Posted on Wed, Dec. 22, 2004 in the Philadelphia Inquirer

Street fetes Super Bowl champions
He proclaimed "North Philly Aztecs Day" to honor the Pop Warner team.

By Natalie Pompilio
Inquirer Staff Writer

Aquil Scarborough, 11, is dead serious when he lists what the Philadelphia Eagles need to do to win the NFL championship.

"Play hard. Be a team," he said, nodding his head with each sentence. "Work together. Be dedicated."

Aquil should know what it takes. He's already a Super Bowl champion.

He plays for the North Philadelphia Aztecs, winners of their division in the Pop Warner Super Bowl. Yesterday, the team and its cheerleaders were in City Hall as Mayor Street proclaimed it "North Philly Aztecs Day" in Philadelphia.

"You have made this city proud," Street told the boys and their coaches. "Where's Andy Reid? It's his turn next."

Theirs is a story so good someone should film it and show it over the holidays: They're a team from a tough neighborhood, so poor the coaches have to spray-paint the helmets the right color, so disadvantaged that they play on an unlit, unfit field.

But the players, ages 9 to 11, work hard. Their coaches tell them to "be the best they can be. Lay it all out there. Don't save anything for tomorrow, because tomorrow isn't promised to you," said Steve Irving, one of the team's founders.

The players took that advice: They went undefeated this season and earned a trip to the show - the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando, Fla. There, they took on the Huntington Beach (Calif.) Chargers on a grass field surrounded by pine and palm trees, far from the mud lot surrounded by prostitutes and drug dealers where they usually scrimmage.

And they trounced 'em, 32-13.

"It goes to show that no matter where you come from, there's no limit to where you can go," said Leroy Fisher, another of the team's founders. "It's the Rocky story, the little guy surviving."

They came home heroes and were met at the airport by a horde of fans, popping flashbulbs and requesting autographs. Last week, local politicians secured the team a $30,000 grant. On Sunday, they were honored during the Eagles game. Gov. Rendell has said he will be having them out to Harrisburg.

And yesterday, they were the stars of City Hall.

The Aztec cheerleaders got the crowd yelling with a cheer. Street, who gave the team and cheerleaders miniature Liberty Bells, said one of the girls might be an Eagles cheerleader one day. Or one of the boys could play for the Eagles. Or either could take the mayor's job, because they had shown the dedication to get ahead.

"You became champions long before you won that game," Street said.

He urged the boys to take what they had learned on the football field and apply it to the rest of their lives.

"You want to be Super Bowl champions in life," Street said, "not just in the 100-pound division in your league."