Syracuse, NY -- Playing under the lights in Mattydale, the Kirk Park Colts Pee Wee team Wednesday night beat the Sherman Park Bulldogs 19-13 to finish a football game cut short by the Sept. 11 shooting at Kirk Park. It may be a few more weeks until the Colts return to play games at their home field at Kirk Park....
Syracuse, NY -- Playing under the lights in Mattydale, the Kirk Park Colts Pee Wee team Wednesday night beat the Sherman Park Bulldogs 19-13 to finish a football game cut short by the Sept. 11 shooting at Kirk Park.
It may be a few more weeks until the Colts return to play games at their home field at Kirk Park. CNY Pop Warner Inc. has told Syracuse that it will decide to return to playing games at the park on a weekly basis.
Colts President Mark Hall said this morning that in a meeting with the CNY Pop Warner Inc. executive board he agreed to temporarily move the team’s home games from Kirk Park, where a shooting occurred on Sept. 11.
It was in everybody’s best interest “to let things calm down and deal with the issue at hand,” he said. “The games will start back up when they feel it’s the appropriate time.”
Hall said the decision to move the games grew out of concerns of the parents of the Colts players, as well as, parents of players from other teams.
“We had parents who were talking about not having their children come down to play,” he said.
The decision stems from a shooting incident during the Sept. 11 game at the park between the Colts and the Bulldogs.
The Kirk Park Colts-Sherman Park Bulldogs games draw thousands of fans for a rivalry that stretches back decades, Hall said. He compared it to the basketball rivalry between Syracuse University and Georgetown University.
The Sept. 11 game drew 3,000 fans to Kirk Park, Hall said. While the players were on the field during half time, shots rang out a wooded section of the park. No one was injured. Police quickly caught one 15-year-old suspect.
Unfortunately large crowds sometimes draw the wrong element, Hall said.
“We’ve got to rebound from this, and I know we will,” Hall said.
A game scheduled the following day at the park went on as planned without incident,he said. However, a game with the Baldwinsville Bees that was to be in Kirk Park on held Sept. 18 was moved to Lysander.
The Colts are scheduled to play away, this weekend.
Pop Warner has not yet told the city if a home game is scheduled for Oct. 2 at Kirk Park, will take place, said Parks and Recreation Commissioner Patrick Driscoll.