With all the unused green space at this time of the year it is hard to understand why the Bone Island Pirates have been isolated to the Sugarloaf Middle School field in its second season of existence. After playing all of its home games in Key West last season -- four at the Key West High Back Yard and the season finale at Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium, in which Bone Island won the Southeast Football League (SEFL) Southeast Division title -- the Keys' adult amateur football team is not slated to make Key West its "Home Port" once this season.

"Right now we do have a field to play on and I don't want to do anything to ruin that," said Bone Island owner/coach Angel Torres. "But I am very frustrated with the way the school board has treated us. Myself and Tammy (Garcia) are distraught. We are so upset with the way it came out."

Following a successful inaugural season, the Pirates are now coping with a field situation during their second season in the Keys. Torres roughly quoted that in order to play in Key West his program would be paying nearly $500 per practice to use the Key West High Back Yard, between field and light usage. As for the games, the owner/coach said they would be charged $1,500 per game at the Back Yard and $2,000 a game at Tommy Roberts.

"The astronomical prices are not what I thought I was getting in the beginning," said Torres. "I expected the city would want to embrace this because of how well we played last year. Somebody is fighting it and doesn't want it to happen. Who that somebody is, I couldn't tell you."

Even with a majority of the Pirates' players back from last season, Bone Island has only won one game by forfeit through the first four contests of the season and the stress of where they are playing, Torres said, has certainly taken a toll on his team.

"I'm not trying to make any excuses, but it's been so bad that guys haven't been showing up to practice," said Torres. "At the Back Yard we could play both sides of the ball because it was convenient. My team is so distraught, we are on a losing streak, morale is down and a big part of that is because we have had to move from Key West. The guys keep saying, 'Why did we move from our own backyard?'"

Just a few weeks before the season, the Pirates moved to the Sugarloaf Middle School field and Torres complimented current Sugarloaf principal Dave Perkins for helping the Pirates make the area its new home port. The Sugarloaf field was built when current Key West High Principal Terry Axford still roamed the school's halls, under the pretences that it would remain open to the community.

"These guys aren't happy that we have to travel to Sugarloaf, but it's a playing field we can be on," said the coach. "Hats off to the Sugarloaf Middle School for letting us be there, because they have embraced the program."

Torres said he never expected to have field issues arise when he was first founding the Bone Island squad, because it was something he never had an issue with during his year organizing the Highlanders, an upstate New York team. However, now the issues might be enough to put the team on hiatus following this season until something can be arranged for the future.

"This is something I want to do continuously every year," Torres said about the Bone Island organization. "But right now I'm not sure we can continue to do this without the help we need to make it possible. A lot of people love baseball and a lot of people love football, but instead of trying to fight each other why don't we put our heads together and make it work? I think the community should have the choice to go watch the sport they want to on a Saturday night.

"We didn't come up with the motto, 'One team, One Family, One Community' for no reason. But all of the sudden that community is becoming hard to reach and it's becoming frustrating."

Torres said he is still trying to understand why his organization cannot come up with a deal to play in Key West, but even with the shift 15 minutes north his goals for the Pirates remain the same.

"With this team we wanted to do two things," said Torres. "One, give some of these guys a second opportunity to possibly continue their career and give them something else to do, which they love to do. Two, build something for the community.

"But right now I feel like the school board is abandoning us and at the same time we are abandoning the community. A lot of people were excited about this season, but all of the sudden we have to play in Sugarloaf and the morale is an overall sense of aggravation. We want to be here representing Key West, but we can't do it by ourselves."

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.