Erin Beach Earns LIJSL Scholarship

Erin Beach has led her Commack Soccer Club teams to two league championships, helped the St. John the Baptist girls' soccer team win the New York State Catholic Schools title in 2009, and will continue playing the sport she loves at St. Joseph's College this fall.

And to think none of it would have happened had she not scored on her own goal.

Beach is one of four recipients of the Bobbie Marks Memorial Scholarship, which will be presented July 18 at the Long Island Junior Soccer League Scholarship Awards Dinner at the Huntington Hilton.

Beach earned the nomination by being one of the top student-athletes in the LIJSL. Beach was a member of the National Honor Society at St. John the Baptist, maintaining a 99.1 average while earning All-League honors as a three-year starter on the girls' varsity soccer team. Beach was also a team captain with the Commack Soccer Club, and has a fine record of community service, volunteering at the Commack Public Library as well as with the Port Jefferson Fire Department.

Beach said she has been playing soccer since the age of three, and in her scholarship essay, explained that her lifelong love of the game could have been extinguished at an early age had her parents not convinced her to keep going.

"I wasn't very good," Beach recalled. "I begged my parents to let me quit. They'd say, 'You can quit next season, it's already paid for now.'"

Then, in her third season, Beach scored a goal. One problem — it was in the wrong net.

"I thought it was the greatest thing," she said. "I was clapping for myself, but no one else was clapping. It didn't matter. That was when I decided I really liked soccer."

That goal led to a stellar high school career at St. John the Baptist, one capped by a state championship. Beach noted that in preseason, her coach told the team it was their year to win a state title. She said she laughed about it at first, but it became clear the coach was right.

"All of a sudden, the St. John the Baptist girls show up," Beach said. "It was our senior year, so it was awesome."

Beach — who plans to major in English at St. Joseph's with a minor in education — has already started playing in a summer league with her future college teammates. "I'm looking forward to getting to know them better," said Beach, who played midfield and defense in high school. She said it looks like she may continue playing defense at St. Joseph's, but added, "I'd be happy playing anywhere."

Bobbie Marks was born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1923, and her family was a strong supporter of the Nottingham Forest Football Team. She met an American soldier, David Marks, who was stationed near her home. They were married in 1945 in England and eventually settled in Port Washington with their two children.

Bobbie was an avid sports fan whose grandchildren played in the LIJSL. She and her husband established the Bobbie and David Marks Family Scholarship Fund for promising young men and women. She passed away in 2004, and the fund was renamed the Bobbie Marks Memorial Scholarship Fund in her memory.