New York, NY— “Welcome to pier 40,” say the coaches of Downtown United Soccer Club (DUSC) and Greenwich Village Little League (GVLL) and P3. These 3 sports organizations play in Greenwich Village and they all play at Pier 40. In this article you will get the chance to find out all the wonders that are hiding at Pier 40!
DUSC is a Soccer League in Greenwich Village, and they are very organized. DUSC has a summer camp you can join and in the spring, fall and even winter, you can join the rec league and play with kids your age and play like a professional with DUSC’s training! DUSC gives you your own uniform for the rec league, and on the jersey they give you a real professional team name! Every year, the teams change because depending on your age group they put you in a certain league. For example, one year you may be put in the national team league (FIFA teams), then another year you may get put in the Premier league teams like Arsenal and Chelsea. However, sometimes depending on your skills, you get moved up an age group. One player I spoke to is only 5 and is in Kindergarten, but he is playing with the 1st and 2nd graders because of his abilities in soccer. He is also very aggressive even when the players are larger and stronger than him. Even with playing with the older kids, he still has the ability to play hard on the field, and in my opinion he is learning new things, such as the skill to pass and call the ball from teammates, as he plays with the older kids. When he played with his own age he used to just take the ball away from teammates and score in the wrong goal, but that has changed with his switch with the older kids. DUSC is flexible on those choices to change players to different age groups rather than complain and say “No, he’s too young to play with the older kids.” DUSC not only lets kids have fun playing games. They also teach kids new strategies and skills, and they really make a clear goal which is to help kids learn teamwork and skill (but mostly teamwork). DUSC also has a class where you just do drills and then, depending on your behavior, a quick scrimmage! It’s fun learning soccer, and at DUSC, they do their best to make it fun for other kids to interact with other kids. DUSC is a well set-up organization in Manhattan.
There are so many wonders to behold down at pier 40 and JJ Walker Field. I see uniformed children playing baseball in the field. I see a home run, flying over the fence. I see a small boy running to first base and an older kid sliding into home plate. Is the older kid safe? Yes, he scores with a huge smile on his face! Greenwich Village Little League is one of the larger baseball organizations for lower and upper Manhattan kids. GVLL is also very organized. There are multiple teams, all named after real baseball teams, except the tee ball, Junior Minors and Minors. The GVLL Majors have all the teams except the Yankees, Mets and Blue Jays.
In the eyes of some, GVLL is the heart of Greenwich village. The players, past, present will all agree that playing GVLL was one of the best choices that they made in their earlier years. “GVLL is an amazing place to learn baseball,” says Dane Oaks, a player from GVLL. Everyone loves baseball, even kids. So, when people heard that kids, yes KIDS could play baseball, they flipped out! People started joining like crazy! Greenwich Village Little League coaches are warm, well mannered, and excellent baseball players. GVLL has a really fun opening day where every team meets at Pier 40. Everyone gets to meet each other and gets their uniform, and there’s always a banner for each team. The team holds the banner and walks down to one end of pier 40. Then each team sits down and talks for a while, and then the GVLL officials say which team has the best banner. Whichever team wins gets tickets to a Staten Islands Yankees game!
Now, for the P3 baseball organization!! P3 is GVLL’s neighbor and team helper. GVLL buys P3’s space to have their kids play. P3 is like GVLL, but instead of having many teams play in the same organization, they have two main travel teams, the Gothams, which have been their oldest team, and their modern team, the Greenwich Village ACEs. The ACEs were established in 2016. In their first tournament, the ACE’s made it to the semi-finals! P3 is pretty much GVLL’s father, because P3 hosts practices and Baseball Summer Camp for GVLL to help GVLL’s players get better in the winter.
The best thing that P3 does is their summer camp! At P3’s summer camp, they do drills in the early morning, then they have a fun scrimmage where they split the kids into two teams depending on age, and then the kids have a scrimmage until lunch. Their schedule for lunch is: Monday: Pizza, Tuesday: Hot Dogs, Wednesday: Subway sandwich, Thursday: Hot Dogs and Friday: Pizza. It’s the same lunch routine every year. P3 is definitely a very helpful and fun organization in Greenwich Village.
Now these are the 3 main sports organizations in lower and upper Manhattan. If you visit Manhattan, there will surely be an opportunity to sign up for one of these organizations and support Greenwich Village. You also can go to Pier 40 on a Sunday in the springtime from April 20 – around July 1, and you’ll find some GVLL baseball players there. In the fall from September 1 – November 25 you’ll find baseball players playing at Pier 40 and soccer players playing on the roof! Anyways I’m gonna be late for a GVLL game, so got to go bye! Remember to sign up and support NYC, Manhattan, and Greenwich Village all in one at Pier 40.