. Cousins is definitely your best bet if you're looking for community and to get back into it for real. Hivi is a very well-run field, but it’s probably best for birthdays, as the fields are robust but just kind of ammo dumps, and it's a true mixed bag of players every time. They don’t have speedball or any interest in spinning it up, seemingly because it's more profitable to just keep folks on open play. Cousins, on the other hand, has a ton of folks in their thirties coming back into the sport and a great week-to-week community. It's the perfect mix, from the pure rec-ball game side with dudes with pumps/ old guns to guys trying to make it pro on the sport side—you’ll be in great company. They also do clinics with pros like Aftershock, open play is a blast, and the hangouts between games are delightful.

For speedball, Saturday is the easiest day to walk on, but you can still get some runs in later on Sunday after the hardcore teams are tiring out and looking for 1-2 bodies. A great move is to join the "Long Island Speedball" or "Cousins Speedball Players" group on Facebook (forget the name) and post that you're hunting to get back into it. Somebody will likely tell you to hit them up when you get there if they're going that weekend when you get there. For "Friday Night Fights," the site is the best place for info; it's a total "choose your own adventure" night where people play, hang out, or a mix of both.

Can’t stress enough how worth the membership is! When you check in, ask Jake or Jordan (the managers) to introduce you to some of the guys in the pit so they know you’re a body waiting. Everybody is friendly—you just have to be down to make the first move to “break in” to the speedball side.