Field of broken dreams

Coach Tim Cavanaugh and the Queens Falcons football team received yet another unfavorable call in their turf war for home field advantage – though the legal battle is not over.

            Almost a month ago, the Maspeth-based football team was abruptly kicked off their home field in Juniper Valley Park, located in Middle Village. It was about a week from the first game of the season, and the Falcons were escorted off the field by New York City Parks Department officials.

            On Tuesday, October 20, Cavanaugh and the Falcons received more bad news when the lawyers defending the city in the trial said that the team never applied—nor were they issued a permit to play on that field.

            “We filed for the permit online and unfortunately I do not have a copy of what was filed,” said Cavanaugh, who has been coaching the Falcons for 17 years.

            Queens Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Cullen has given the Falcons until Wednesday, October 28, to prove the permit application was valid.

            “We are going to get a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act],” Cavanaugh said. “We need to subpoena the server.”

            Due to the conditions that the fields, which are only for baseball and soccer, were left in after practices and games, the Parks Department sent the youth football team to run games on Victory Field’s artificial turf in Woodhaven.

            The Falcons organization, which has several divisions, is comprised of mostly minorities, who range from 7-to-16-year-olds. Cavanaugh told The Courier that he never really wanted to bring up the race card, but thinks it’s the prevailing reason that the city booted them off their own field.

            “It’s weird that we have a huge minority group on our teams and it ends up that the poor kids get the short end of the stick,” Cavanaugh said.

            The head coach is not only outraged by the way his team is being treated; he also feels that the synthetic turf that the Falcons now have to play on is potentially harmful.

            “The carcinogen levels on these fields are 10 times the acceptable level – not healthy,” he claims.

            Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski was one of the main forces in driving the kids off the field.