Downtown Soccer League coaches and parents receive critical skills for responding to cardiac arrest. Photo courtesy of Greg Sheindlin
Earlier this month, dozens of parents and coaches of Downtown Soccer Leaguers got together, not to cheer on their kids but, if need be, to learn how to save one.
The gathering, in a Battery Park City community room, was the latest session in an ongoing commitment by the league to offer free, biannual CPR and AEDs (automated external defibrillators) training to all its coaches, volunteers, and members of the league.
The sessions, which have trained more than 100 league adults, are led by nationally accredited instructors and are meant to equip participants with the critical skills needed to respond to sudden cardiac arrest. (The next session is in September.)
Inspiration for the program, said Greg Sheindlin, head of the league’s Health and Safety Committee, was amplified by the national spotlight on youth sports safety following the on-field collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during an NFL game in 2023. Hamlin has credited the immediate use of an AED by first responders as a key reason he survived. His advocacy played a pivotal role in the recently passed New York State youth sports safety law, which requires leagues with more than five teams to have at least one CPR- and AED-certified person present at practices and games.
After the new law went into effect, the Downtown Soccer League—serving more than 2,000 players ages 5 to 17—“not only trained enough coaches and volunteers to meet state legal requirements,” Sheindlin said, “but also recognized an interest among families and expanded the program into a broader mission: to make the entire community a safer place.”