Pop Warner team rally seeks reinstatement
Want postseason ban suspended
More than 100 parents and children clad in Dorchester Eagles T-shirts voiced support yesterday for their Pop Warner football team and an official who is fighting to lift a ban on postseason play against the team.
Following an altercation last year involving members of the Dorchester Division 1 Midget Team and the Edgewood Eagles of Cranston, R.I., the entire Dorchester chapter was suspended for three years by national Pop Warner authorities from competing in the postseason on national and regional levels.
But, along with local community members, Leslie Goodwin, Dorchester Eagles Pop Warner Association president, says she is baffled by the suspension.
“Yes, we play aggressive football,’’ she said during a press conference yesterday at the Greater Love Tabernacle Church in Dorchester.
“If given the opportunity, we can win the national championship,’’ Goodwin said. “If [they] want to make us an example, show that we can make mistakes and learn and grow from them.’’
The Edgewood coaching staff received one year of probation in the incident.
After contacting officials from the New England region, the national office offered Dorchester a different penalty, which would have consisted of a yearlong suspension from postseason play for all six Dorchester teams in the league.
The Dorchester Eagles declined the offer.
“The New England region, through conversations with us, asked that we look at it again,’’ said Josh Pruce, national director for media relations for Pop Warner Little Scholars.
“Those directors didn’t have to, but they did proceed to look at it again,’’ he said.
“We discussed the possibility of a one-year suspension across the board for postseason play. Dorchester then said they did not like that offer and said they were leaving Pop Warner for another league.’’
Parents interviewed said the Pop Warner football league in Dorchester was a wonderful way to keep their children active and off the streets after school, and they were upset that the officials were taking it away.
Mostly, they were confused as to why the younger teams were being kept from the postseason when they were not involved with the altercation.
The punishment stems from what league officials called “repeat behavioral issues’’ at the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando, Fla., in December 2008 that included a fight between members of the Dorchester and Edgewood teams.
