A team of seventh- and eighth-graders from Incarnate Word Academy and several Brownsville middle schools has returned home with a division championship after an overtime victory Sunday night in the FlagFootballX.com tournament at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
This year the IWA Cardinals joined forces with the Brownsville Cardinals of the city flag football league to form a new team. The IWA/Brownsville Cardinals are coached by IWA school president Edward C. Camarillo, and longtime Brownsville Cardinals coach Joey Garza.
The combined team has been practicing together at Incarnate Word Academy since school started in the fall. They played in the 12- and 13-year-old division.
Brownsville Cardinal teams have been competing in the FlagFootballX tournament for several years. The combined team qualified to participate in this year’s tournament by virtue of past participation, Garza said.
“Nobody expected us to get this far and for us to win, it was something amazing,” Camarillo said. “This is not your typical championship team. The kids that came over (from the city league) we told them you’re part of the family now. And this is not a team that has been together for five years or six years like a lot of the other teams out there.”
Brownsville/IWA qualified for the finals on Sunday night based on its record and point totals from Saturday games played at the Irving Soccer Complex.
The Cardinals won their first game Sunday 10-6 over the Fort Worth Royals, which propelled them into the championship game against the Notre Dame Lions from Louisiana.
Notre Dame led 8-0 at the half, and was moving the ball as the game entered its final 1:30.
Jerry Renteria, an IWA eighth-grader, then intercepted for the Cardinals, who went on to score and make the 2-point conversion to even the score at 8.
IWA was able to get one play off before time expired but didn’t score, resulting in a tie at the end of regulation.
Under NFL flag football rules, the team that made the most yards in overtime would win. IWA won the coin toss and on its offensive series Renteria ran for 9 1/2 yards on a reverse.
Notre Dame then got the ball on offense and called a running play but got called for holding and was penalized three yards.
“At that point the refs indicate if IWA can hold them to no more than six yards IWA will win it. Notre Dame called its play, IWA held them to four yards. IWA/Brownsville Cardinals win,” Camarillo said.
Garza said the Brownsville Cardinals grew out of Turkey Bowl tournaments played among Rio Grande Valley teams in Brownsville around Thanksgiving time, which eventually led to an independent travelling team that got invitations to tournaments in the Valley, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and then the FlagFootballX tournament in Arlington.
The Brownsville Cardinals made it to the semifinals in last year’s FlagFootballX tournament. Raul Bermudez, a seventh-grader at Oliveira Middle School, played on both teams among 15 players who made the trip to Arlington.
Garza and team members said the Cardinals have been a team in Brownsville city league flag football for about four years. This is Garza’s second year coaching at IWA with Camarillo.
“The city goes by the NFL Play 60,” Garza, a 19-year coach, said, adding that several Brownsville Independent School District schools have teams.
He said future tournaments are on the horizon for the Cardinals, among them one at RNG Stadium in Houston.
Incarnate Word Academy is a private Catholic school in Brownsville for pre-K through eighth grade students.
