PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – The Pop Warner football national championships are going on up in Orlando, and Southwest Florida has a shot at the championship. The 12U Port Charlotte Bandits are two wins away from history.
Out of all the thousands of Pop Warner football teams spread across the country the best of the best are in Orlando this week but only one in 12U division one calls Florida home.
“It feels good and also amazing that we are representing all of Florida because there are a lot of good teams out there that want to be where we are at,” Port Charlotte Bandits RB/LB Bruce Blanden said.
But no one else has had the season the Bandits have had.
“I want the kids to remember this for a lifetime,” Port Charlotte Bandits President Shea Davis said. “This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
After knocking off a rival Miami team the Bandits punched their tickets to nationals and with a 33-0 win in round one are two wins away from being crowned the best in the country.
“We have a goal and our goal is to win the championship and they are working hard,” Port Charlotte Bandits head coach Les Hassen said. “We are ready. They want to play the game these kids just love to play the game of football.”
This team has been years in the making and has built a bond with the community and each other that has made this run possible.
“The more that we play with each other, the more that we get to know each other, the more that we hung out with each other sometimes we would fight and stuff like that it gave us that brother bond which I had brought us closer and closer together,” Blanden said.
Sure this trip is about winning the championship, and they’ve worked hard to have that one on their mind this late in the season. But it’s also important to not lose sight of what got them this far.
“I think the kids right now they are so focused on playing the game,” Coach Hassen said. “What we really want them to focus on because they know the game, they know the fundamentals. We want them to have fun.”
Because that’s what’s going to help make lifelong memories over these next few days.
“As long as they continue to have fun and in 25 years from now can look back and go ‘hey remember that trip to Orlando remember that and oh yeah by the way we won a national championship’ those are the things that we hope these guys talk about in the future,” Davis said.
The bandits will play in the semi-finals tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. against a team from Pennsylvania if they win the national championship will be Saturday.
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