Football program is a refuge for Boston youths in gang areas
On the first day of school in September, Jermaine Eloi, a quarterback for the Dorchester Eagles Pop Warner football team, left his home in a gang hot spot in Dorchester. On the sidewalk was a memorial — candles, a teddy bear, a Red Sox cap — to a 21-year-old father who had been shot to death in the street the night before.
At practice this fall, Eloi handed off the football to running back Darius Perryman, who lives in gang territory in Roxbury. Perryman followed blockers who live in neighborhoods of South Boston, Jamaica Plain, and Mattapan that are gang turf.
These are the Eagles, a social experiment in saving lives that is bringing together children from rival neighborhoods and teaching them that unity can conquer violent impulses in a city splintered by youth gangs. The teammates must navigate neighborhood crime zones where their safety can hinge on how they respond to one of the most hazardous questions on the streets: “Where are you from?’’
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