how we should aspire to give of ourselves.

Thank you to all that joined us at the 2014 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony! We look forward to seeing you at the 2015 Ceremony as well!! Pictures of the night can be found above under the "PICS" button, "Casino Night/Hall of Fame".

To recommend a player, coach, board member or other supporter of BYSA for induction to the BYSA Hall of Fame, please email the president and he will forward your nomination to the committee chairperson.