Long enough to have second generation sportsters! 2026 will be the 20th season for Central Park Sports and we’ll be celebrating with special events and offers all summer. See our About page for more information.

When they gotta go, they gotta go! We use public bathrooms throughout the park, primarily at Mineral Springs/Le Pain Quotidien north of the Sheep Meadow and at Bethesda Fountain.

Yes… we don’t teach everything. All sportsters need to be fully potty trained before attending our program. Coaches/counselors will be able to help with getting kids on and off the toilet and washing hands, but kids should be able to go and wipe on their own. Accidents do happen and we are more than prepared to deal with anything that comes up (or out!) but our coaches are not expected to wipe little bottoms every day.

All play, all day! Kids play 2-4 sports a day plus various park games like tag, 4 square etc. Here’s what a typical day looks like:

8:45-9:15a Drop-off

9:15a-9:30a Wacky walk to play area

9:30a-9:45a Warm up games

9:45a-10:30a Sport 1 (see “What sports do you play”)

10:30a-11:00a Popsicle Break! CU Play

11:00a-11:45a Sport 2

11:45a-12p AM kids to pick-up

12p-12:30p Lunch, PM kids arrive

12:30p-1:00p CU Play

1:00p-1:45p Sport 3

1:45p-2:15p Snack/ice cream (optional)

2:15p-3:00p Sport 4

3:00p-3:15p Wacky walk to dismissal

Zone defense! We operate overall on a 4:1 child:coach/counselor ratio. Safety is our #1 concern and we staff more than the required number of coaches/counselors in the park.

Rain, rain go away… Currently, we are an outdoor only program. If it looks like it is going to rain steadily for most of a day, we will have to cancel (usually by 8am) and you will receive a make-up day. This generally happens 2-3 days each summer. Parents are alerted on our website and via our text messaging service. We also try to post cancellations to our social media accounts as early as possible.
We are a hearty group. If it looks like occasional showers or misty weather, we play - puddles are fun!

Splash in!!! Once we have the kids, we have them until at least the next drop-off time (12:00p or 3:30p). We have a couple of shelter areas we go to while it’s raining. We do need to walk to shelter so pack raincoats on any potential rain days. If we need to end the day at 12:00, we’ll notify everyone through our texting service as well as posting on our website. Full-Day kids will get a half-day make-up class.
If the weather is severe, we may need to remain under shelter until it passes. We don’t want kids or parents/caregivers out in dangerous weather. Adjusted pick-up times will be sent out through our messaging service.

Oranges! Not citrus fruit, T-shirts. We have multiple layers of “security” to make sure all kids are accounted for at all times. Not the least of which is our bright orange T-shirts that allow us to quickly and easily see any “wanderers”. Does this mean we occasionally stop some poor tourist kid in their SF Giants shirt roaming the park with Grandpa? Yup. Sorry, just keeping our sportsters safe! Read on for more about our attendance system.

Deep Dive… We track attendance actively on a linked, electronic attendance sheet, available on our CPSports iPads as well as coaches’ phones, that lets us know exactly how many kids we have at any location at any time. When dividing kids to walk, a lead coach calls them by name to their group. The coaches for the group count the kids, make sure they agree on the number, then report the number back to the lead coach who confirms the number with his attendance. This prevents outcome bias (counting kids until the desired number is reached as opposed to counting kids and double checking the result). Because we use names before numbers, we can quickly determine who, not just how many, are out of place before we move. Coaches count the kids several times while walking and must confirm numbers any time the group stops (to cross Park Drive etc.).

We track overall numbers of kids as well as individual groups. During activities, a supervising coach consistently moves from group to group to check each group for the appropriate number of kids. Kids using the bathroom (accompanied by coaches) are removed from their group’s attendance, tracked on a separate list, and placed back into their group upon retuning. We know where each kid is at all times.

Attendance is backed up off-line in case of any data outages.

Almost anything that doesn’t require a pool or a horse! Baseball/Softball/T-ball, basketball, football (flag), hockey (field and street), lacrosse (sofcrosse), rugby (flag), soccer, team handball, tennis, track-n-field, volleyball. Kids genrally play 2-4 sports each day on a rotating schedule. We also play park games like frisbee, kickball, medic, tug o’ war and various tag games. Completely Unstructured or CU Play time lets kids tap into their creativity and explore.

Water balloon tennis, sprinklers, water shooters - anything to cool the kids off! Most of our area is well shaded and we avoid the direct sun as much as possible on very hot days. We take mandatory water breaks and play games in the sprinklers when they’re on. We don’t cancel for heat unless it is declared dangerous for the average child to be outside. If your child has a condition that is exacerbated by heat, please note it on the medical conditions section of your registration.

The Park belongs to all of us! But permits are required for programs like ours…. Most of our activities take place around the Sand Volleyball court area near Sheep Meadow in Central Park (search Central Park Volleyball Courts on Google/Appple maps). We have permits for the grass/dirt areas for field sports and a concrete area for hard court sports. We walk to the Heckscher ballfields for some of our baseball activities and occasionally travel to other areas around the Park.

Energy, energy, energy! And the basics: Be dressed to play outside and bring a backpack (we walk to fields) with your own water bottle (refillable), snacks, lunch (Full-Day progrm), change of clothes (just in case), water shoes/flip flops, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, jacket, rain jacket. Optional $ for an afternoon ice cream snack form park vendors. Our full equipment checklist is available here. We provide all sporting gear but can let you know if it’s a good day to bring your own baseball glove etc.

POPSICLE BREAK! It’s our favorite part of the day. We provide a popsicle at morning break and fruit snacks at afternoon snack break (Full-Day kids). Most kids bring additional snacks (nut free, please!) and Full-Day kids bring their own lunch. In “emergency” situations, kids may be able to purchase food from a vendor or the snack bar but we cannot guarantee availability.

Cheat day, every day… We are all athletes and we all believe in healthy eating. We also believe that hard work deserves a reward. We give out 1oz Otter Pop popsicles at morning POPSICLE BREAK! They are kosher.
We provide Annie’s Organic Bunny Fruit Flavored Snacks at afternoon snack break. They do not contain gelatin but are not officially labeled as kosher.

I spy with my little eye… Many of our coaches come to us with background checks as well as SafeSport through their sports’ governing bodies (USA Baseball, US Soccer, USA Hockey etc.) and many have DOE background checks. Those that don’t are screened through NCSI or similar national databases.

Boo-Boo Bear… or Coach “Doc” or another EMT are on site at our main area. Coaches are child First-Aid and child CPR certified.

Entry Draft! Sportsters are divided by age - usually 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 and 9-12. Adjustments are made to ensure that kids are in a group suited to their physical and learning abilities. There are generally 6-12 kids in a group.

BFFs… We can honor grouping requests within reason. If an older child requests to be with a younger child, we generally place both children in the younger child’s group. When can we not honor requests? When we are completely full at an age level or when multiple requests make it impossible (3yo Rerun wants to be with 5yo Sally who wants to stick by 7yo Linus who wants to be with 8yo best friend Charlie who wants to be with 9yo friends Patty and Franklin…)

Standing room only! We ask that any parents/caregivers who remain in the Park stay in the background away from the kids and their activities. We are a drop-off program and it’s important that the kids get to know and trust their coaches and counselors. It is difficult for our sportsters to enjoy their activities if they are constantly looking for/running to a parent or caregiver.

Additional T-shirts are available for purchase at registration or from coaches at pick-up/drop-off. Additional shirts are $10.