They won! West Baltimore’s Liberty Chargers are now headed to the Super Bowl of youth football
The Pop Warner League team of nine- and 10-year-olds continues with a dream season
Above: Liberty Chargers quarterback Bryce Winder and coach Delontai Bruton pose with the team’s Eastern Regional Division 2 trophy. (Facebook)
It’s official: The Liberty Chargers, a Pop Warner youth football team of nine- and 10-year-olds based in West Baltimore, is going to Charlotte, N.C., next month to compete for a national title.
The Chargers qualified by beating the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Thornden Park Bulldogs yesterday by a lopsided 38-7.
The win was an overwhelming experience for the Chargers, a new team playing together this year for the first time ever.
“It was surreal,” said coach Delontai Bruton. “This was Year One for us, so to even be here was a blessing. But to conquer it and win, it feels so much better.”
• West Baltimore’s youth football team, the Liberty Charges, is on a championship run (11/9/26)
“The boys were so shocked and amazed. Honestly, our kids are so fresh into football. They just play. They don’t really know as much as they should right now about Pop Warner and the league and all that,” Bruton continued.
“They all just living in bliss,” he said. “All they understand is, if they win, they can keep on playing and winning and keep on getting championship trophies.”
Longtime Baltimore youth advocate Kim Trueheart, a major force in coordinating the Pop Warner program, said she was thrilled by the young team’s latest triumph.
“I am extremely proud of these Baltimore City young men and the adults who stepped up to coach them,” she told The Brew.
West Baltimore’s Liberty Chargers pose on Saturday with their trophy and rings after winning the 2026 Pop Warner Eastern Regional Division 2 championship. BELOW: The Chargers gather after their November 7 Eastern Regional Championship semi-final win over Toms River, N.J. (Facebook)
Reaching out for Support
Between now and December when the Pop Warner National Championship is held, the Chargers will be training hard, keeping to their three practices-a-week schedule.
Trueheart pointed out that two other Charger teams, the 12-year olds and the 14-year-olds, are still competing in their age groups at the regional level today.
“This season is not over as we still have two teams vying for the national championship,” she said.
While the boys are playing and practicing, Trueheart and Bruton are looking for financial assistance. They could use help from the public to cover the expenses they’ve incurred to date and those ahead, to get the boys and their coaches to North Carolina, they said.
Bruton estimates it will cost $10,000-$12,000 to transport, house and feed the team and some assistant coaches. All he has is $2,000-$3,000, he said.
“We’re just trying to fundraise as best we can, but it has to be from the city at large,” Bruton explained. “Were in a low-income neighborhood.”
To that end, he’s trying to raise the Chargers’ profile and spread the word about their surprising success.
That’s why he plans to bring some of the boys, wearing helmets and jerseys, to M&T Bank Stadium tomorrow where the Baltimore Ravens are playing a night game.
The Ravens, he notes, are playing the Los Angeles Chargers, who have a dismal 0-8 record.
Fans might want to know about another Chargers team, Baltimore’s, which is doing quite a bit better. “Our record is 11-1,” Brunton points out proudly.
• For information on how to support our Chargers:
https://www.instagram.com/supercharged_9u/ or Kim Trueheart’s Facebook page.