Flag Football Team Finds National Success
By Eric Lindsey
UK Athletics
While the University of Kentucky football team was busy defeating East Carolina for its third straight bowl win, another UK football team was in New Orleans trying to bring a national title back to Lexington.
UK's intramural championship team competed in the 30th Annual Slingbox American College Intramural Sports Flag Football National Championships on Dec. 28-31. While there were more than 1,500 students from approximately 100 teams, UK’s team was one of only 12 teams to earn an all-expense paid trip to New Orleans.
Kentucky was represented by team See Ya, a group of nine students that won the intramural championship at UK and regional tournament in Bowling Green, Ky. That gave the UK team a chance to compete for a national championship.
"We didn’t have expectations," said junior Chase King, the team’s captain and quarterback. "We knew we had a chance to win at Kentucky, but we had no idea about the regional tournament. We went in there not expecting anything. We had no clue how good the competition would be there and we just rolled there. To win it was awesome. We were just glad to be going to New Orleans."
Team See Ya continued to roll at nationals. Representing Kentucky in the men’s collegiate division, the team won their division and earned a first-round bye in bracket play. The Wildcats were one of 15 remaining teams competing for the ultimate prize.
But after making it to nationals unscathed, team See Ya was finally bounced from the tournament in the quarterfinals, losing on a last-minute play to eventual-champion North Florida.
"We were right there," King said. “We could have very easily won it all."
In addition to King, the roster included Dane Lantry, Paul Laible, A.J. Schreiver, Chris Farrell, Justin Hinerman, Roman Whelan, Tyler Trammel and Patrick Hayden. Some of the players had played high school football before, but they never thought they would be competing for a national title, King said. The key was speed.
"We were just small and fast, and that's what the key was,” King said. "We didn’t need any height. We just ran real short routes, and defensively we were fast and flew all over the place and forced turnovers."
The students even made an appearance on ESPN during the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. While the Wildcats were busy defeating East Carolina in Memphis, Tenn., the broadcast aired highlights from an exhibition game between the two schools’ flag football teams. Team See Ya represented UK in winning fashion, defeating East Carolina’s team 15-0.
Not bad for a team that didn’t even know if it could even win the UK championship. Now that they have tasted success, King said they hope to make a repeat trip to New Orleans next year and win it all.
"We were disappointed that we lost in the Elite Eight to that team, but to find out that they won, we knew we could have easily been there," King said. “When we got our team together this year, we weren’t expecting anything like this. Now that we’ve seen what it’s like, we definitely want to go back there for sure."
