PLAY BALL: New York State’s
fi rst professonal rugby team,
Rugby United New York, is making
Coney Island’s MCU Park its home
turf this spring. Keith Killeen
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 2 PS 9–APRIL 4, 2019 3
WHERE IT HURTS: Protestors from Queens demonstrated outside of HRA Commissioner Steven Banks’s
Windsor Terrace townhouse on March 18. Photo by Colin Mixson
BY COLIN MIXSON
A residential Windsor Terrace
street is ground zero for
opponents of the mayor’s controversial
scheme to build new
homeless shelters throughout
the fi ve boroughs, according
to block residents, who
called the clamor of protests
against their neighbor — the
city’s homelessness czar — a
new normal.
“It’s been happening pretty
regularly,” said 18-year-old
Isaiah Klein-Cloud. “People
are kind of used to it by now.”
Cloud shares his Sherman
Street block between 10th and
11th avenues with Department
of Homeless Services
Commissioner Steven Banks,
whom Hizzoner in 2016 tapped
to lead the agency, making
Banks the face of his initiative
to create new shelters,
some of which occupy hotels ,
for transient New Yorkers in
neighborhoods with already
high concentration of homeless
people.
But Banks has snubbed
formal invitations to address
locals’ concerns in the past ,
and that reluctance apparently
motivated New Yorkers
to bring their grievances to
his doorstep as early as September
2016, when protestors
from distant Maspeth, Queens
vowed to stake out the offi -
cial’s townhouse nightly until
the city dropped a plan to construct
a shelter in the area, according
to a DNA Info report .
Those demonstrators were
just the fi rst to gather on the
block, according to neighbors,
who said a Monday protest
featuring a busload of angry
residents from Rockaway,
Queens — who demanded the
city abandon efforts to build a
shelter in their neighborhood
with chants of “fi re Banks” —
was the third such rally since
last summer.
The latest protest, however,
was relatively tame in
comparison to past demonstrations,
one of which drew
a “nasty” crowd whose members
blasted air horns while
storming Sherman Street, according
to one block resident.
“This is our third,” said
Noa Heyman. “It’s much more
civilized than the fi rst one.”
Another man living on
Sherman Street said most
of the demonstrations don’t
bother locals on the block,
because they tend to wrap up
fast, and Banks often apologizes
to neighbors afterwards.
“They come and go very
quickly,” said the block resident,
who declined to give his
name. “Banks apologizes. He
says, “Sorry for disturbing
your evening.’ ”
And although the rallies
seemed to do little to change
the city’s plan to combat
homelessness, they did incite
thoughtful dialogue about the
issue between Heyman and
her kids ages 5, 7, and 9, who
began to ask some tough questions
after watching protestors
blast their neighbor.
“We have conversations
about homelessness, our responsibilities,
and why these
people feel upset about having
a shelter in their neighborhoods,”
she said.
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
It’s a whole new ballgame for
the stadium by the sea.
New York State’s fi rst Major
League Rugby team recently
kicked off its fi rst full
season at Coney Island’s MCU
Park, where the athletes will
face off against their rivals
in games through the end
of May. Rugby United New
York’s new home in Sodom
by the Sea will allow its players
to introduce their sport to
a new fan base in Brooklyn
and beyond, according to the
team captain.
“We’re really excited to
bring our sport to Brooklyn,
and share it with people in
Coney Island and everyone
throughout New York City,
from longtime rugby fans
to those who are new to it,”
said Mike Petri, who lives in
Bay Ridge.
Petri led his squad to its
fi rst home-game victory on
March 15, defeating the visiting
Toronto Arrows 24–21.
But the team’s season offi -
cially started in January, and
the ballers already won four
of the fi ve games they played
across the country since then.
In the coming months,
Rugby United New York will
battle teams from Texas, California,
Utah, Washington, and
Louisiana in 10 more games,
seven of which will take place
at MCU Park — a venue Petri
said he and his teammates
look forward to returning
to following their extensive
travels.
“It’s been a tough entry
into Major League Rugby —
we’ve been spending all of
our time away, so we’re really
looking forward to being
home,” he said.
Rugby United New York
owner James Kennedy established
the team last spring,
when the New York club
played a few games in the
distant Bronx as part of a socalled
exhibition season with
nine other squads, which allowed
players to practice before
they began competing in
offi cial matches.
Rugby United New York’s
35-member squad includes
full-time professionals and
other semi-professional players
including Petri, who
moonlights as a teacher and
basketball and baseball coach
at Bay Ridge Prep.
The players practice between
two and four days a
week on Randall’s Island,
where they alternate between
weight-lifting, speed and endurance
sessions, mental
training, and video analysis
of their footwork, according
to Petri. The training sessions
emphasize a diverse
set of skills because the contact
sport — which consists
of two, 15-player teams fi ghting
for control of an oval ball
that they can kick or pass to
their teammates as they try
to score points — is so unique,
he said.
“It’s a cross between a lot
of sports. Unlike football it’s
very much a transition sport
— similar to soccer, basketball,
and hockey — in the way
that everybody plays offense
and defense,” he said. “It’s a
fast, physical game.”
The local athletes hope
to build upon their early victories
in order to claim the
league’s title this summer.
“We know in our minds
that we have a very legitimate
chance to be in the mix at the
end,” he said. “We defi nitely
have some real talent on
this squad.”
The New York rugby
team’s fi rst game at MCU Park
came roughly a week after
leaders of the New York Cosmos
soccer team announced
the squad would stop playing
home games at the seaside
stadium, and instead take the
fi eld at venue in Long Island
— a decision that came a year
after Cosmos executives canceled
its 2018 season , when a
court ruled their league could
be forced to play in a lower
division.
Catch a Rugby United New
York game at MCU Park (Surf
Avenue at W. 19th Street in Coney
Island, www.rugbyunitedny.
com). Through May 26.
$20–$45.
Windsor terror
Major League Rugby
debuts in Brooklyn
Locals plagued by persistant protests
outside city offi cial’s home in W’Terrace
/www.rugbyunit-edny.com
/www.rugbyunit-edny.com
/www.rugbyunit-edny.com