Intensity Shows up Big at IWFL Championship and All-Star Weekend
A belated congratulations to our 2009 IWFL All-Stars: WR Tricia Donovan (4-time All Star), OL/DL Jennifer "Coco" Edwards (2-time All Star), DB Jojo Gauthier (2-time All-Star), OL/DL Maia Goodall (2-time All-Star), RB Steph Samuelson (2-time All-Star), DL/FB Suzanne "Swissy" Dubey (1st All-Star appearance) and LB Rookie Samantha Thacker (1st All-Star appearance). A job well-done, Ladies!
A little background on the All-Star Selection Process: Each team can nominate not more than 20% of their roster for consideration?a very difficult decision for the staff of any team as there are always more players worthy of nomination than are allowed to be nominated. Then all delegates, registered coaches, and registered players can log on to the League website and cast their ballots during the voting period. The players with the most votes by position are selected.
The Intensity was extraordinarily fortune to have 7 of our 8 nominated players make the All Star Squad. Most teams had a far smaller percentage of their nominees selected. In all, about 100 players make the All Star Teams (one team from the Eastern and one from the Western Conference,), representing 51 franchises and approximately 1500 total players in the IWFL.
The IWFL Championship/All-Star weekend was held in Round Rock Texas (a northern suburb of Austin) from July 24th-July 26th. This will be the site for future Championships and All-Star games each year, moving forward.
The Tier II Championship (aka The North American Championship) was played between the defending champion Montreal Blitz and the Wisconsin Wolves. The game began at 10am on Saturday (to try and get most of the game in before the central Texas heat became unbearable). Shortly after noon, the Wolves won a convincing victory over the undermanned Blitz who had several of their key players unavailable for the game.
Later Saturday evening, 7pm to be exact, the Tier I Championship (aka the World Championship) saw the 1st year [in the IWFL] underdog Kansas City Tribe, with only 25 players dressed for the game, defeat the DC Divas 21-18. The game had, unofficially, 52 penalties?most of which were called against DC.
The All-Star game was the highlight of the weekend. This was the first year that the IWFL actually held a full-contact All Star contest. Last season was a flag football game and every year before that had no game, just players selected to conference All Star teams. This game began 10am Sunday morning.
Above all else, we can be proud of how well our own All-Star teammates represented the Intensity!
Congratulations to Coco for being selected as one of the four Captains to represent the East All Stars. Maia and Coco started as the right tackle and right guard, respectively. They played virtually every offensive snap (Maia flip-flopped back and forth as center whenever the QB was in shotgun?she did exceptionally well snapping, with only one of about 20 falling short). Let me tell you, the only thing more impressive than watching two Intensity helmets line up side-by-side on the line during the All Star game was watching just how dominant the two of them were! If the Eastern Conference All Star Coaches were smart, they would have run right all day because there was a minimum of 4-5 yards there for the taking on every single play.
Swissy started at DE and played a majority of the game there. She did a great job containing the outside and was in on several tackles. She also alertly came up with a fumble recovery when the West was trying to mount a comeback. Swissy also played on several kickoff teams as well. Jojo saw a lot of time as a DB and on the kickoff teams as well. Her full-throttle style of play and solid tackling ability served her well as she broke up a few passes and assisted on numerous tackles as well.
Tricia, with her hand injury, did not participate but played perhaps the single most important role in the East's 48-26 win as she was the chief water girl and let me tell you, it was hot on that field!
Please make it a point to talk with our players who participated in this weekend as it truly was a motivating, enjoyable experience. Ask them to describe how it feels to be selected, receive their All-Star game jersey, meet All-Stars from other teams across the league and become fast teammates with them, step out on the field for the game, and fight hard and win.
In all, there are three enduring impressions of the Championship weekend worthy of sharing with everyone:
First, our All-Stars are on par with the best players across the league?including All-Stars from Tier I teams.
Second, it seems that the long standing premise that a large roster is a requirement for a championship victory has been disproven. Both champions this season had 25 or fewer players dressed for the game. That said, these teams that won did have noticeable cohesion in executing their schemes and possessed very good team speed.
Third, the Intensity?that is the entire team--are amazingly close to being in Austin in 2010 for the Championship game. We are faced with the opportunity this off-season to improve our schemes on both sides of the ball and to augment our roster to provide the much-needed depth for a successful regular season and a deep playoff run. I challenge everyone in the organization to do all that they can to make sure we are playing in the Tier II Championship next season!
