MANCHESTER, NH – It was a historic victory 25 years in the making for Manchester East Cobras, who clinched the American Youth Football National Division 2 Championship in Friday’s final game at Austin-Tindall Park in Kissimmee, FLA.
WATCH: Manchester East Cobras’ Saturday night homecoming
Cobras President Maria Young said it has been an amazing ride this season for a team that came together and pulled off a “nail-biter” of a win against Texas. She noted that in the 25 years since moving to AYF, no New Hampshire team has ever made it this far or won a national championship.
“Yes, we’re the first New Hampshire team in 25 years to go this far,” says Young. “On Monday they beat Florida, on Wednesday they beat Washington, D.C., and today they took the championship from Texas, 27-26 – it was a crazy game. We were down at half-time and it was a real nail-biter, but they did it.”
It was a magical combination of 9- and 10-year-old players, many who’ve been playing together since they were old enough to put cleats on – 17 boys and one girl, Gracie Chantasiri, “our center nose guard – we call her our badass little lady,” says Young.
“We have five kids who’ve been playing up for the last three years, but this season I made a decision to drop them down to make the age ranges fit better, and between our coaching staff and the entire team effort, they just got better and better throughout the year,” says Young. “They were unstoppable.”
Young, who has been with the Cobras for nine years, three as president, said the support has been incredible. Although they fell short in a fundraising effort to get the team of 17 players and four coaches to Florida, she says they did what they had to do to be there.
“Unfortunately we didn’t hit our fundraising goal so a lot of parents had to do out-of-pocket costs, We’ve shelled out a lot of money to get these kids down here, but I didn’t feel we had a choice. If the kids didn’t go to the championships, AYF would have sanctioned me and not allowed anyone to go past states for the next two years, and they would have fined us $2,500 on top of it.”
So Young booked two vans on her credit card and divided the team into two travel units for the 24-hour trek to Florida.
She says the Cobras had a huge hometown cheering section for the game, including the Salem Rams, and Bedford Bulldogs Cheer squad, both also in Florida for the championships.
“And to make it even better, the teams we beat – Maryland and Florida – came over to cheer us on in the finals. They said if we’re going to get beat by you then we’re going to cheer you on for the win,” says Young.
After the 2 p.m. awards ceremony on Dec. 8, the team packed up the vans and hit the road, hoping to beat the forecasted snow and be back on home turf in time for a Saturday homecoming celebration at Al Lemire Field.
“They’re going to drive straight through. We’re trying to have everyone meet at Derryfield Park when they return, 3 or 4 p.m. I’ve got two coaches who took a week off from work, without pay, for this trip, and many parents who flew or drove down to support the team. It’s really been an incredible experience,” Young says.
She notes that the championship would not have been possible without the support of her four dedicated coaches, Will Corman, Matt McDonald, Gus Pares and Dave Landmesser, and team mom Shauna Burris.
There were some other challenges the Cobras rose to this season, including a smaller player pool to choose from based on geographical team enrollment guidelines set by the city, and although they are fortunate to be able to include players from low-income households thanks to a NH Housing grant, transportation was eliminated due to budget constraints.
“That meant coaches picking up and dropping off players all season, and sometimes having players stay over at our houses on weekends just to make sure we could get them to games,” says Weber.
The public is invited to join the Manchester East Cobras for their homecoming celebration at Al Lemire Field, located at Derryfield Park, off Bridge Street, on Dec. 9 in Manchester.
Team Roster: Shawn O’Neil, Aidan Calden, Treyvohn Cannon-Bennitt, Steven Flattery, Aiden McDonald, Michael Landmesser, Chase Burris, Cayden Salvi, Liam Corman, Elijah Ellis, Jayden Pares, Ajow Luwal , Jaythean Obando, Matthew Koenig, Jhystoni Rivera, Nathan Sadia, Jonathan Sadia, Gracie Chantasiri. Teammates unable to travel: Xavier and George Whitehead.
