Indians can't be stripped of their pride

IMMOKALEE — Around here, Immokalee’s high school football team remains the lifeblood of an impoverished community. The continuous stream of fans rushing to Gary Bates Stadium for Friday night home games is symbolic of the sustenance coursing through each and every one of their veins.

So as Immokalee residents learned Wednesday that the football team would have its 2005 district title taken away and be banned from postseason play this year, few felt the Florida High School Athletic Association made the correct ruling. Even more called it unfair.

Reyna Garza, who has worked in Immokalee for the past 11 years, said the FHSAA shouldn’t have made an example of the current players on the team.

“They should’ve punished those three students,” Garza said in reference to the over-aged students who played soccer — of them played football — at Immokalee. “But obviously, you should punish the administration for not doing their job. Those other teammates tried their best to accomplish that title.”

It was a business-like approach as Immokalee football players gathered for Thursday’s 9 a.m. workout session.

The Indians, with head coach John Weber out of town, were supervised by some of their assistant coaches.

First, the players hit the weight room and then went to the practice field where their youthful exuberance was on display during bull-in-the-ring and two-hand touch.

Immokalee senior linebacker Brian Rolle said it felt good to take his mind off the FHSAA’s ruling, even it was for only three hours.

“There’s no kind of hatred in there,” he said after practice. “Of course, people are going to talk about what’s going on right now, but what’s done is done and what’s going to happen is going to happen regardless of what we all say. We’re just kids and we’ve just got to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.

“It’s not like we can be mad at somebody, because I don’t blame him (Blandel Jean) for trying to provide for his family and get an education,” Rolle continued. “Everything is fine ... We’re just going to support him.”

For the players on the team who feel like there’s no purpose in the season due to the playoff ban, Rolle said everyone has to come together and play for pride.

“You’ve just got to talk to them. I can’t beat them in the head and make them play, but I can talk to them and say ‘even though we can’t go to the playoffs, we got to play for the team,’¤” Rolle said. “They think of it as, since we can’t go to the playoffs why play, but it shouldn’t be that kind of attitude. It should be the attitude ... it’s football and you’re going to play regardless of what the situation or circumstances are. You’ve just got to encourage them, and if they don’t want to play, I can’t make them.”

Despite the circumstances, Rolle said he’s excited about what lies ahead for the Indians.

“I’m looking forward to the summer,” he said. “I’m trying to get some of the young guys to lift weights and the older guys to step up and help and we got to come together. The summer’s going to be very critical.

“We’ve got some young guys trying to step up and play. Seven on seven is going to be real critical for the upcoming season and we’ve just got to get them in here.”

Despite the Indians not being able to participate in the playoffs, Lourdes Nava, a 2006 graduate of Immokalee, feels the community will still support the team.

“This is a football town,” Nava said. “When football season starts everyone’s there, but I think it’s going to bring them down and make them not want to work as hard as they would’ve if they had the chance to go to the playoffs.”

One Immokalee resident, who chose to remain anonymous, even expressed disapproval with the punishments given to the soccer team, which includes stripping them of two district titles and a two-year ban from the playoffs.

Yet still, it’s the football team’s punishment that has had the biggest impact on the community, according to Florence Jelks, a former Immokalee High School guidance counselor and 38-year resident, because it’s more than just a game.

“The football team gives the community a sense of pride,” she said. “When I came in ... we had the same sense of pride, because they were winning and all kinds of good things were going on with them. Now, we’re back into the same mold where they’re winning and that gives the children a sense of pride.

“Immokalee is a challenging town for children, grown-ups and everybody, because of all the different problems that exist,” Jelks continued. “There’s such a difference between the Naples area and this area and children may have things that will kind of make them feel, ‘Oh, I may not be where I should be,’ but then when you have a team that’s going to be the best ... it gives them a sense of belonging and the football team does a good job of keeping that small number of children away from the negative kinds of things.”

Jelks has served as a mentor to kids in Immokalee since arriving in the area, including Immokalee graduate and Arizona Cardinals running back Edgerrin James.

And her message for the football team is simple.

“They need to play as they’ve never played before,” she said. “They need to let people know ... that what was done was done in error and that they don’t feel that they have to stop playing, because that happened. Since the state of Florida doesn’t recognize them, they need to play hard so that they will have something to recognize themselves, and then people will know that you can’t beat them down.”