Brawley Jr. Peewee wins division title
BRAWLEY — While a majority of Brawley residents spent Saturday morning preparing for the Cattle Call Parade and Rodeo, a group of dedicated parents and athletes departed to Indio for the Desert Valley Youth Football Conference Championship.
Brawley Youth Football’s Jr. Peewee team advanced to the divisional game to face Shadow Hills Youth Football’s Jr. Peewee team at Shadow Hills High School in a rematch of a game played earlier this year that favored Shadow Hills, 13-9.
“Well the night before we watched film on them and I watched team play against Mexicali, who we had beaten pretty handily,” said Head Coach Jose Serrano. “So we just told them, ‘Don’t leave it in the hands of the reds. Go out and do what we do, because if we play the way we know they can play, no one can handle them.’”
The speech and preparation paid off for the local team as it would be the Wildcats that celebrated at the end of the game after deafeating Shadow Hills 33-6 to capture the conference title and advanced to the American Youth Football National Championships in Florida from Dec. 2 to Dec. 10.
“It was the culmination of all the hard work that they’ve put in since July,” Serrano said. “They worked hard for this and no team deserves it more than them.”
Helping the Brawley squad to a win were a number of players and scorers including Zane Richards and Matthew Gutierrez, who both had two rushing scores and Antayvious McGee, who had one rushing score.
Adding the PATs on the day were Robert Platt as well as Richards.
“I believe that is the best game we’ve played and we face a tough and respectable opponent,” Serrano said. “They put it all together and played to the peak of their ability.”
While the team is more than excited with its win on Saturday, it now faces a new challenge in raising the funds to send the 33 players and six coaches to Florida in less than one month.
“It’s a chance for them to represent Brawley at the national level for youth football,” Serrano said. “They are a great bunch of boys that work hard and have earned their way there. We do have a lot of support and I think we’ll raise the funds to get there.”
The team is guaranteed two games for an opportunity to win first place in the JPW division. All the proceeds will be applied to travel expenses such as airfare, hotel, meals, and transportation for all 33 boys and six coaches on the team.
“These boys have worked extremely hard at practice and on game days all season,” explained Eileen Gutierrez, a BYF Board Member. “They have learned to work together and have learned how to how to overcome difficult situations together as a team. Each week they have been determined to play hard, score touchdowns and to represent the Imperial Valley as the best team.”
This season, the team’s offense has scored more than 278 points, while the defense has held its opponents to only 65 points.
The team is currently hosting a raffle at 7 p.m. Thursday at Soto Field in Brawley with tickets set at $10.
The team is also visiting businesses seeking additional community support and has a youcaring.org site open for online donations.
For more information add Brawley Youth Football – AYF on Facebook.
The team is scheduled to depart on Dec. 1 for Florida.