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FOLCROFT » A small but passionate group of Del Val League student-athletes and coaches assembled outside the Southeast Delco School District administration building Thursday to call for a return of sports this fall.
Among those in attendance were several Chester High players and coaches and one student-athlete from Penn Wood. One coach from Chichester showed up.
A source said that several Del Val student-athletes were advised by coaches not to attend the rally. The peaceful gathering lasted roughly an hour.
The student-athletes who decided to come wanted their faces seen by the school administration, to let school leaders know they are hurting without sports. Fall sports in the Del Val League are shutdown due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. The fivemember conference includes three school districts — William Penn (Penn Wood), Southeast Delco (Academy Park) and Chester-Upland — that will not resume in-person learning until November at the earliest. Chichester is planning on a phasedin reopening later this month, while Interboro began hybrid learning this week.
As long as school buildings are closed, it’s difficult to imagine the Del Val League reversing course to begin fall sports. But such knowledge didn’t deter student-athletes from imploring school leaders.
“It’s been stressful,” said Jakai Boegertey, a senior running back/linebacker at Chester. “One minute you think you’re getting clearance and the next minute you’re getting shut down again. For a lot of us football is all we’ve got and we don’t have much else to do without it. We have football so we can stay out of trouble and stay safe. It’s bigger than football.”
Penn Wood senior Christian Hunt was the lone non-Chester student-athlete in attendance. The league plans to explore options to hold a fall sports season in the spring, but waiting until 2021 is detrimental to kids hoping to get recruited to play in college.
“Even though we’re not on the same team, we’re still supporting each other. We’re all friends here,” Hunt said. “I just feel like we shouldn’t have a spring season and that we should play this month. I feel like this season, if we don’t play, we won’t have a chance to have colleges visit our games. I feel 100 percent that kids are missing out.”
Chester assistant coach Dennis Shaw was hoping for a better turnout from other Del Val schools.
“That goes to show, if we’re in it for the kids, we have to live by it,” Shaw said. “We can’t just say it and put it in the newspaper or post it on social media because it sounds good or to sell a parent to come to your school. You’ve got to put the ground work in and this is the ground work right here.
“It’s pretty sickening to look around and looks like we’re out here rallying alone. We’re supposed to be together. Every league that was postponed, they all came together. The Central League came together and the (Philadelphia Catholic League) came together and came up with an agreement ... because at the end of the day, this is for our kids and we have to come together for our kids.”
The Del Val are one of three leagues in Southeastern Pennsylvania — along with the Philadelphia Public League and nonPIAA Inter-Ac League — that remain shut down. In recent weeks, the Central, Ches-Mont and Catholic leagues returned based on new recommendations from local health departments.
“What everyone has to understand about the schools in the Del Val, we as coaches have a pretty good rapport with every school. We talk to these kids,” Shaw said. “If the coaches were for the kids, they would be here.
And if that decision was made by anyone besides the coaches, then the coaches should still be sitting here fighting for their kids to play. This is nothing rowdy or violent, this is us trying to make our point peacefully. And the kids are screaming out. They might not be screaming out to their respective head coach, but they’re screaming out. We see it. The kids in every single school in the Del Val are saying, ‘We want to play. I have nothing to do, what am I going to do?’ The coaches are simply not fighting for them.
“If everyone agreed that it was about more than just football, they would be sitting right here and advocating for that same reason. What are the kids doing right now? They’re sitting at home or they’re in the streets. They’re supposed to be at practice. You’re not giving your kid the same opportunity that every other kid in the surrounding area is getting.”
Isaiah Freeman transferred from Strath Haven to Chester after last school year and was excited to showcase his talents for his new team. The junior was slated to be the Clippers’ starting quarterback.
“You look around and only see one kid from another school and you have two schools that have zero people here,” Freeman said. “It’s definitely frustrating because we can’t do it all by ourselves. Last year at my other school, I didn’t have the opportunity to play quarterback at the varsity level and this year, coming in my junior year, my most important year for recruiting, not being able to play is very frustrating and I just wish we had the opportunity to play again.”