Obstacles overcome by Pop Warner youths

On the day after Thanksgiving, the Boston Raiders “C” Team, a youth football league, defeated the Norwalk Jaguars of Connecticut — 18-12 at Worcester State College, taking the regional title for the second year in a row. It was a great follow up to their previous state victory a week earlier against Shrewsbury — 18-6.

“We played our hardest because we have love for the game,” said Wayne Selden, 11, of Roxbury.

We said ‘so what’ when we made mistakes.” said Charles Slayden, 11,of Dorchester. “We just kept on playing.”

After winning the regional championship, the Boston Raiders earned the right to represent the New England region at the National Championship in Orlando, FL. But before the Raiders could begin to think about Florida, there laid one lingering obstacle. The team needed to raise $70,000 in order to participate in the national championship.

It was short notice, but the community seemed to react instantaneously. In no time, donations poured out from everywhere.

“We received donations from families, private organizations, and received a huge amount from a local real estate broker,” said André Chip DuBose, Boston Raiders head coach.

However, the road wasn’t always this smooth for the Raiders. Earlier this year the Boston Globe reported a mass exodus of suburban teams who wanted to split from the league and play teams in their own area.

According to Myron Stovell, team president and executive director, “Before you knew it, the news media was on the story…. ABC, NBC, New York Times, etc.”

It became an issue of city vs. suburban, fair competition, safety, and to some… race.

Suburban families and team officials said they were concerned about violence in the city and feared for their kid’s safety. Stovell said that parents would call and ask — “I heard there was shooting in Boston. Is the game still on?” or worse, “We’re not coming into the city.”

“First of all, it is quite appalling for someone to not play us on the field while we have 250 players of our own out there and from this area. I have been involved with the program for 30 years and nothing has ever happened,” said Stovell.

The unstated reason was simple: the Boston Raiders were better and suburban towns wanted to play teams that were at their level. Some members of the league felt the city teams should play with the city teams, and the suburban teams should face teams in their area. However, Pop Warner was designed for inner city kids to experience and interact with different areas and people outside their usual neighborhood or environment.

While the issue was continuing to brew, the boys were still playing good football, but they were not oblivious to the drama around them.

“We heard a lot of bad things,” said Jordan Foshee, 13, of Roxbury. “If we know what we heard on tv or the radio is not true, it doesn’t matter to us. We know the truth because we are on the field.”

“We are inner city kids, trying to do something with our lives,” said Slayden. “I don’t understand why people are trying to not like us. We’re just kids.”

On Sunday, Dec. 4, the Boston Raiders played the Oak Grove California Eagles. Unfortunately, they lost 13-12. They are now competing for 5th place and will be playing Hawaii on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

“They underestimated us and we had them scared,” said Chip. “We played the number 1 team in the country and we were the first team to score the initial touch down on them this year. That was the best game we played all season”

Stovell and the raiders have worked tirelessly to achieve their success, but their good fortune didn’t come without its share of controversy.

“Our Coaches always tell us to stay strong, stay humble, stay focused, block, and hit,” said Charles.