Bears win intramural flag football championship, advance to Island Bowl

Stephen Sayward, Assistant Director of Intramurals, is pleased and excited about the success of intramural sports during his second year with the university."I want to thank the wonderful student, staff, and intramural participants, for they have helped me with my transition [from Texas Tech University to TAMIU] which led to the position that I am in now," said Sayward.Participation for intramural sports has increased drastically this year. Flag football, the first sport of the year, had 20 teams sign up this year compared to 12 last year.Sayward believes this increase can be attributed in part to the recent addition of lights to the fields, thus allowing intramural sports to be held during the night."Playing under the lights has helped us establish a traditional intramural program; playing after eight fits better with students' schedules," said Sayward.This year's all men flag football championship game was held under the lights on Tuesday, Oct. 7.A match-up between last year's top two teams, Bear and F.A.Y., was repeated this year. Though F.A.Y. took the championship last year, it was Bear that came out with the close win this year with a final score of 22-18.According to Sayward, the highlight of the night occurred late in the game.With about four minutes remaining in the game, F.A.Y. scored a touchdown to take the lead 18-13 and went for a 2-point conversion. However, Joe A. Firova intercepted the pass and pitched the ball to Juan Landa (aka "Uni") who ran the distance of the field for a 3-point play, putting the score at 18-16. F.A.Y still held the lead. Team Bear then got the ball back on their own 14 yard line and proceeded to drive down the field and scored with six plays left in the game. Bear took the lead at 22-18 and decided to go for a 2-point conversion to increase the lead to 24-18; however, their conversion failed. The score was 22-18 with 6 plays remaining in the game. F.A.Y. took over at their 14 yard line and failed to score in 6 plays. Team Bear won the game."It was a tough game, but we are excited to have won," said John Paul Sanchez, a Senior Management Information Systems (MIS) major and rusher for the Bears.As the champions, Team Bear gets to represent the school at the Island Bowl tournament in Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC). The winner of the Island Bowl receives the opportunity to advance on a paid entry to the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) National Championship of Flag Football at the University of South Florida on Dec. 28-30."We can do it [win the Island Bowl Tournament] because we have a good, athletic team; our main goal, however, is to represent the university well," said Sanchez.Sayward is glad to see the Bear team advance, but his attention is now on volleyball and soccer, two other intramural sports that have started."My goal is to continue the growth for all sports; I want to reach a point where the school can participate in extramurals," said Sayward.Extramurals gives students in all sports the opportunity to win and play the winner of TAMU-CC. Location would alternate between the two universities."I truly hope we can make this possible," said Sayward.