Flag Football Team Fundraising for Fla. Trip

A youth flag football team with six players who live in Rosemont has again earned a trip to a national tournament in Florida, but they need help getting there.

The will play in the tournament Jan. 12-14 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., just north of Miami. On Saturday, the team will have a to raise funds for the trip.

"(Making nationals) means a lot to these kids because some have been playing youth football for a while," said Raiders coach Rafael Enriquez.

Six of the nine players hail from Rosemont. Daniel "The Russian Rocket" Tveretinov, Eddie Ortiz Jr. and Rafael "Buddy" Enriquez III attend and play on the school's junior varsity football team. Dominique Vann-Smith, Dru Kell and Isaiah Robinson attend .

The other players–Brandon Ruaro, Daniel Chacon and Michael Briscoe–are from West Sacramento.

"It's like a big family," coach Enriquez said. "We're trying to send them (to nationals) in style."

The team of 12- to 14-year-olds has already won the Sacramento Cup championship this year and .

Enriquez said the team has unfinished business this year and wants to win it all in honor of his mother Maria Escobedo, who supported the team and passed away last year.

"In the regionals this year, the boys wore a black banner with the word 'Gramms' on it," he said. "You have to realize that my mother was fighting Diabetes and she had no legs and some fingers lost because of her battle with this disease."

"She was bedridden and still came out to support the kids," Enriquez said. "She told her husband that she thought this was the last trip that she could take."

Last year, Escobedo's grandson had a playoff game in Turlock for Rosemont's second round loss and the family drove to Oakland that night. 

"It rained all day and Gramms never complained and stayed by her team and witnessed them win in order to go to the nationals," Rafael Enriquez said.

This year's Raiders team played like veterans, he said.

"In the championship, the other coach of the Las Vegas team talked a little trash to the kids before the playoff round, but the classy team that we have just focused and sent the poor coach with a long drive of shame and eating his words back to Vegas," Enriquez said. "In the tournament, the defense was strong and on offense we did not have a turnover all day long."

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To attend:

The Southgate Raiders will have a spaghetti feed from 6 to 8 p.m. this Saturday at the Florin Creek Community Center, 7460 Persimmon Ave. in Sacramento. Food tickets are $12 and it is tax-deductible. For information, call 916-370-7560.