Rikers Island Jail Football Program

The joy and excitement was tremendous around the Rikers Island jail as all of the inmates hurried around taking care of their chores in preparation for the football game, set to kickoff at noon.

Head coach Connie Jenkins peered out into the dome as Air Force fans began piling into the away bleachers. Connie longed for the days to come where fans would begin to fill the home bleachers and cheer for the team that she and “The Warden” had worked so hard for.

She sadly glanced at the vacant home bleachers and walked off.

Music began blasting over the speaker system as the inmates began filing into the caged in ‘Student Section’ The cheerleaders were already in position to pep their spirits up with spirit fingers. All of the inmates eagerly participated, shouting and dancing joyously at the pregame festivities.

‘Inmate Ike’ hopped around the sideline once again, and the Rikers Island Chorus group marched around the field in better formations, as Connie had worked a lot with them over the past week. Namely to actually teach them the fight song, but also to help improve their formations.

As the clock began to countdown closer to game time, Derricka Rose knew it was time to start the cheerleading performance. Connie’s heart skipped a beat as she remembered how badly week 1’s performance had gone with Fu Fu. She worried that another failure was on the way.

Derricka began the chant and the girls began. From the beginning of the performance, it was clear that the group was well trained, and prepared to put on a great show. Derricka had picked right up where she left off and improved upon an already solid cheerleading performance from last game.

The girls flipped and twirled around, and finished the show by launching tiny cheerleader Estrella Nunez into the air for a complete midair flip.

Estrella is the twin sister of Benjamin Nunez. Benjamin was sentenced to 6 consecutive life sentences for selling crack rocks out of a stolen ice cream truck. Estrella is doing time for also stealing an Ice Cream truck. However, authorities arrested the tiny, 4’11 Estrella with the stolen ice cream truck loaded with bags. Ironically, they were the same type of bags that Benjamin had used to stuff his crack rocks into.

It is very possible that Estrella was on her way to stuff crack rocks into the bags in the back of her stolen ice cream truck when police arrested her. She has to consider herself lucky as she saw what happened to Benjamin.

The inmate ‘Student Section’ went nuts as this was far and away the best performance that they had seen so far. The cheering got out of hand and guards had to threaten them before they quieted down to acceptable levels.

Connie smiled as she watched Derricka celebrating with the girls. She patted each of them on the back and made sure they each knew that they had done a great job. All of the cheer squad was overcome with joy, and Derricka seemed satisfied that she had succeeded in putting on a great show.

Connie admired Derricka’s ability to take a group of scrubs and turn them into a team capable of greatness. She made a mental note to talk with Derricka the following week to pick her brain, and figure out how Derricka did it.

The show shifted to ‘Inmate Ike’s performance which once again, failed to happen. The spotlight located ‘Inmate Ike’ log tied in the home bleachers with a dozen police officers around him.

Apparently ‘Inmate Ike’ had thought it would be a great idea to steal the Air Force mascot’s trampoline, and attempt to jump on it near his sideline. ‘Inmate Ike’ had apparently mistimed his jump and catapulted himself off the field and into the home bleachers. Inmate Ike was soon tazed and beat down with police batons, and instantly log tied, as cops feared he was trying to escape.

‘Inmate Ike’ gave a thumbs up as he saw himself up on the big screen on the scoreboard. He then did spirit fingers, as the police hoisted him up and began carrying him out. All of the inmates in the caged up ‘Student Section’ cheered and did spirit fingers back.

Air Force fans awkwardly clapped, thinking that Inmate Ike planned to do that as part of the show.

The announcer reluctantly announced that the Rikers Island Jail Chorus Group would now be performing the school fight song and National Anthem. Proudly, Connie made her way to where she had a great view of the chorus. They proudly lined up, and belted out the words to the Rikers Island Fight Song Perfectly.

Connie sang along word for word and cheered joyously as they finished. She caught herself jumping around before she pulled herself together. Connie was simply so overjoyed that something that had brought her so much shame was now so perfect.

The solid Chorus performance was concluded by a strong passionate display of the National Anthem to which loud applause and a standing ovation from Air Force fans, and all of the inmates. Connie felt tears come to her eyes. She was so proud.

She clapped loudly as her team was prepared to come out onto the field. For the first time this season, Connie felt as though things may go right. The solid pregame routine (with the exception of ‘Inmate Ike’) had fired her up.

Connie projected that she would get a play or two to go right in today’s game, and maybe even more….