Neighbor complaints prompt rescheduling of Bok-West Catholic game

Blindside hits are supposed to happen during football games, not 2 days prior.

Try telling that to Frank "Roscoe" Natale and Brian Fluck. Once they calm down.

Natale, the athletic director and an assistant coach at Edward Bok Tech, and Fluck, West Catholic's head coach and AD, Wednesday attended a meeting merely expecting to help finalize plans for Friday night's Class AA City Title at the South Philly Super Site, 10th and Bigler.

Instead, wheels began turning and the School District, pressured by Council president Anna C. Verna and Councilman Jim Kenney, wound up switching the game to 11 a.m. Saturday.

"I was floored. Dumbfounded," Natale said. "I'm very annoyed with this whole thing, especially since it seems like Bok is being singled out."

Fluck labeled the switch to Saturday morning "a travesty."

He added: "They're putting a neighborhood above the kids. They're all excited about playing a City Title game on Friday night, when it should be, and then the game gets moved to Saturday morning. Like our people are going to go down there with the idea of wrecking the neighborhood."

The community group has been a thorn in the Super Site's side since the renovated complex, complete with artificial turf and lights, was altered in time for the 2008 season. And vice versa, based on the community group's persistence to control when games are played and even the volume on the PA system.

In Week 1, for instance, four games were scheduled for the Super Site, including one at night. The night game was switched to the afternoon and another was moved to another field. Occasional changes have taken place since.

Tony Radwanski, Council communications director, said Verna and Kenney got involved after they received "many complaints" from the South Philadelphia Communities Civic Association, especially after an evening game sometime before Halloween that produced "many incidents, such as vandalism."

Radwanski said Verna, Kenney and city police decided possible problems at Friday night's game could be averted by moving it to Saturday morning. He described the switch as "a reasonable solution that could appeal to all the participants."

A SPCCA board member, who would identify herself only as Loretta, said yesterday: "We've had lots of property damage. Fights start inside and when these people are leaving, it spills out into the neighborhood. We've never had problems with the kids playing football. It's really sad at this point that nobody wants [the Super Site in the neighborhood]."

The SPCCA's website says a meeting about the site will be held Friday night at 6:30 at the nearby Mastery Charter School, 9th and Johnston.

Natale acknowledged that troubling behavior, mostly involving vandalism and public urination in nearby alleys, has taken place, and that Bok students have sometimes been at fault.

"But in this meeting," he said, "two recent incidents were mentioned, as kind of a final-straw thing, that our kids had nothing to do with. For the worst one, we didn't play that night."

The morning of Oct. 2, Natale said, he arrived at the Super Site to be confronted by a nearby resident, who told him "North Philly" had been spray-painted on his van the night before. Natale saw the graffiti and even took pictures. The man also told Natale someone defecated in an alley that night.

"Bok didn't play the night of Oct. 1," Natale said. "That game was Prep Charter vs. Imhotep. We haven't played a night home game in more than a month [Oct. 8]. How can we be causing these recent problems that everyone's so upset about?"

Robert Coleman, the District 12 chairman and PL sports czar, said: "It's all very frustrating," he said. "We hope to get everything resolved after the season."

A source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the School District keeps yielding because SPCCA members have threatened to picket during games.