There’s just one factor stopping an undefeated New York Metropolis soccer powerhouse from making it to this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl — it may well’t afford the journey.
It’s fourth and lengthy for Brooklyn’s Mo Higher Jaguars, whose Jap Regional Championship win secured the group of 8- and 9-year-olds a spot within the Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl in Orlando, Florida, this weekend.
However native program organizers are scrambling like a determined quarterback to boost the cash wanted to ship the little linebackers and linemen to Disney World for a showdown with their tiny, proficient rivals.
“How do you tell a 9-year-old who played football all season that, unfortunately, we couldn’t raise the money for you guys to continue and go on to the Pop Warner Super Bowl?” stated Cheryl Wray, president of Mo Higher Jaguars Soccer.
“I don’t know what I would say to them. I don’t know. I would crawl under a rock. If we were in the Upper East Side, if we were in Connecticut, if we were in Long Island, this would not be a thought. Somebody would just write a check — right? — and take care of the whole thing. We’re not in that. We’re servicing low-income, inner-city kids.”
Courtesy of Cheryl Wray
The Mo Higher Jaguars Pop Warner soccer group is predicated in Brownsville, Brooklyn. (Courtesy of Cheryl Wray)
After a season that has seen each the Jets and Giants mired in mediocrity, New York’s soccer hopes experience on the shoulder pads of fourth and fifth graders whose salaries are paid in pizza and Pepsi.
For them, soccer is a love-of-the-game exercise that they squeeze in between piano classes, Roblox and finding out for a science take a look at. So the chance to signify their hardscrabble Brownsville neighborhood on little league soccer’s largest stage is one thing that they need to not miss, their largest boosters say.
“It’s a big boost for their self-esteem,” stated Jaguars head coach Chris Legree. “I mean, everybody likes to feel associated with something successful, right? So when the kid walks down the street or goes to school with our jersey on or with our hoodies or jackets, they get a sense of belonging to something positive.
Courtesy of Cheryl Wray
The Mo Better Jaguars Pop Warner football team out of Brownsville. (Courtesy of Cheryl Wray)
“We didn’t start the program to make NFL players. We go very hard with the academics. We say, if you have academics and athletics, it can open up possibilities for you to open up opportunities, right? Our ultimate goal is to produce productive members of society. You can do so many good things with sports — [learn to deal with] adversity, confidence, preparation. It’s just getting these principles in.”
Wray has two sons who performed in this system.
“The oldest one went to school on a football scholarship,” she stated. “They’re both college graduates. I know what this program can do for a young boy in the inner city. You know — the guidance, the direction, the structure. When I see kids able to put their phones down and get on the field and not just play football, but then play with each other. ”
Not solely is the group undefeated with a 12-0 file — not one single group has even been in a position to rating on them. In consequence, the Jaguars are scheduled to play their first-round sport on Saturday. However, proper now, they barely have the funds for to make it out of Brooklyn, organizers stated.
Courtesy of Cheryl Wray
The Mo Higher Jaguars Pop Warner soccer group out of Brownsville. (Courtesy of Cheryl Wray)
Wray stated the Florida journey prices about $1,500 per participant for journey, lodging and meals, or about $47,000 in complete. She stated that, up to now, the group has been in a position to increase about $22,000.
Wray stated it’s late within the fourth quarter, and the clock is ticking.
“Right now, it’s looking like we might not, like we can’t do it,” she stated. “If we don’t … I could not, could not stand the thought of these kids not taking this trip. And they worked so hard. The previous fundraiser we did is what got us through thus far. We played up and down the Northeastern region. Those were overnight trips. Money went to charter buses, hotel stays.”
Wray stated she needs to see the Jaguars stay undefeated — on and off the sphere.
“These kids earned it,” she stated. “They worked hard. They’re a tough little group.”
Initially Printed: December 4, 2024 at 5:55 PM EST
