Less than a year ago, Angel Torres and his staff came up with the idea to bring a semi-professional football team to Key West. Over the past few months that team has built into what is now the Bone Island Pirates, and now the Southernmost fans of the Southeast Football League (SEFL) are just a few weeks away from their first glimpse at the island's newest squad.

However, that first look at the Bone Island team will be a bit delayed for the home crowd, at least in full pads. With the Pirates' season opener now on the road and its preseason matchup canceled, the team will now be making its first appearance playing without pads, in a Flag Football game against a squad of female contingents, this Saturday at George Mira Field.

The game is being dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes," and is in conjunction with Diane Beruldsen and the International Woman's flag football Association. Torres said he hopes the game is a chance not only for his players to get some playing time together, but also help both organizations raise some money.

"Everybody is in a tight spot right now," said the Pirates owner/coach. "Hopefully this can bit a bit of help for all of us."

Following that game, Torres and his Bone Island squad will be on the road on Feb. 20 for the Pirates' inaugural game against the Miami Kings. Originally, the Pirates were scheduled to kick off the season with the rest of the teams in its league on Feb. 13 -- the same weekend the upper keys' team, the South Florida Sharks, is scheduled to play its inaugural game.

Instead, due to a reshuffling of divisions -- to allow for shorter driving distances, according to Torres -- the Pirates will open the 20-team four-division SEFL season with a bye and play the following week.

"It was supposed to be home, away, home, home," Torres said of his team's original schedule. "But our start had to be pushed back. With the league making changes with teams, because of travel, it had to happen, but it helps. We only have to travel to West Palm Beach now, which is an hour less than we had to go before."

Despite the change in the first game, which will be pushed back to April 3, the schedule remains the same for the Pirates, as the team will make its home debut the following week against the Knights of Miami. Bone Island is scheduled to be back at home the next Sunday for a game against what will likely be the division rival South Florida Sharks.

"We are trying to finalize everything with the school," Torres said about using Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium as the team's home field. "We don't want to get in the way of the baseball team so if we have to go to Sundays, we'll play on Sundays."

So for now, the 33 active members of the team will continue to push forward preparing for this weekend's Battle of the Sexes and next month's inaugural kickoff.

Staff Writer J.W. Cooke's Home Field Advantage column appears exclusively each Wednesday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 261, or at jwcooke@keysnews.com.