ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
December 30, 2004
Raiders place second in nation
in Pop Warner football
Jeremy Schwab
A team of 27 11- and 12-year olds from Roxbury,
Dorchester and Mattapan steamrolled their way to the national
football championship game in their age group recently.
The Boston Raiders lost to California in the Pop Warner Super
Bowl December 11 at the Wide World of Sports at Disney World.
Like much of the entertainment at the theme park, it was a magical
ride.
The season began in August, as it always does for the 7-15 year-old
boys at Boston Raiders, Inc. and the girls who lead the cheers
for them, with grueling practice.
“We just try to teach them how to be tough kids,”
said Head Coach Andre Chip DuBose. “Exercise, push ups,
laps — it’s all hard. There’s nothing easy about
this program. The kids have to want to do it. We are not here
to babysit.”
Clearly the training had an effect. The team cruised into the
super bowl without being scored on. The closest game they played
was a defensive duel with Attleboro in the state semifinals. In
that game, halfback Leon “Lucky” Barnes Jr. broke
through a hole up the middle with around four minutes left in
the fourth quarter for a touchdown, breaking a 0-0 tie.
The regional championships went comparatively easily, and in their
first game in the Sunshine State, the Raiders crushed the Illinois
Falconeers 23-0.
During a Banner interview last week, the coaches, team members
and supporters emphasized that winning football games is not the
only goal of the program.
“They have high expectations, and a very good coaching staff,”
said team mom Ingrid Tucker. “They instill respect and self-respect
in the kids, and have a high expectation for homework.”
Players are required to earn satisfactory grades before they can
even participate. The Raiders staff monitors each player’s
report card and check in with parents to make sure that the children
are doing their homework. Parents use the threat of withdrawing
their boys from football to encourage them to do their work.
“The parents know it is a tool,” said Boston Raiders,
Inc. founder and President Harry Wilson. “If you take something
a child likes and hold it over his head, usually you get a good
response.”
Over the years, the Raiders organization has helped many players
contact and enroll in private schools, and the extended network
of players’ families and team supporters serves to keep
an eye on the children all year round.
“These guys know if they do something, I don’t care
if it’s March,” said Wilson. “I will find them.”
Wilson, who co-founded the original Roxbury Raiders with his brother
Dennis 30 years ago and later resurrected the team as the Boston
Raiders, says he wants to expand the Raiders into a year-round
athletic and tutoring program.
Wilson hopes to raise enough money to work with
the state and community organizations to renovate an old bath
house and skating rink at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Washington
Street, where the program could be housed.
“We want to raise enough money to make it multi-faceted,
with basketball and football,” he said. “The Department
of Conservation and Recreation agreed to work with us, but that
is a long-range goal.”
Wilson says he also wants to make the cheerleading program year-round,
so that the girls will have a better chance to make it to the
national championships in their discipline.
“Nine extra months, the girls do other things, when they
could be with us,” he said. “So we want to expand
our program.”
In the short term, there are other changes in store for the Raiders.
Next year, the team will move into a new football field at Franklin
Field next season, thanks to funding Wilson garnered from the
National Football League and the city.
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