PCYBL backs 11U travel softball team started by moms

Lady Rams varsity coach ecstatic about this Port Chester first

July 24, 2024 at 9:41 p.m.

The newly formed 11U Pirates travel softball team sponsored by the Port Chester Youth Baseball League. Front row, from left: Mia Carranza, Gigi Giordano, Sophia Castro, Arianna Romero, Alessandra Pace. Back row, from left: Jocelyn Goyburu, Aria Cavallino, Adriana Pace, Jillian Jimenez, Amelia Zuccarelli, Ava Oshiro, Juliana Tejeda. Not Pictured: Dylan Stroud. (Courtesy photo of Samantha Goyburu)

It is an idea that has finally come, but for years nobody listened.

Lady Rams head softball coach Jeanine Maiolini has been saying for what seems like forever that Port Chester needs a girls’ travel team to play off-season if the high school wants to be able to compete against the area's better teams with their year-round programs.

What Maiolini wanted was a program similar to the Port Chester Youth Baseball League (PCYBL), a training ground where the local girls could learn the game from an early age with the proposed league serving as an age group pipeline to the varsity similar to the one the boys had in baseball.

But that didn't seem to be in the cards.

The moms on the ball

Until, that is, a couple of local moms made a league pitch to an interested dad who also happened to be a PCYBL board member.

It helped that one of those moms was Samantha (Sam) Goyburu, a Lady Ram shortstop in the early 2000s who had her career short circuited when a rival slid into her leg on a double play pivot and wrecked her knee.

    Jocelyn Goyburu has struck out 95 of the 131 batters she has faced in the 11U Pirates’ first softball season.
 Courtesy of Samantha Goyburu   

She was Samantha Wesley back in those days. But she never forgot how much she used to love to play the game under then coach Danny Davis.

And now, married to Pedro Goyburu, a former Rams soccer player and current coach she met at Rye Ridge CVS after they graduated Port Chester High School, Sam is a special education teacher in Briarcliff. And their daughter Jocelyn, 11, is a promising windmilling pitcher at Port Chester Middle School.

But, Sam noticed, there was no place in Port Chester where Jocelyn could play fast-paced, developmental travel team softball. So she enrolled Jocelyn in programs in nearby Rye and not-so-near Elmsford. And Sam wasn't alone. There were 35 Port Chester girls’ softball players enrolled in the Rye program, almost all looking to play off-season softball closer to home.

The way it was at the start

So Sam and another mom, Kelly Castro, and Sam's husband Pedro decided to do something about that gap in local softball. And they began to lay the groundwork to recruit other moms and their softball-playing tween daughters who were willing to support a new Port Chester age group girls’ travel team in a potential new league.

Once they had the numbers that indicated a strong interest, they turned to local dad John Giordano who had been coaching in the PCYBL for eight years and was a PCYBL board member for three to see whether the PCYBL would back a girls’ softball travel team.

Giordano brought the idea to the PCYBL board, and President Bob Vyskocil said if the moms and their daughters demonstrated a commitment to the game and Giordano would handle the PCYBL administrative details that would go into backing the team, it was a go.

And it was and is because Sam had no trouble recruiting 13 players and their families, Maiolini helped line up the Lady Rams high school playing field for practices and home games and Giordano was in on the planning from the beginning.

'Bringing program to life'

"It's been an amazing start in organizing and bringing the program to life," Giordano said. "We have a wonderful group of girls and families committed to making the program work and last in Port Chester. Coach Maiolini has been a tremendous assist behind the scenes helping to guide us in the right direction. And Sam and Pedro Goyburu and Kelly Castro are the parents who laid the groundwork to recruit players from around town that were willing to make all this happen. Without them this program would not exist."

    First time player Juliana Tejeda has shown outstanding promise and versatility in her first season of softball.
 Courtesy of Samantha Goyburu   

The 11U PCYBL softball Pirates got off to a slow start with an opening loss to Rye in league play, but they have improved to 5-5 since and made the Greater Hudson Valley Baseball League playoffs that start Thursday (7/25) at a time and place and against an opponent not yet determined at press time.

"We've held practices at the high school that last at least two hours and have developed a real close-knit sense of camaraderie and team play," according to Sam Goyburu. "It's important that the Port Chester girls get the same kind of support as the local boys do when it comes to developing their talent. It's true that the girls could play on PCYBL baseball teams and transition over to softball later on, but this gives the girls a chance to play softball on their own team from an early age."

Historic softball first

And win or lose in the playoffs, that's exactly what they have been doing as they continue to advance in softball age and wisdom as the history-making first girls’ travel softball team in Port Chester history.

The windmilling Jocelyn Goyburu has struck out 95 out of 131 batters, consistently throws first pitch strikes and forms a formidable battery with catcher Amelia Zuccarelli. Adriana Pace flashes a strong glove at first and third base, first time player Juliana Tejeda shows outstanding promise and versatility, and the lineup is strong up and down the roster with players like Mia Carranza, Gigi Giordano, Sophia Castro, Arianna Romero, Aria Cavallino, Jillian Jimenez, Ava Oshiro, Alessandra Pace and Dylan Stroud.

Lady Rams varsity coach Jeanine Maiolini is already delighted about their progress.

Coach is 'ecstatic'

"When John Giordano first reached out to me about the possibilities of starting a team, I was nothing but ecstatic about it and told John I would be willing to provide any assistance he needed. That assistance started with my helping secure the varsity softball field as their home field to play and practice on. It's amazing to finally have a girls’ travel softball team in our town. I had the opportunity to work with some of the young athletes at my summer camp at the high school and they are a talented group. They are having a blast playing and competing as a team. And they are only going to keep getting better. And will be a big help to making the high school varsity better in the future."

A Port Chester girls’ travel softball team is an idea that has been a long time coming, but now that it has finally arrived, it looks like it is here to stay.