Ben Friedland (Board Chair) is a Vice Chairman at CBRE, the world’s largest real estate company. He loves playing basketball and tennis and does so as much as his body allows. A husband and father of three (Samantha, Jacob, Rebecca) Ben is passionate about providing opportunities to underserved and special needs children. As an active member of several philanthropic causes, Ben feels privileged to be a part of such an amazing organization as Backyard Sports Cares.
Angel Rodriguez (Board Treasurer) is a Senior Tax Manager at Clarfeld Financial Advisors, LLC. Angel has more than a decade of experience identifying, understanding, and managing federal and state tax issues related to complex individual, business and financial transactions. Angel is an avid NY sports fans, specifically Yankees, Knicks, and Giants. He lives is Westchester County, NY with his fiancée and two young children. On his spare time he enjoys playing Golf and going to the batting cage.
Moshe ArensteinMoshe Arenstein (Board Member) is a Journalist and TV Producer, currently an Executive Producer with NBC News/MSNBC.
A passionate sports fan, Moshe plays soccer, basketball and tennis - and watches football as much as time allows. Moshe lives in Scarsdale, NY, with his wife and 3 children, who are lucky to be driven from one activity to the next. He wants at risk and special needs children in the county to have a similar experience, and believes Backyard Sports is the one organization that can provide that service.
Moshe still has a dream of one day play - and score - in the football World Cup.
Henry Chapman (Board Member) has always been a jock at heart. He was raised in Brooklyn, NY and could always be found with a book or a ball in his hands. Henry has said in the past that, “Too many of our children are still unable to participate in this fertile learning experience. If not for sports, my life would not have turned out as it has.”
Henry is an active member in his community as well in both civic and athletic roles. He has served on the Special Needs PTA and NACME (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering): the nation’s largest provider of scholarships to underrepresented minorities in engineering. His love for sports led him to become a multi-sport participant in college. Over the years Henry has continued to remain active in sports. He has also coached a myriad of junior and senior sports teams throughout the communities he’s lived and currently coaches tennis for Pelham Memorial High School. In late 2016 he joined the athletic staff at Westchester Community College while wrapping up his master’s degree in Athletic Administration.
He lives in White Plains with his college sweetheart and has three children.
Nesta Felix (Board Member) is a native of St. Lucia and is currently the Executive Director of New Flex Foundation, a dynamic organization that provides mentoring services to underserved youth in Mt. Vernon and Westchester County. Nesta also serves as the head varsity basketball coach for the Yeshiva University Women’s team. Nesta has been involved in building youth leaders since her undergraduate years at Iona College where she worked for the local YMCA as an on site program coordinator. In 2009 as part of her MBA thesis Nesta launched the New Flex Foundation.
Daniel Goldberg (Board Member) is a dedicated high school assistant principal at Briarcliff High School with over 12 years of experience in school administration. Prior to stepping into his current role, he spent a decade as a social studies teacher and boys’ varsity basketball coach. Coming from an exceptionally athletic family—where 12 members have competed at the collegiate or professional level—Daniel himself played basketball in college and remains active by participating in softball leagues, with plans to rejoin a basketball league. A little-known fact about Daniel is his passion for poetry; he often sneaks moments to enjoy works by his favorite authors. In his free time, he loves spending quality time with his two sons and his wonderful wife.
Mark Mathias (Board Member) is a lifelong Westchester resident and entrepreneur focusing on real estate and small businesses that help better communities. He is the owner of The Lightbridge Academy Childcare Centers in Scarsdale and Valhalla locations. He also is an owner of The Barley House restaurant in Thornwood. Mark is an active father of 2 young children in Scarsdale and avid local basketball player in his free time.
Michael Moser (Board Member) is a shareholder and Co-Chair of the Real Estate Finance Group at global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Michael’s love of sports and working with children has led him to remain active and involved with sports programs throughout every stage of his life. He and his wife Nicole have two teenagers and Michael has enjoyed coaching them and their classmates in various sports. Michael has served as a director on several nonprofit organizations in Westchester and is excited to be working with Backyard Sports Cares to help build on the outstanding programs and visions of this organization.
Noel Muyskens (Board Member) is retired and living in Rhode Island with his beautiful wife and two somewhat delinquent cats. Noel has been a retail pharmacy executive, a director of the Westchester-based non-profit MVP Basketball Camp, a ski instructor, and a professional musician.
While running MVP from 2005 – 2019, Noel kept the organization true to the vision of founder Stan Greene. He consistently increasing the number of camp scholarships to over 300 per summer, so that less entitled children from cities like Mount Vernon and Yonkers could share an empowering basketball camp experience with children from affluent communities like Scarsdale and Rye. During the expansion of MVP’s scholarship program, Noel began a collaboration with Backyard Sports Cares that led to the merger of the two non-profit organizations in 2022.
Zach Sawyer (Board Member) is the Regional Director of Business Development at LeChase Construction and a CrossFit Coach. Zach is passionate about helping people meet their goals. At work that consists of helping pull teams together to meet client goals, and at the gym it is helping people have better general health and fitness. His experience with project execution, team building and coaching were a natural fit for the Board. Zach is looking forward to bringing his skill sets to the Backyard Sports Cares team.
Mike Shifren (Board Member) is the Chief Financial Officer at a hedge fund located in Manhattan. Mike has been actively playing sports since he was a kid, where he played golf and tennis in high school and continued playing basketball in NYC for many years before moving up to Westchester County. Mike and his kids are actively involved with Backyard Sports through various leagues and clinics offered locally by BYS. He also coaches a number of local kids sports teams in his community including basketball, baseball, and travel soccer. Mike continues to play golf, basketball, and pickleball in the little free time when not busy with his wife and three children.
Dave Shuster (Board Member) is a principal at Friedman LLP, where he represents taxpayers in their controversies against the Internal Revenue Service and the various state taxing authorities. Although Dave played soccer competitively throughout middle and high school, his fondest sports memories from his youth are of playing pickup street hockey and touch football for hours on end with his friends after school when soccer season ended each fall. These experiences have inspired his participation in Backyard Sports Cares, where he has been a board member since BYSC’s inception in 2011 and its treasurer from 2011 to 2018. He and his wife Karen have raised three children, all of whom have worked for BYSC’s programs serving young athletes. Dave has also served as a board member and treasurer for other nonprofit athletic organizations, including the Scarsdale Youth Hockey Association, the Scarsdale Baseball Club, and Maroon and White (a parent booster organization supporting Scarsdale High School athletics). He is also a founding board member of the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation and its treasurer since its inception in 2011. He has also served on Scarsdale’s Advisory Council on Parks and Recreation, was a Scarsdale Little League grade coordinator for four years, and has coached his children and their friends in basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer. Dave holds a BSEE from the University of Michigan and a JD and LLM from the New York University School of Law.
Jocelyn Sontag (Board Member) is a Travel Consultant affiliated with Valerie Wilson Travel, Inc. Formerly an attorney, specializing in executive compensation and employee benefits, Jocelyn now focuses her efforts on her travel business and not-for-profit organizations in her community. Jocelyn enjoys playing bridge, tennis, skiing, theater and absolutely loves to travel. Jocelyn is married and has two children attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Please call (914) 304-4052 or Click Here to contact us if you would like information on our community partnership opportunities and programs, or if you would like to volunteer.
Backyard Sports Cares
75 South Broadway, 4th Floor
White Plains, NY 10601
Copyright © Backyard Sports Cares - All Rights Reserved
Backyard Sports Cares is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Gifts to BYSC support programs that strengthen and enrich the development of Westchester children and are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
