Furness football enjoying special bond

WITH ONLY

five

players from Horace Furness High set to play in today's Public AAAA Silver football showdown at Olney, you'd think coach Anthony Pastore would be despondent.

You would think he already has made the we've-gotta-forfeit-this-one phone call, and is contemplating a decision to bag the rest of the season.

Instead, he's bubbling.

"I can't wait for this," he said. "Everything's going well. We're having a great time."

Welcome to the ever-wacky world of Public League football, as endorsed by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Thanks to a cooperative sponsorship agreement, which allows schools that don't have specific sports to partner with those that do, Furness' overall numbers are not a problem thanks to Academy at Palumbo (Pastore works there as a School District Police Officer), Franklin Learning Center (new to the fold) and a sprinkling of charter-school kids; they're allowed to participate for "regular" schools they would otherwise attend based on residence.

Pastore said his program, counting varsity and JV, includes 12 kids from Furness, 24 from Palumbo and 16 from FLC.

But, yes, only five from Furness - skills Dante Barkley, Dontay Holder, Malakiah Hunter and Kyle Goldsmith; grunt Andrew Scott - are part of the 21-strong core varsity contingent. (With nine from Palumbo, three apiece from FLC and Philadelphia Electrical Charter and one from World Communications Charter.)

"I keep talking to other Furness guys, trying to get them out here," said Barkley, a wideout. "They keep saying they're gonna do it, then they never show up."

Barkley uttered those words Tuesday during a spirited practice on a decent chunk of goal-postless land, owned by the Delaware River Port Authority and boasting great scenery (stadium complex, Center City skyline), on the northwest corner of 7th and Packer, in South Philly.

The locales for the team's main schools: Furness, 2nd and Mifflin; Palumbo, 11th and Catharine; FLC, 15th and Mt. Vernon. The players must make it to practice on their own.

"That's why we don't start until 4 or 4:15," Pastore said. "Actually, though they're the furthest away, the FLC kids usually get here first. They hop the subway, then walk over. They're great. They're really into this."

As for game day . . . Did you have to ask?

Today, three School District buses will pick up players at the main schools, then return them. Pastore will supervise the process at Palumbo, with assistants Greg Frangipani (Furness) and Greg Harris (FLC) handling the others. The charter kids must find ways to get to Palumbo.

"This will be our first week with three buses," said Dave Connolly, Furness' athletic director. "We had a combo bus last week with FLC. It got their kids, then came for ours. Between the kids and equipment, it was just too packed. It was a mess."

Furness competed for its first three seasons at the AA level, but the addition of FLC and Palumbo's increased enrollment (it graduated its first seniors last spring) have pushed it to AAAA.

Pastore said FLC and Constitution (7th and Chestnut), which last year played its first basketball season, each made a request to become Furness' second partner school. That's the limit. FLC got the nod.

FLC athletic director Andrea Sullivan-Sutkus said her school made several requests through the years to partner with one-block-away Ben Franklin, "but they were never receptive."

She added, "Our kids have been begging for football for years. We finally made it happen. The more the merrier."

Though merely as spectators, FLC's cheerleaders have been coaxed by Sullivan-Sutkus into attending a game.

"We're working on getting all three schools' cheerleaders together," she said. "Maybe with everyone in Furness shirts [orange/black] with the FLC-Palumbo girls to each side holding their school's pom-poms. That'd be neat, right?"

Except when it comes to logistics - after all, he does answer to three sets of principals/ADs - Pastore rarely ponders his team's situation.

"The chemistry has happened naturally, just from being out here working together every day," he said. "We made the arrangement with FLC kind of early, so those kids were in the weight room at Furness with the Palumbo-Furness kids. We became a family almost instantaneously.

"We don't think about the different schools. We're one team. The Falcons. That's who we are."

Junior rusher Sharif Smith (Palumbo), already in his third year of starring, echoed those thoughts.

"We get along great with each other. No controversy," he said. "We all put on that Furness Falcons helmet. It's a great idea to let kids from schools without football play for another school. We're proving it can work. The bond is nice.

"When you first get together, you're kind of nervous meeting new people. And with FLC this year, I didn't know what those guys' talent level would be. But they can play."

FURNESS' MAIN MEN

Here is Furness' core group of 21 players . . .

Furness: Dante Barkley, Kyle Goldsmith, Dontay Holder, Malakiah Hunter, Andrew Scott.

Palumbo: Jonathan Fisher, Maurice Harris, Nadeem Harris, Kevin Hayes, Sean Hilferty, Sharif Smith, Xavier Swift, Devin Walker, Tamarik Wilkes.

FLC: Borbor Kesselly, Lewis Martinez, Kyle Smithson.

Phila. Electrical: Aaron Cooper, Andrew Hewlett, Jason Proietto.

World Communications: Sirea Boone.