Elgin football team perseveres
It was more than football players who hit the ground and got dirty Sept. 8, 2007 at the Drake Football Field in Elgin.
Nearby a Rockford man popped off shots from his .357 Magnum at a passing pickup truck, sending parents, their kids and spectators watching a Elgin Youth Football League game ducking for cover.
The fracas led to a brawl at a nearby restaurant and the two arrests of two Rockford men.
No one was seriously injured, but the incident left parents scared and angry. Some pulled their kids out of the league. An entire Kaneland team left.
But football officials were determined to move forward and show that the Sept. 8 incident is not what Elgin is all about.
"We will press on and we won't let two knuckleheads hold us back from these kids playing football," said Dwayne Allen, a four-year EYFL coach. "We lost a few people because of that, which is definitely a bad thing. But we are moving on. We want them think about the good kids we have here."
The league has since been incorporated into the Pop Warner League, and tonight at Drake Field a large homecoming celebration for 375 players and 100 cheerleaders will be held in preparation for some 13 games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Rudy Zabran, EYFL commissioner and coach, said officials hope to pack the place with as many parents and fans as they can to show support. In addition to Elgin, the league draws players from Streamwood, South Elgin, East and West Dundee and Gilberts.
"This incident was very unfortunate," Zabran said. "It impacted us. We lost a team. The courts have handled (the two men arrested) accordingly and we're moving on."
The suspected shooter, Denarrell Mabry, 25, is being held on $1 million bond for aggravated discharge of a firearm and other offenses. His next court date is Sept. 26.
In May, Mabry's brother, Larrell Cannon, 25, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful use of a weapon.
Cannon didn't participate in the shooting or subsequent melee, but held the gun that belonged to his brother, authorities said.