A Team Has No Name at UTRGV won the 2019 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Flag Football Championships men’s division, held Jan. 3 to 6 at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
The UTRGV team defeated Georgia College 40-26 in the championship game. A Team Has No Name won six games before reaching the championship game, finishing with a 7-0 overall record.
Three of the team’s players were named to the All-Tournament Team: senior accounting major Salvador “Sal” Martinez, senior exercise science major Diego Chrysler and graduate accounting major Armando “AJ” Garza. Garza was also awarded All-Tournament Most Valuable Player.
The Flag Football season began last fall. The road to victory began when the team started playing in the Fall League (Intramural phase) at University Recreation in UTRGV. At the end of October and beginning of November, they played the Valley Bowl (Regionals) where they competed with other local teams.
Before it advanced to nationals, A Team Has No Name played the state phase at the University of Texas at Austin in November.
Athlete Rolando Diaz, a senior kinesiology major, said they had the confidence to participate at nationals and win the championship.
“We knew that once we got the opportunity to go and play, that we had a really good shot at winning the championship,” Diaz said. “From the start, we all had the confidence. Flag football is something that’s huge here in the Valley that not a lot of people do anywhere. So, although we might not be the most athletic or the most organized, we are the most skilled and the most technical.”
Diaz described the difficulties the team faced to get the national recognition.
“One of the most difficult things is actually going and making it to Florida. I mean there are some schools that their school funds them $8,000. … For us, although they do pay the hotels and we are grateful for that, we also do fundraisers on the side.”
Next season will begin in Fall 2019 at the UREC intramurals.
