At a recent Boston Raiders Pop Warner football practice at the program’s temporary Hyde Park home, scores of kids from Dorchester and Mattapan could be seen across the field wearing shoulder pads and throwing around the football with excitement. But the adults behind the program tout that the ideas of mentorship, discipline, and structure within the game are what has produced a winning formula for the Raiders since 1974.

The Raiders have called Dorchester’s Franklin Field home since the mid-1990s, but due to the phased renovation of the site, they have had to temporarily move to Reservation Road Field in Hyde Park. In addition, Covid-19 kept the program dormant last fall, with the Raiders skipping a season for the first time in years.

This past week, kids from the neighborhood ages 5 to 14 donned their helmets for the first time since 2019 and participated in conditioning drills, looking to the many coaches there who have provided rock-solid inspiration on and off the field for decades.

There are nearly 180 kids enrolled in Raiders football and cheerleading, as well as some 44 coaches – all volunteers and ready to keep the kids focused on and off the field. While they started in Roxbury in 1974 under the vision of the late Harry Wilson and his brother, Dennis Wilson, who still supports the league, the team moved to Franklin Field around 1995.

“People know the Boston Raiders,” said league president Dameain Mims during a practice last week. “The Boston Raiders have the most wins of any team in Massachusetts Pop Warner – the most championships. It’s also generational. Most of our coaches played here and most kids here have a father or relative or family member that played here previously.”

In their last season in 2019, the program chalked up three Central Mass championships and two cheer squads competed in national tournaments. The Raiders third and fourth grade team went to Nationals.

“Former Police Commissioner Willie Gross was a Raider and professional basketball player Wayne Selden Jr. was a Raider,” Mims notes. “There are NFL players and Division 1 college players. Raiders are everywhere.”

Added league treasurer Lena Fields: “Everyone knows Franklin Field belongs to the Raiders. We’re having a resurgence this year after no season last year. Covid-19 really has a lot to do with so many kids and parents that wanted to get out of the house and they wanted to get back into something normal. So, this year we also have a lot of first-year players, and we expanded with a 5- and 6-year-old team also.”

Just a few weeks ago, the new playing field that is under construction at Franklin Field was named in honor of the Wilson brothers, paying homage to their vision for what many would argue is the top Pop Warner program in the city.

That might be because of the product on the field – as the Raiders are consistent winners – but others would say it’s the strong off-the-field mentorship set up by the Wilsons that has distinguished the Raiders.

Coach Keith Thomason now coaches the 12U team, having been to the Nationals as a head coach two times. He played for the Wilsons starting in 1977. In 1995, they recruited him back to coach for the program, and he’s been doing so for the last 26 years.

“A lot of these kids don’t have fathers in their lives,” he said. “We are coaches, but we also step in and guide them and give them advice. School is always more important than football. Football is just a game, and we check on how things are at home and if they’re in school and making sure they stay on the right track.”

Coach Andre “Chip” DuBose, a Codman Square resident, played for Harry Wilson at Cathedral High School, and went on to college afterward. Some 29 years ago, Wilson saw him in a suit watching a game after work. He handed him a whistle and clipboard, and DuBose hasn’t turned back – winning conference championships nearly all of those 29 years and taking teams to the Nationals 15 times as the 14U coach.

“School is first and foremost,” DuBose said. “The program is designed to teach these kids life skills in general and not just football. We’re trying to prepare kids for high school and college and the workforce. Everyone wants to play in the NFL, but you need a college degree and a career to fall back on realistically.”

Parents such as Breanna Perryman, Tayla Douglas, and Alecia Morris all said they have appreciated the activity for their sons, and also the discipline that they have all learned as Raiders.

“The consistency of the coaching and their focus on academics, plus the discipline and product on the field and the community feel has the kids in a synonymous mindset of brotherhood,” said Douglas, a first-year parent. “It’s profound and very different than other teams. It’s a great example of healthy brotherhood rather than other types of brotherhood we see – especially for our melanated boys.”

Treyvon Fields has participated since he was 6 years old, and said he now plays quarterback for the 14U team.
“All the coaches I’ve been with, they all believe in me,” he said. “That’s important because they feel I can go to the professional level and that gives me more motivation because I was pretty bad when I started at age 6, but I kept improving.”

Improvement and bonding are common themes during practices four nights a week, plus game days on Sunday. All of the coaches, generous sponsors, and league officials said it’s the smiles they see on current players, as well as those that have moved on from the program to adulthood, that makes it all worth it.

“The program takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it when you see the smiles,” said Mims. “If these kids aren’t here with us, there are other places they would be that are much worse.”

Long-time Coach Ray Vega said the return visits from alums are the reward for volunteers like himself.

“You get them at the age of 6 or 7 and you see them as smiling little kids and then they come back as 20 year olds and they are grown, successful men. That’s the reward,” he said with a smile.

The Raiders said they will likely be in Hyde Park again for most of this season, but hope they can make a return to Dorchester very soon and christen the new field at Harambee Park on Talbot Avenue.

This year, they will be returning to compete in the Pop Warner Eastern Massachusetts Division after having competed in Central Mass for the last several seasons.

If all goes by the desired script, several Raiders teams will be found later this fall hoisting championship trophies in the middle of their new Dorchester field.