THE ALIQUIPPA FOOTBALL TEAM WITH JEROME BETTIS, SECOND GENTLEMAN DOUG EMHOFF, VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS, MINNESOTA GOVERNOR TIM WALZ AND HIS WIFE, GLEN WALZ. (PHOTO COURTESY PHILLIP K. WOODS/ALIQUIPPA)
State champs received encouraging words from the VP
Members of the AliquipÂpa High School football team on Aug. 18 welcomed onto their brand new field someone who, in a milÂlion years, they probably thought they would never meet.
But then again, most people probably never thought in a million years they would be this close to seeing a Black woman become President of the United States.
We’re less than 80 days away from the big day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, the presiÂdential election that could make history, as current Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to become the next U.S. President.
But on Sunday, Aug. 18, there she was, taking time out of her busy schedule to speak to the Aliquippa High School football team. On some students’ faces, a look of disbelief. But it was true; the vice president is here, talking directly to them, on their football field.
“I’ve been reading about you all and hearing about you and your excellence,” Harris told the team on an overcast Sunday afÂternoon, flanked by her running mate, MinnesoÂta Gov. Tim Walz, their spouses and former PittsÂburgh Steeler Jerome BetÂtis. “I wanted to stop by so I could tell you all in person, looking at each of you in your eyes, that our nation is counting on you and your excellence. We applaud your ambition. You want to compete, you want to win, and I will tell you that we, as a country, deserve to give you every opportunity that you have to achieve your excellence that you were born with that is God-given, and that is going to be laying the path to the future of our nation.”
To most outsiders, Aliquippa is a forgotten community. Its close-knit town of about 10,000 peoÂple has about 3,700 who are Black. It’s a place that the wealthy don’t want to visit or frequent. Even the heralded football team was almost forced to play into a much higher classification than it was supposed to, if the PIAA, who runs high school football in the state, had their way. In December 2023, the Quips won the state championship in Class 4A with a dominatÂing, 60-13 win over the high school football team Dallas. It was their fifth state championship in school history.
The PIAA tried to move Aliquippa up to Class 5A this year, even though Aliquippa technically should be classified as Class 2A, given the small number of boys in its high school. But AliquipÂpa, to no one’s surprise, fought back and sued the PIAA, arguing that the PIAA is risking the health and safety of its players by forcing them to play against teams with larger enrollments, and thus, more available players overall on the team. A Beaver CounÂty judge ruled in favor of Aliquippa, meaning they’ll be playing the 2024 season in Class 4A. Most African Americans in Aliquippa saw the atÂtempted actions by the PIAA as racially-motiÂvated, simply because Aliquippa was winning too much.
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE KAMALA HARRIS GREETS MEMBERS OF THE ALIQUIPPA FOOTBALL TEAM, AUG. 18. (PHOTO COURTESY PHILLIP K. WOODS/ALIQUIPPA
Aliquippa’s first game this year is Friday, Aug. 30, at home, against Belle Vernon. In othÂer contests, they’ll visit Penn Hills for a game on Sept. 20, battle New CasÂtle in Aliquippa on Sept. 27, and end the regular season, Oct. 25, at home against next-door-neighÂbor Ambridge.
As interim coach Vashawn Patrick held practices for his Quips throughout the month, he and Aliquippa schools Superintendent Dr. PhilÂlip K. Woods must have been ecstatic when they learned the vice presÂident wanted to speak to their kids. It was a closely-guarded secret, as Harris and Gov. Walz arrived at Pittsburgh InÂternational Airport just after 1 p.m. on Aug. 18, then unveiled their lavÂish-looking bus, riding it to different stops in BeaÂver County. Virtually no one in the media knew beforehand that she would be speaking to the Aliquippa football team, on its newly-remodeled field, no less. “The Pit” underwent a $1.3 million renovation thanks to the gift from Kraft Heinz. The words “Heinz Field” are plastered around the stadium these days.
“You all are the future of our country,” Harris told the team. “We are all born leaders, and it’s just a matter of when people decide to turn that on. The fact that you’re on this field today tells me you decided to turn it on at an early stage of your life, to be a leader and role model.”
Harris stayed on the role model conversation. “Welcome to the role model club,” she said, to some laughter. “Being a role model means that members of your family, people you know in the neighborhood, others, your classmates, they watch you to see what you do. What goes into that kind of excellence? What goes into being a winning team? And you all have taken it upon yourselves to take on that responsibility of beÂing role models and to inÂspire people you may not even know are watching you.”
Harris wanted the playÂers to know that “no cirÂcumstance or event or moment will defeat your spirit and your fight and your preparedness to win and excel, and nothing will dampen your spirÂit of excellence. That’s what I’m counting on from each of you.”
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