It was a decade ago that Bertina McCline decided it was time to take the initiative to move a group of youth from concrete to grass fields.
Nearly everyday, her then eight year son, Rashiem McCline, and a cluster of his friends would gather outside the McCline’s Harlem apartment and stage exuberant football games, frequently stopping for the constant stream of cars passing by.
“Every time Rashiem would come out with his football,” recalled McCline, “a bunch of kids would seem to come out of nowhere. There was so many of them playing in the street, I though it would be more productive and safer for them to join a league.”
Out of these impromptu gatherings, McCline formed the Harlem Knights in 2000.As a single mother, she envisioned the program as being not only an athletic safe haven for pre-teen and teenage boys, moreover a vehicle to attract male mentors for the many youth being reared in fatherless homes.
“I knew a large number of the boys who were playing with Rashiem didn’t have constant positive male role models in their lives,” said McCline. “It was inspiring to think that I could somehow help fill the void.”
Since its inception, the Knights have grown into a program that serves nearly 150 boys, with five teams separated by age groups ranging from six to 19. Over the years the Knights have participated in various leagues throughout New York City including the Big Apple Youth Football League, Pop Warner and the Gridiron Youth Football League. Riverbank State Park and Colonel Charles Young Park.
Colonel Young Park also is home to the Harlem Hellfighters, the celebrated high school football program for which many of the Knights go on to play.
Through the support of City Council member Inez Dickens, Assemblyman Keith Wright, State Senator Bill Perkins, and a host of volunteers, McCline provides Knights participants with academic tutoring and college tours as a conduit to higher education.
“We’re still growing and still evolving, remarked McCline. “But we’re more than just about football”.