Superbowl Sunday is over. But some local kids saw their glory on the gridiron before the Baltimore Ravens did.
The WaterBoys U10 Team from Los Alamitos Friday Night Lights football traveled to Temecula, California last weekend for the 2013 Winter Pride 6-6 elite flag football tournament.
The tournament Commissioner Mike Vaez put the event together in the hope that teams would travel from all over Southern California to compete at the beautiful Birdsall Park Sports Complex. His hope became a reality as division after division sold out well in advance of the event.
San Diego, Carlsbad, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos/Seal Beach, Murrieta and Tustin were all represented, some by multiple teams.
The talent was deep from all over the Southland and the competition was fierce. The WaterBoys team was assembled a few weeks ago and met each week to practice plays and defense.
Los Alamitos standout nose guard Graham Archer took over the Defensive Coordinator responsibilities and did a remarkable job. In five games of the tournament the WaterBoys allowed just one touchdown.
The weather made the games challenging with periods of rain and periodic winds gusting to 20 mph.
Air temps were in the 50s. Regardless the smiles were as abundant as the incredible plays turned in by almost all of the teams as the day went on. The first two rounds of play found our very own Los Alamitos WaterBoys seeded #1 after the first two rounds of play. Also catching a bye for the first round of single elimination play was Ryan Ketchum’s Los Alamitos Cardinals, which featured an incredible cast of athletes who between them have won numerous Friday Night Lights championships.
The Cardinals were seeded #2 setting the stage for an all Los Alamitos championship game as teams from other cities were eliminated one by one.
Play had started at 10 a.m. sharp and some seven hours later the WaterBoys and the Cardinals met on field one for the Championship game. The Championship found both teams struggling to move the ball.
An almost all passing attack by the Cardinal was proving more effective than the more conservative ground game The WaterBoys were using 80% of the time.
Sure enough the Cardinals quarterback rolled left and threw to the flat where third grader Sam Vander Hill went vertical and ripped it out of the air.
Landing on both feet Vander Hill scampered to the end zone for the touchdown.
Counting on what had been a nearly flawless defense the Waterboys scaled back on our aggressiveness and opted to keep the ball on the ground for most of the rest of the game. The Cardinals did not lose the game, they just ran out of time. The Championship game ended Waterboys 6- Cardinals 0. Coach Mark Michaelsen noted that no one player earned the title “Champion.”
Before the beginning of the championship game Michaelsen said: “Everything we did to get to this moment we did together. One team-one purpose-one goal.”
The team name and the uniforms are based on the Adam Sandler Movie “The WaterBoy,” a classic spoof on football and what can happen when you make fun of underdogs.
