After being crowned the East Midlands regional champions, our U13 NFL Flag Football team represented our region at the GB National Championships in Manchester on Wednesday, 17th June.
This competition meant we were up against the best school teams in the whole of Great Britain. After a very early get-up and leave from NA, we arrived in Manchester. First job was to qualify out of our group - we did this in impressive fashion, finishing top without conceding a touchdown, which resulted in us progressing to the quarter-finals.
In the quarters, they were drawn against a tough opponent but quickly raced into a 19-point lead and in the end comfortably progressed to the semi-finals. In the semi's, we met a very physical and imposing team from inner-city London. We were slow out of the blocks and conceded early, but soon after found our rhythm and scored just before half-time.
The second half ended very similarly, and the game finished 12-12. The only way to separate the teams was through a sudden-death shootout, which, unfortunately, we just fell short in, losing 13-12. The team finished the competition in 4th place, which is truly an unbelievable achievement and testament to all of the squad.
To go through the county and regional competitions unbeaten and to finish 4th in Great Britain - well, what a brilliant season, we are so proud of you all, and you should be extremely proud of yourselves too for what was a hugely successful year!
Team: (Back - L-R) Dajon M, Alfie P, Elliott W, Michael A
(Front - L-R) Om D, Kayla M, Vilte M, Samuel O