Saint Sabina’s Peacemaker’s Red Team wins championship game

Games to resume in April

By Chinta Strausberg

 

In an aggressive, heart-stopping basketball game, Saint Sabina’s Peacemaker’s Red Team won the season’s championship game late Monday night by a score of 38 to 37 and even Mayor Rahm Emanuel showed up to watch the spirited and very aggressively played game.

It was the Red Team vs. the Black Team, and no one really knew which would win. Both teams raced back and forth on the Saint Sabina’s ARK gym each trying to out-strategize the other. Once arch enemies, they have laid down their guns and are now shooting hoops of peace.

In the end and when the free throws were over and calls of foul ended, the Red Team became the official winner of the Peacemakers playoff games that began on September 15, 2012 when Father Michael L. Pfleger struck an historic peace accord among four rival gangs in the Auburn Gresham community.

On September 22, 2012, Pfleger held the first Peacemaker’s basketball tournament, which sparked a weekly Monday night game for youth in the community. According to Father Pfleger, since September 15, 2012, there has not been one shooting committed by anyone in the four gangs, and he is very proud of that.

Those weekly non-violence marches he held with the Saint Sabina Faith Community and supporters where he reached out to gangbangers showing his love and offering them free education and jobs, ultimately paid off, but it wasn’t easy.

Last year when the marches began, initially when the gang members saw Pfleger coming, they would run; so Pfleger changed strategies.

He brought in celebrities and NBA players like Orlando’s Quentin Richardson, Chicago Bulls Joakim Noah, NBA super legend Isiah Thomas; Chicago Bears’ J’Marcus Webb; L.A. Clipper’s Bobby Simmons, Memphis Grizzlies; Zach Randolph; Simeon’s Jabari Parker and the award-winning documentary star, Kobe Williams.

It worked. Rather than run from Father Pfleger, the gang members began to go to him, and the popular priest finally won their trust and respect. One night when one of the basketball stars accompanied Pfleger, two members left the huddle of youth surrounding them but came back.

That Sunday, Pfleger, with tears in his eyes, announced that those two youth had been ordered to kill another gang member who unaware was at a liquor store. The two assigned assassins hid their guns and came back to meet the NBA player.

Two other youths went and got the intended target thus preventing his murder. And, along the way during those weekly marches, Pfleger closed down the M&M Food Mart, 1642 W. 79^th St., that was allegedly the headquarters for gangs but also where the storeowner, who threatened to sue the priest and boasted he had 1,000 Arab merchants ready to take him on, sold cigarettes to minors.

Father Pfleger, who has a holistic approach to fighting violence, also served notice to all stores in that community that if they didn’t hire a black from the community, he would target them for protests. He had them to sign a “Community Agreement” form.

Monday night’s championship was the sweet ending to a long hot summer and a sealer to one of the hardest battles Father Pfleger has ever taken on and won for it wasn’t just the Red Team that won. The entire Auburn Gresham community and the city of Chicago also are beneficiaries of the Peacemakers and their commitment to honor Father Pfleger’s peace accord and in so doing they have regained their own respect in this city and along law enforcement personnel.

Pfleger told reporters, “Once they get to know each other by names and bring them together to form a relationship all of a sudden the rival barriers start to come down…. That is what we have to break down.” “Nothing would have happened without these guys wanting to do it, wanted to change…”

Pfleger said the players “have so much talent” and that the community “is missing their gifts out here. We need their gifts.  We need their leadership. We need their skills.” Pfleger said he is proud to “dust the off their dreams and help them achieve their purpose. That’s where it’s at.”

Father Pfleger told this reporter, “This is great, but the real championship is not just tonight. The championship has been what these guys have been doing every single day for the last 12-weeks. The peace they’ve kept, the relations they’ve built, they have never been a problem in here for 12-weeks, never been a problem for these brothers on the streets for 12-weeks. They are the champions.” Pfleger said they are taking a break but will resume in April.

Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-16^th) said Monday night’s championship game is a celebration of the “willingness and the encouragement that this gives other children in the community on coming together and building relationships around a sport and where they don’t take out their anger on each other. The tension is released in the game but sportsmanship is a cornerstone of basketball. They release the anger and the tension, but it’s in an atmosphere where it is acceptable and they uphold the standards of good sportsmanship.”

Cory Hughes, a member of the Red Team, said, “My team came in. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s been a good tournament. Everybody wanted us to lose. It just feels good. We’ve been beating everybody. We only lost one game.”

Another Red Team member, Aaron Ageeneam, said, “We worked on this. Our coach got us back together and everybody played their part and we won. This is a great thing because you can’t do this in certain neighborhoods, but this peace tournament put everybody together and showed another side that players from different areas may be cool people to meet on the basketball court. Some of these people didn’t like each other before the tournament….”

John Johnson, another Red Team member, said they stayed together and continued to play hard. “The tournament kept the kids off the street. I enjoyed it.”

Agreeing was Michael Tyner, 19, said the game “helped for me to stay in shape and it gives some of the young guys to come off the street and come together in the tournament. They helped us get jobs; so it wasn’t just about playing basketball.”

Tina Wallace, a member of Saint Sabina, was the cheerleader for the game. “I love the game, and I’m very happy that we started it. It started a worldwide peace thing. Everybody is starting to look at it, and I love it.”

Interviewed during the game, Rochelle Crump, a consultant for the ARK, and Helen Dumas, principal of the Saint Sabina Academy, were rooting for the Red Team. Marina Lopez, who has never been to one of the games, said the players were “awesome and amazing.”

But, not everyone was happy about the outcome of the game. A father of one, Terrence Henderson, 28, who was rooting for the Black Team, said he is disappointed that his team lost. I don’t like losing, but it’s been a great thing going on in the community.

“My hats go out to Father Pfleger…to the mayor for giving us the jobs. If more things like that going on, then Chicago wouldn’t be on CNN talking about 500 murders a year. We got to come together as a city and stop all of that. We need to do more things like this.”

While Henderson was fussing about his team losing, Father Pfleger came over and hugged him saying, “You know I love you.” Henderson said, “Yeah, but my team lost.” Henderson said he was OK and stopped fussing about the failure of his team to bring home the championship. They will have another chance come April when the weekly games resume.

In the interim, Father Pfleger will keep close tabs on them and will continue to find them jobs, provide a free education and other social needs they may have. He is very proud of their keeping the peace in the community and again said, “They are the real champions.”

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.