The 12-to-15-year-olds’ Suffolk Steelers football team put together a 9-1 season this year, but the boys could not have made it to the Mid-South Region Pop Warner championship game in Raleigh, N.C., without a financial assist from Suffolk.

“The local community helped 100 percent,” said Robert Faulk, president of the Suffolk Inner City Athletic Association.

The Steelers worked hard to qualify for the game. They won the necessary amount of regular season contests and ended up going undefeated leading up to the regional showdown with the Capital City Steelers of Raleigh.

Additionally, the Suffolk players, sometimes with tutoring from team coaches, maintained the necessary grade point average to remain on the team. They are required to carry at least a 2.0 GPA.

However, the travel expenses to Raleigh, and Florida had the team advanced to national play, were immense, requiring the organization to seek help.

Faulk said they sent donation letters to corporate sponsors, receiving help from them and individual donors.

“We got a lot of help from the various churches in town, too,” he said.

The Suffolk Steelers made the trip to Raleigh on Thanksgiving weekend.

Faulk said the boys put forth a good effort against Capital City, but the team “was, I think, a little more experienced than they were.” The Suffolk Steelers ended up falling, 34-0.

The loss did not spoil the trip, however, which Faulk said the players enjoyed.

“It was a good experience for the kids, too,” he said.

For many of the players and even coaches, it was their first time getting to travel to play in a Pop Warner game of this magnitude.

“You don’t very often get to play in a regional championship game,” Faulk said.

And they were not about to forget who helped make it possible.

“I would like to thank the Suffolk community for all the support and effort,” Faulk said.