Meet the National Interscholastic Polo Champions! (2 years in a row!!)
Philadelphia (CNN) – On a recent Friday night, Saddiq Myers is chasing his younger sisters, Sudaysah and Sihgerra, through a barn in West Philadelphia.
Their giggles rise above the din of horseshoes clanking across a barn floor and the scrape of metal shovels scooping manure.
While most teens and tweens are kicking off the weekend at the mall or the movies, a group of friends gathers inside the stable, once home to mounted police horses.
Tucked away in the heart of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the stable has become an urban oasis for at-risk youth hailing from the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
The tight-knit crew gets to ride horses in exchange for cleaning out stalls and brushing down horses through Work To Ride, a long-term prevention program for inner-city youth. The program is for kids starting at age seven all the way through high school graduation. It includes roughly 30 horses and 20 kids who all qualify as low-income.
Those with the top riding skills, and who are willing to step up their game, can learn to play polo, which the program first introduced to the youth in 1999.
“This is my second home, and I need to be here if I want to be something in life,” said Kenshaun Walker, 15, who plays on the men’s team and is in his sixth year with the program. “This is my top way to get me out of Philadelphia.”
They scrimmage with college teams like Harvard, Cornell, UConn and the University of Virginia in warm-up games for the schools. They generally end up crushing their Ivy League opponents – like Harvard, which suffered a 20-3 defeat last year.
Last March, Work To Ride’s men’s high school polo team was the first all-black team to win the National Interscholastic Polo Championship. They defend their title Friday.
The players’ success has attracted national media. They’ve been featured on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” as well as ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
“With us, we really want it. Every time we step on the field we know our goal is to win,” said player Brandon Rease, 16. “It’s a great feeling to know that you’re on the top, and especially when you’re one of the few at that level.”
read the rest of this great story here.
(h/t to GreenLadyHere for pointing me to this story)