Photo by Chris Sykes East Orange Campus High School alum and state football champion Akeem Cunningham, left, demonstrates the proper form and technique needed to defend a pass thrown to an opposing wide receiver from a quarterback to a cornerback playing for the East Orange Pop Warner Hurricanes football team players during a break in their practice at Columbian Field on Friday, Aug. 5. Cunningham organized a pizza party for the team, based in the city's 5th Ward, and has become one of their regular supporters.
East Orange Campus High School alum and state football champion Akeem Cunningham, left, demonstrates the proper form and technique needed to defend a pass thrown to an opposing wide receiver from a quarterback to a cornerback playing for the East Orange Pop Warner Hurricanes football team players during a break in their practice at Columbian Field on Friday, Aug. 5. Cunningham organized a pizza party for the team, based in the city’s 5th Ward, and has become one of their regular supporters.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — The Pop Warner youth football season is officially under way throughout New Jersey and, in East Orange, the Pop Warner Hurricanes team, based in the city’s 5th Ward, is ready for another winning season. The team is part of the East Orange Police Athletic League, where Officer Edward Giles works as the youth football director.
“I’ve been a cop in East Orange for 27 years; I love my job, it’s different every day and I love my community and I love policing my own people,” said Giles, who works as a community resource officer in the East Orange School District, on Friday, Aug. 5, during the Hurricanes practice in Columbian Park. “We’re supposed to give back to our community. This is what got us to where we are in life, so we have to give back.”
Giles said that message was ingrained in him as a child growing up in East Orange and today, as an adult, he is happy to pass it on to the next generation, which is why organizations such as the PAL and Pop Warner football are so important.
“Today is one of our registration days for Pop Warner football … so right now, we’re preparing for Pop Warner season in North Jersey Pop Warner,” said Giles. “This is one of three teams in East Orange that Pop Warner is concerned with. We have four level teams here — Flag, Mighty Mite, Junior Pee Wee and Midgets. And all of them will be in North Jersey Pop Warner this coming year.”
Anyone who came by Columbian Park on Friday, Aug. 5, would have noticed there were a lot of children in varying stages of uniforms and equipment practicing. Giles said this shows, despite all the concerns about head injuries and the other harmful effects that the game is now recognized as having, it still remains a popular sport for both parents and children.
“When you talk about concussions, you’re talking about on the adult level, college level and in high school; very rarely do we see concussion on the little league level, because the impact is not that severe, as it is on the higher level, because the kids aren’t that yet — not as much force and speed yet,” Giles said. “They’re more hugging than hitting. Our job is to teach fundamentals, so when they go to high school, the next level, they’re fundamentally sound for the game of football. So, basically, what we do here is just teach basic fundamentals and let them have some fun and positive discipline and constructive things they can do in their lives.”
Former East Orange Campus High School standout football player Akeem Cunningham, a member of the school’s 2008 state championship team in high school, is known for hosting cookouts for single mothers to give back to the community through his Akeem Aspiring Change Foundation and running for the 1st Ward East Orange City Council seat in 2013. Cunningham has become involved with the 5th Ward Pop Warner Hurricanes and even threw the players an impromptu pizza party after practice Friday, Aug. 5. He said he wants to do what Giles and other coaches said they are dedicated to doing: give back to children, families and the community.
“I left work early; one of the coaches gave me a call and told me he really wanted me to come out here and work with the kids,” said Cunningham on Friday, Aug. 5. “They have a lot of talent and he just wanted me to come out here and give my experience and whatever skills I knew and actually work out with the kids. That’s something that I’m passionate about.”
Cunningham said practicing with the Pop Warner Hurricanes was good for him, too, because “I needed the workout.” After winning a state championship for East Orange Campus High School, he attended North Carolina State University, a Division 1 school, where he met and befriended current NFL players, including Russell Wilson, David Anderson, Dante Johnson and Earl Wolf.
“For me, even being around those guys in the off season — I see what type of work they put in when I’m around them — so anything I can get from them and see at the NFL level, I can bring it back here to the kids in my home city, so they can get some experience and learn from people who actually are where they are trying to go,” Cunningham said. “The craziest thing about our championship year in 2008 was, my freshman year, we watched a couple of teams lose and we just made a pact with each other. We made a pledge to ourselves in our freshman year that we were going to win a championship before we leave.”
He said that kind of comradery is rare in the “real” world, outside of an organized football team, but it is valuable to experience it and know that it can and does exist.
“These friendships you form in football, these are the relationships that you keep for the rest of your life,” Cunningham said. “And it teaches you a lot, because there’s discipline and everything else. My freshman year, we were undefeated in East Orange. It’s the same thing I told these young players: ‘You’ve got to hold each other accountable.’ Anytime someone messes up, they should be on each other, pushing them not just out here but anything in life. You form real friendships from this.”
Coach Terrell, the head coach of the Hurricanes 17-year-old varsity level Midget Team, said Cunningham was right and that the saying that football makes men out of boys is right on point.
“I’m just here to give back to the kids, see these kids achieve, be better men and get them to see a better life,” said Coach Terrell on Friday, Aug. 5. “Opportunity is a big key to life. Football builds character in these young men that’s out here in the urban community and it actually builds them up. It gives them something to look forward to after school and it brings that education key to it, too. Whatever opportunity you get, take most of it; take heed to it.”
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