This is the road I walked — through neighborhood games in Queens, an MLS NEXT academy, two Division I college programs, an East Coast Conference championship, and playing overseas. Today I coach the same kids walking that road behind me.
Gambeta was built out of a simple frustration: most private coaches teach the same generic drills. There's no plan, no progression, no feedback loop. Just an hour of cones and a Venmo request.
We do it differently. Every athlete gets an assessment, a position-specific plan, and quantifiable benchmarks — the way pro environments operate. We train year-round in NYC, on turf and fields, in heat and snow.
I started where every kid in New York City starts — at the park. For me that was Flushing Meadows, on a neighborhood team in Queens. The grass was uneven, the games were chaos, and I loved every minute of it.
If you grow up in NYC and love this sport, that's where you fall in love with it. That park taught me to compete before I ever had a coach.
At nine years old I was contacted by Manhattan Soccer Club. It was the first time someone outside my neighborhood looked at me and said: you can play at a higher level.
I played there for six years — through the years that shape every player.
At fifteen I was scouted by Metropolitan Oval Academy — an MLS NEXT program. That was the jump from club soccer to pro-track soccer.
Every weekend I lined up against academy teams from New England Revolution, NYCFC, Red Bulls — future pros. You either got better, or you got exposed. There was no middle.
After academy I played college soccer at Manhattan College, then transferred to Queens College to finish my collegiate career — eventually wearing the captain's armband.
Four years of work, two programs, one identity carried through both: the same kid who grew up in Queens.
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At Queens, I helped the program win its first-ever East Coast Conference championship.
I'll never forget what that team felt like — the work it took, the trust between us, the moment we finally raised that trophy.
After college I went to Romania chasing the next stage — to find new opportunities and prove myself in an environment where nobody knew my name.
Different country, different culture, same game. It pushed me as a player and as a person.
The road wasn't easy. I had coaches and mentors along the way who helped me make the right decisions — about training, about pathways, about the kind of player I wanted to be.
That's what I'm here to give back. I help kids and young adults in NYC train, develop, and learn from the pathway I walked — so they don't have to figure it out alone.
Coach Pepe runs private soccer training in Queens, including individual sessions, small-group training and goalkeeper training, from his base in Ridgewood and across Brooklyn.
Tell us about the athlete and Coach Pepe will personally get back to you within 24 hours.
