ROCHESTER — Colorful eggs dotted the grass at Edgerton Park, scattered by athletes and coaches of the Tenth Ward Tigers for a March community event.
There were about 1,500 plastic eggs scattered around the park on Dewey Avenue where the Tigers play and while there are sign ups for the football and cheerleading squads, it was an Easter-related community event open to anyone. The team used to do more events like this before the COVID pandemic, said president Ahjah Harper, but had struggled to regain their legs since.
Offseason events are one way the team looks to keep its young athletes engaged outside of the football seasons held in the spring and fall. The team operates both in Pop Warner and other youth football leagues; its roots date back to the late 1960s when the city was still identified by ward designations.
The Easter egg hunt on March 29 had a little bit of everything — grilled burgers and hot dogs, candy, football signups and handouts, free haircuts from two local barbershops.
It take a community to put on an event like that and, the team would argue, something more like a family. Many of the coaches and board members have been involved with the program for a long time.
“They form really great relationships with these coaches, and these coaches are always there for whatever they need,” Harper said. “They know they can call us. They need a ride, they’re short of food, mom needs a few bucks ‘til next week — they know they can call us.”
There are about 125 kids involved with the Tigers across the football and cheer programs. While that sounds like a lot, it’s still relatively small compared to larger organizations.
The smell of charcoal briquettes smoke wafted over the park, while kids ran and laughed, tossing mini footballs. The cool, blustery wind belied early spring under bright sunny skies as Tigers volunteers set up for the day.
Edgerton Park is located on athletic fields at the former Jefferson High School, which stands partly empty; Rochester International Academy occupies a portion of the building. New lighting was recently installed at the field to accommodate night practices Tuesday through Thursday.
The old football field is the home of the Tigers, a natural grass field between some dated field goal posts. The field is ringed by a track well beyond its natural life — the surface is alternatingly smooth and rutted, with some areas humped and others sprouting grass. The track surface becomes slippery in the rain, Harper said.
The city allows the team to use the fields for free, but the team is looking forward to when promised upgrades to the park, including the track and football field, come to fruition. Edgerton Park is part of the city’s multi-site park planning project, which completed community input sessions and planning last year. At this time there is no identified funding to implement the Edgerton plans, city officials said.
“We love what the city does do for us,” Harper said. “We just want to know when they’re going to make it safer for the people.”
The school building has athletic facilities the team would love to have access to, said Joseph Powell, vice president of the Tigers. The nearby R-Center doesn’t have the type of facilities the athletes need when the weather is poor and outdoor practice is difficult or impractical.
The team tries to engage its football players and cheerleaders year-round to keep them active and in a positive environment, Powell said. He’s worked with the team since the late 1990s and it’s a big time commitment.
“Sometimes you spend more time with your organization that with your own family, especially when your kids kind of outgrow the youth level and they get into high school and everything else,” he said.
Powell said he enjoys coaching the kids on fundamentals, like learning different snap counts and how to line up. When they leave for the next level, he doesn’t want them to have to be retaught. Practices are organized to ensure they’re fluid and the kids don’t have too much time just standing around.
“We’re also working with everybody, not the kids we know know how to play, but the other ones that are going to need more work because there’s gems in there, you just got to bring it out sometimes,” Powell said.
Even before the formal start of the egg hunt, Marcus Perkins, or Coach Cannon as he’s known, was cleaning up a kid’s fade in his portable barber’s chair. The free haircuts from the owner of Dream Cuts Barbershop were one of the hooks for the event. Encouraging the young people on the team — speaking “love and life into them” — is a big part of his mission.
“Especially in the area that we are, you know, it’s a lot of underprivileged kids and I grew up underprivileged, so if I can give back, I give back,” Perkins said.
The Tigers give kids in the community hope, he said. Negativity is common so the team, and the volunteers that support it, provides an escape from that. Especially when summer comes up and kids lose the structure of school.
“Some of these kids, they can be good kids and then next thing you know, a straight A student hanging around with the wrong crowd, boom he’s in trouble — legal trouble,” Perkins said. “And we don’t want to see them go down that road. So if we can stop and prevent a lot of stuff from happening, we try to do that.”
Good grades are required to participate in Pop Warner football. One athlete on the Tigers with a 4.5 GPA was honored at the organization’s March meeting with a ring. The team hopes to get more scholars on the team honored, Harper said.
The team is constantly looking to grow its membership, with sign ups and a deal on a multi-season commitment at the egg hunt. They try to make it as welcoming for the kids as possible, Harper said, to give them something to do, keep them off the streets and learn football and cheer. The Tigers are looking forward to improvements to the park and bleachers in coming seasons as the long-tenured youth football team keeps the tradition alive.
“We’re just hoping to see when that’s gonna happen and when they’re gonna revitalize this park in this area,” Harper said. “But in the meantime, this is our area and we love it. So we own it, we make it our own.”
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Tenth Ward Tigers boost kids, build community in Dewey corridor
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
