Gridders Win a Delay of Game
A team of pint-sized football players from Fontana that refused to play in a championship game on Sunday, when some teammates would be in church, has persevered.
Because of the uproar, the championship has been moved to Tuesday night.
“It’s wonderful news for the boys,” Charlotte Pooler, whose son Emmanuel is one of the team’s running backs. “We give credit to Jesus.”
The 9- and 10-year-old members of the undefeated Fontana Generals had voted to skip the game because the league scheduled the contest for Sunday, and five of the 17 players said they wouldn’t miss church to play football. The rest of the team voted to sit out the game in solidarity with their teammates.
“We started as a team, we should end as a team,” said Jonathan Lyles, the team’s quarterback and 9-year-old son of Coach Lamar Lyles.
On Friday, the opposing Corona Chargers agreed to postpone the contest. The league includes teams from Palm Springs, Yucaipa and Corona.
The undefeated Generals have been playing Saturday games all season, and said they had been assured by the Southern California Junior All-American football league that the championship game would also fall on a Saturday.
But after they recently learned that the final game was scheduled Sunday, they decided to sit it out. Many of the players’ parents said they got involved in the league specifically because the Saturday games would not interfere with Sunday religious services.
League officials could not be reached for comment.
“We have a right as American citizens to practice our faith,” said Jacquline Overstreet, a parent and member of an Israelite church in Los Angeles.
Overstreet and other parents say the team has become like a family and that none of the players wants to battle for the top prize unless they all can be there.
“That’s what it’s about,” said assistant coach Chad Edginton. “We are a football family.”
Edginton, a Mormon, said he agreed to help coach because he assumed it would not interfere with his religious responsibilities on Sunday.
Fontana religious and city leaders lauded the team’s decision.
“I think it’s honorable,” said Gary Holley, pastor at the Fontana Christian Fellowship International Ministries. He said the boys’ decision shows a dedication to their faith that is rare today.
“It shows that there is something that has merit in their hearts,” Holley said of the players.
