The Manhattan Times

“Can you do it?” shouted Pauliina Miettinen, the head coach of Sky Blue FC, a professional women’s soccer team.

The youth of the year-old Uptown Soccer league had been trying to copy Miettinen, throwing the soccer ball in the air and attempting to flatten their backs and catch the ball on the back of their neck.

A few voices echoed each other, “no.”

“Do you give up?” said Miettinen. “No!” Miettinen yelled before the kids could respond. “Never give up!  Don’t you ever give up!”

With the world in the grip of World Cup fever, Uptown Soccer, a league in Inwood, hosted the professional women players from Sky Blue FC of Somerset, NJ, last month, in the hopes that the women might spark some of that soccer fever in local girls.

“I think it’s good for the girls especially to see that there’s a future in soccer,” said David Sykes, who runs the Uptown Soccer league with his wife, Cynthia Carrion.

Sykes moved to Inwood five years ago from his home country of England and saw a need for the league.

In England, Sykes said, almost everyone plays soccer and it’s free, whereas here, joining a youth soccer club can cost $1,500 to $2,000 a year.

In addition, all the clubs were based on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, or downtown. “As far as I could tell, there was nothing available to less affluent kids,” he said.

He got to know youth in the neighborhood through a soccer program he ran at an after-school program, and began recruiting youth.

The boys’ program grew immediately, with many of the boys from the after-school program bringing their friends. However, Sykes said, the girls’ program has been more of a struggle.

“If you walk around the neighborhood, you don’t see many girls doing active things in the parks,” said Sykes. “Maybe [soccer’s] kind of seen now as a boys’ activity.”

Sykes said that a lot of the older boys come to practice by themselves, but that parents tend to be more reluctant to let girls go by themselves.

Sykes said that he now has 12 to 15 girls showing up consistently, and that they’re starting to encourage friends to come along. Uptown Soccer is also trying to be more strategic in connecting with community organizations and schools.

Similarly, women’s professional soccer has undergone its ups and downs. The Women’s United Soccer Association, WUSA, formed in 2000 as the first professional women’s soccer league in the world, but ended in 2003 due to lack of sufficient funds.

The Women’s Professional Soccer league began in 2009 and is in its second year.

Sykes said he hopes to continue to build a relationship with Sky Blue.

Part of Uptown Soccer’s mission includes teaching kids leadership and values, as well as getting them outside and active and encouraging healthy eating, said Sykes.

Uptown Soccer’s program has an educational component, including park clean-ups and a photography workshop. The photography workshop led to the creation of a picture book focused on kids’ lives in their neighborhoods.

In addition, Uptown Soccer will hold a six-week summer camp for kids. Sykes mentioned a recent study that showed that lower income children fall behind in school over the summer because of a lack of activities and things to do. The Uptown Soccer summer camp was started, in part, to address that discrepancy.

“I’ve always loved soccer for soccer but around the world it’s often more than just a game for people,” Sykes said.

For more information on Uptown Soccer email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 347-749-3120.