The Bronx Buccaneers youth football team has regained rights to practice on Saturdays this spring at Williamsbridge Oval Park. An official permit was issued in the Bucs’ name by the city Parks Department’s Bronx office. For the Bucs and the community supporting them, the permit is a welcomed end to their months-long battle to stay at the Oval.

In December, the Buccaneers’ coach, Keith Spivey Jr., shared an online petition detailing the Bucs’ removal from the Oval by their former vice president, Richard Hernandez, current commissioner to the Corsairs Football League, the long-time permit holder. The Bucs were to be replaced by the Bronx Jets, an affiliate of the Harlem Jets, a Manhattan-based peewee team looking to expand into the Bronx. The Jets tried to claim the Bucs’ practice rights, since Jets’ affiliate Hernandez was the authorized agent for the Oval permit.

The removal of the Bucs drew ire from nearly 700 supporters of the petition, with many expressing their frustration with a Manhattan football club ousting a local team from a local field. The addition of the Bronx Jets would mean three teams, including the Bucs and the Bronx Knights, would be competing for use of the same field and the same youth recruits.

“The community is using the fields that are local to them and that’s where the overcrowding comes in,” Spivey said. He explained that the alternative of practicing at fields in Van Cortlandt Park or Pelham Bay Park would require families, some without cars, to journey well outside their neighborhood. The Oval, according to Spivey, is the most convenient field for the Bucs, since most of the players live in or around Norwood.

“The Bucs have always been there and we’ve shared the field,” said Bronx Knights’ coach Drake Holliday. “There’s always been a neighborly relationship.”

Holliday supported the reinstatement of the Bucs to their usual 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday practice time at the Oval, a field the Bucs have played at for seven seasons, and the best time to draw recruits. Explaining his support for the Bucs at the Oval, Holliday said, “For one, the park would not be the same without the Bucs there. Two, from my understanding there wasn’t a just reason for them to not have the permit.”

At a private Jan. 22 meeting held with Parks Department Bronx Borough Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, Spivey and the Bucs’ general manager Tasha Harris-Andrews made a case for their team having the Saturday practice time. Harlem Jets president Jamel Wright, Hernandez, Community Board 7’s Ischia Bravo and Council Member Andrew Cohen were also in attendance. Cohen represents the 11th Council District, which includes Williamsbridge Oval Park. He also serves on the Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee.

At the meeting, Spivey explained that the Bucs had seniority at the Oval, while the Bronx Jets’ team had yet to materialize and therefore had no claim over the field. According to Spivey, Rodriguez-Rosa agreed, concluding that Hernandez and Corsairs Football League president Donald Yearwood had no right to the permit without a youth team of their own. The Bucs fall under the umbrella of Empire Football League.

In a statement to the Norwood News, the Parks Department confirmed that the Saturday field time was issued to the Buccaneers, adding, “The permit is not a renewal; it is the first issuance of a permit to their league.”

According to the Parks Department’s field and court space guidelines, a permit can be revoked if the field is not in use during the reserved time or if it is transferred or shared beyond the permitted league. The Parks Department is reportedly in the process of developing a special task force to deal with permit abuse, particularly in the Bronx, the borough with the most parks in the city.

For Spivey, the permit being issued in the Bucs’ name was the right move. “We were the team that made the permit viable,” he said. “We’ve been playing [at the Oval] for seven seasons.”

Holliday agrees. Of the Bronx Jets, he said, “There are plenty of other areas in the Bronx and throughout New York City that are in need of programs. The Bucs and the Knights in this park– We’re doing a pretty good job of servicing this area. I think a third program would just be oversaturated.”

Williamsbridge Oval is one of 16 fields in the Bronx permitted for football use, but like many city fields, it’s interchangeably utilized as a soccer field. Youth football participation has declined citywide in recent years, with growing fears among parents of the physical injuries associated with tackle football. Football clubs are competing for fields and other resources with more popular peewee sports like soccer, baseball and basketball.

“I do believe that the Parks Department tries to distribute permits fairly, but right now on these fields, soccer rules everything,” Spivey said. “There’s very minimal football being played on these fields.”

In their fight to regain practice rights at the Oval, the Bucs reached out to Community Board 7 (CB7), Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval (FOTWO) for support. The group also turned to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who, they said, did not respond to their complaints. Cohen was the only lawmaker to respond.

Harris-Andrews said that she drove to Cohen’s office on a whim and was surprised to discover that he was not only already aware of the Bucs’ situation, but was also willing to organize the Jan. 22 meeting with the Parks Department. Harris-Andrews said that along with letters of support from CB7, FOTWO, and DeWitt Clinton High School football coach John Applebee, Cohen’s support of the Bucs helped them secure the permit. “This really was a community rallying together for what looked like an underdog,” Harris-Andrews said. “We absolutely could not have done this by ourselves.”

“I think a lot of times people come up with solutions amongst themselves,” Cohen said in a statement to the Norwood News about the permit misuse in city parks. “I do think probably the Parks Department should do a better job of making sure the person who has the permit, is the person who’s actually using it.”

Cohen was made an honorary Bucs team member, a reward that was well deserved, according to Spivey. “Many politicians talk a good game,” Spivey said. “They talk about community and activism and when you go to them for help, they kind of stonewall you. Well, Andy Cohen didn’t.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.