the nguyen-ers

Nationals Tournament of Champions

January 29 - February 1, 2010

The experience of a lifetime had finally arrived and was about to take place. Tanner's flag football team was undefeated in their regular season games, at the Centex tournament, and at Regionals. Now they were headed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in hopes of winning the title of National Champions.


(Pictured left to right, top to bottom: Armoni Brooks, the Tanner Nguyen, Coach Huy, Andrew Gaddy, Matthew Kilpatrick, Ryan Schroeder, Deverette Williams, Connor Kaup, and Lucas Stock)

The send-off was made possible by having Aunt Tammy and her daughter, Megan come from Oregon to care for the girls so I was able to go along. They made Tanner a loaded, good luck candy bar card to wish him luck. It read...

"Don't SNICKER. We know you are out of this MILKY WAY. Your trip will be total BLISS. You will CRUNCH your competition to PIECES because in our family, there are no BUTTERFINGERS!!! Hope you'll get loads of those WHATCHAMACALLITS. Good luck!"



Finally the morning came to load up 8 boys and fly to Fort Lauderdale. Huy and Jeff, with the help of a few dads, flew with the wildly excited bunch and arrived safely there, while the other parents flew in peace and quiet, but wondering how the boys were doing.






With the help of a few local sponsors, Huy had these t-shirts and sweatshirts made, bought the Nike bags, and threw in a few extras. They looked like quite the traveling team!

Once in Florida, they boys were shuttled to the hotel (a newly renovated Sheraton), waited around a bit to get their packets of tickets and passes and jerseys and things, before finally settling into their rooms. While the coaches stayed at the hotel for meetings, the kids and parents went for some food. Then it was early to bed to be rested for a day of pool play in hopes of making the final game (played on the next day, Sunday) that they had worked so hard to be in.

There's my QB baby! They first played in a pool round beating the Raiders, 7-0, then the Lions, 7-6, but they fell apart in their last game against the Dolphins, or more infamously known to our team as Mo Steel, and lost 28-0. It was a shock to the boys, well, everyone. In the last 30 some games, our team had never been shut out, they were always the ones to do it to other teams. But, things work our in mysterious ways.

The Cowboys went on to play in the playoffs and beat the Jets, 14-0, and the Carinals, 14-0, which sent the team to the final, championship game to face off with the Dolphins one more time.

After the long, hard, emotional day, Tanner was hot, but also very excited to see his hard work come to this!

But before things got too serious on the field again, the boys enjoyed the food at the beach party and of course, they played more football on the sand.

Some of the cheer section at all the games - Coach Huy, Michelle and Coach Jeff, Terri Gaddy (husband Mark not present at this event, and Frank Schroeder).

When they say "Beach Party," that is precisely all it was. There was no swimming in this gorgeous pool, but the boys went and found the other hotel pool to play at.

Their fun was cut short as the NFL television crew needed to interview and get some information from all of the boys for the ESPN show that would air at a later date.

They were asked to state their name, grade, and the position they played. It had to be silent in the room as each one of them were "interviewed." It was a pretty cool ending to a pretty cool day!

These are the new jersey that they were given for the championship game (they are the same jerseys worn by the NFL players in the Pro Bowl). Moments before the game (outside the Dolphin stadium), and filming, were to begin, Tanner was shaking off his nerves, readying himself to play his best flag football.

Each team lined up as the National Anthem was sung and then it was game time!

Captains Tanner and Connor were there for the coin toss - the Dolphins, now the AFC took possession of the ball first.

The final pump-up from Coach (infront of those cameras) as they prepare to take the field and show Mo Steel what a National Championship team is really like (unlike the previous days shut-out).

The AFC team made the first score, but the NFC (us) team came right back at them with a touchdown, back-to-back, now leading the game at halftime 14-13. We were in it for the win. It was so exciting at this point - the AFC fans were in shock. I heard comments like, "this is not the team we played yesterday." "Wow, these guys are doing really well." I heard fear in their voices, but mine was going horse. Our team had only the parents of our players (and some supporting fans) while the Dolphins are from Miami so their fan numbers were huge. I felt the need to yell extra loud and a lot to cheer our Cowboy team on.

In the end, we were so close. The NFC team lost, 20-26. Hearts were sad, but they gave it their best and it was an experience never to be forgotten. We were all so proud!

The boys were bummed and tired, but there was still more to go. They were able to be apart of the Pro Bowl pregame. They went through a rehearsal for several hours on the Dolphin field, then had some food, and then went back onto the field for the National Honor Society bands pregame show - they jumped around infront of the band. And then they lined up for a tunnel as each Pro Bowl player was announced. They were the first team as the players came out so they got to high-five most players. Some of Tanner's favorites were Vince Young, Payton Manning, Adrian Peterson, and Ray Lewis!

Once inside the stadium for the game myself, we looked back onto the field where the boys had played earlier in the day, thinking back to the cool and unforgettable game. We were praying for a different outcome, but great lessons come from doing your best!

Before the boys took the field, we waited as the weather started to change and a storm blew in and it began to sprinkle on us. But it didn't stop the fun. The boys were shown on the big screen high-fiving NFL players, so excited!

And then they watched the game. Yet, another highlight.

This will be an experience Tanner, Huy or I will never forget. It was completely awesome!



But the good times just keep coming. On March 7th, "the experience" was televised on ESPN. The Gaddy's had everyone over for some hotdogs and goodies and to watch it all together. We had some good ooohs and aaaahs over it and we also hoped it would show a different outcome, but no such luck. It was great to remember it with good friends.

Tanner, great job! We are so proud of you and know how hard you worked for this. You should be proud of yourself also. Great things happen when there is hard work put behind it - this is one of many great experiences you will have in your life that prove it! Love you.