East Lynn Pop Warner C team seeks to raise enough funds for Florida title trip

Last Friday, the East Lynn Pop Warner football C team earned a spot in the national championship round with a 20-12 win over Worcester. The C squad, composed of players ages 11 and 12, became the first team in Lynn history to qualify for the national championships.C squad coach Bob Maitland likened the structure of the nationals with that of another signature youth sporting event, the Little League World Series. Teams participating in the Pop Warner nationals each represent one of eight regions. The C squad will represent New England and is assured of playing at least two games; the third would be the national championship game.The team also faces a Space Mountain-sized challenge: Raising sufficient funds to pay for the Florida trip. Based on interviews with both Maitland and C squad assistant coach Jeff Earp, the team needs to raise between $40,000 and $45,000 by Wednesday to send 35 players, five coaches, and four chaperones to the nationals.”We’re setting up fundraisers right now,” Maitland said. “We’re looking for contributors. We don’t have that kind of money.” He added that East Lynn uses the funds it has to provide uptake for equipment and to pay for fields and referees.The team has received some good news. Earp said that Mayor Edward J. Clancy told East Lynn president Paul McGough that he was “100 percent on board,” and that he relayed similar support from city councilors and the School Committee.”We’ve got to get them there,” Earp said. “I just love these kids ? We need the Lynn business community – GE, Garelick, all the big employers in the city – to come up with the money.”A Florida trip would begin with an 11 a.m. game on Sunday against the Mid-American Conference representative, a team from Detroit. The winner would play next Wednesday, Dec. 10, also at 11 a.m., against the winner of the Northwest Pacific/Southeastern US matchup. The winner of the latter game would advance to the national title game on Saturday, Dec. 13, at noon.”I’ve been coaching in East Lynn Pop Warner for 14 years,” Maitland said. “For five years, I lost to the winner who went to Florida.”While the coach said that “We had hopes” of a title run, any fundraising before last Friday’s decisive game would have seemed premature.”If you collect donations and are not successful,” he asked, “how do you give that money back in increments to people around the community?”Maitland compared the team’s achievement of a Florida trip to the 1983 Greater Lynn Babe Ruth team that won a national title.”I missed it by six years,” he said. “I’m 50 years old. Just to get there and accomplish this (Florida trip) is comparable.”He had similar positive words for the community he represents in Lynn.”East Lynn is a very diverse community,” he said. “There’s a lot of middle-class, blue-collar workers. There are a lot of caring people who work hard and care deeply about their families.”