The Brooklyn Chiefs Youth Organization (BCYO) is a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization. A growing community based organization whose mission is to enrich the educational, social skills and physical health of our community youth between the ages of seven to fourteen through competitive team sports and activities. Founded in 2003 by Barry Hall, the vision of BCYO is to use the dynamics and appeal that sport programs offer to positively affect social change and promote sportsmanship to underprivileged kids.
The Brooklyn Chiefs Football Program has been in existence since 2003. Presently BCYO serves well over 100 young boys and girls between the ages of seven to fourteen. In 2005 a cheerleading team for girls from ages five to fifteen was added. Another amazing component of the program is the Brooklyn Chief’s Literacy Program. All participants (players and cheerleaders) must participate and complete the program. Lack of participation in the reading program means lack of participation on the playing field. What is different about this literacy program is that it is a self regulated program (with supervision) in which students choose the subject matter from a collection of culturally and age appropriate literature derived from the African Heroes collection of illustrated books. Research suggests that students are encouraged to improve comprehension when reading subject matter of their own choice.
In its brief existence the program has experienced the following unparalleled success:
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In BCYO’s inaugural year, the Peanuts team (7&8) played in and won the Warner Conference championship
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In 2003/2004 three teams advanced to the playoffs
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During the 2005 season, the Jr. Midgets team finished with a 7-0-1 record, outscoring opponents 245 to 40.
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In 2005, four teams from the organization made it to the playoffs and two teams have advanced to compete in the league’s “Super bowl”
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In 2006 four teams competed for AFC divisional championship.
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2006, the Jr. PeeWee Metro team finished 10-0 winning the Metro Bowl Championship.
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2006, the PeeWee team played for the second consecutive year in the Big Apple Youth Football Superbowl and was invited to compete nationally in Tampa, Florida for American Youth Football (AYF) Championship. The PeeWee team is proud to announce that we are currently ranked second in the nation in Division IAA Youth Football.
In addition to the success of the program, the BCYO also enjoyed numerous media attention:
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The Chiefs appeared in the 2004 United Way/NFL public service announcement campaign featuring New York Jets Quarterback Chad Pennington. The feature ran throughout the 2004 regular season culminating with a final spot which aired nationally during the XIV Super bowl.
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The organizations Literacy program received impressive coverage by News 12 Brooklyn with spots airing intermittently over a 24 hour period in the month of October.
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The Chiefs has appeared for two consecutive years on the CBS Morning Show with Dave Price and will appear later in the year during the networks holiday special.