Chicago youth football team loses $30,000 worth of equipment when car fire spreads
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Decades of a youth football team's memories and equipment went up in smoke in seconds - and the team, of course, is devastated.
But the team is determined that the community will pull together and help the more than 100 youngsters get back on the field.
On a rainy night like Friday night, mud puddles should be the biggest problems for the High Ridge Chargers football team. Yet now, the team's entire spring season is uncertain.
"It's just gut-wrenching to come out here and see everything gone," said David Roti, president of the team. "Someone stole a car, and parked it right [in a park driveway] - you can kind of see the tracks - and set it on fire."
The flames jumped over to the team's storage container, stationed in the park of Rogers Park, at 7250 N. Rockwell St. near Touhy and Western avenues.
Roti received a call Wednesday morning.
"When I got here, everything – it was open like this - they had to break the lock and get inside there," Roti said. "Everything was torched."
When Roti says "everything," he is talking about $30,000 worth of equipment the kids on the team used for conditioning – all collected over decades.
"Honestly, I played out here when I was a kid," he said. "I think I hit that same pad when I was a kid."
The Chargers have played in the park of Rogers Park since 1959. Over those 65 years, they have impacted many youths.
This the biggest blow this team has ever seen.
"This is one of those programs that change your life," said Coach Jason Goodnight.
Coach Goodnight teaches so many life lessons on and off the field – and he considers this a teachable moment too.
"You face adversity like this - not only in a situation like this, but in life," Goodnight said, "and it's just a lesson that you have to keep going even when it gets hard."
And it's hard now. Abdullah Masari, 13, lives nearby. He recorded video on o of the burned-out storage container his way to school the morning of the fire.
"I was like very confused," Abdullah said. "I was like, did they do this on purpose, or accident?"
Now, one criminal act has forced the High Ridge Chargers to experience the negative consequences of whoever stole and torched the car from which the flames spread.
"The result of what they have done now has impacted more than just the person they were trying to hurt," said Odie Fleming, "so maybe just think before they do."
Now, the Chargers will lean on the community to keep the boys on the field for the April season.
"We're thinking about maybe an event that we can have to bring the community together – maybe do a fundraiser," said Goodnight.
The coaches are determined not to let the kids down.
The High Ridge Chargers are considered Chicago's oldest youth football team – originally founded by a Chicago Police officer.