DENVER — Financial controversy ruined the fall season, but now a local youth football team is gunning for a national championship and they’re asking the FOX31 Denver Problem Solvers for help making it a reality.
The Denver Junior Broncos rallied to win the Super Bowl of the Mile High Youth Football League in the spring, but the inner-city team can’t make the next step on its own.
The Junior Broncos didn’t have a typical year and they don’t have typical players.
“I’ve been playing since I was 4 years old,” said Iziah Rudolph, who is now the 9-year-old starting quarterback for the Broncos.
Faith Tarrant is not a typical defensive end. She was the only girl in the league, but had no problem showing everyone what she can do.
This fall, Faith and her teammates struggled to make many tackles at all, but not because of anything they did on the field. They were part of the Snoop Youth Football League, which ended early under financial controversy.
“We paid just like every other team had paid and then they cut our league short because of funding for some odd reason,” said Ryan Rudolph, Iziah’s father.
After seeing kids suffer and parents lose money, coach Justin Rodriguez made a promise to his team this spring.
“I told them, ‘You take care of your business in practice, go win the super bowl and we’ll try to push to get to California for a national championship,” Rodriguez said.
And despite trailing at halftime in the super bowl, that’s what they did.
“I think it was 21-6 and we didn’t let them score and we came back and won,” Iziah Rudolph said.
“Since you guys won the super bowl, he said, we’ll go to California,” Faith Tarrant said.
But it’s not an easy promise to keep, the 22 teammates and their families have been working hard to raise money for a trip many would never dream of.
“They’re inner-city kids. A lot of them have probably never traveled outside of Denver,” Rodriguez said.
Though the trip is anything but typical, Faith’s mother said neither is their resolve.
“I’m a single mom and I have two kids so trying to make sure that everything happens is a little difficult but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her,” Nicole Tarrant said.
The team has raised about $3,000 for the trip but will need to raise $20,000 or more to make the trip. To help the team, visit its GoFundMe page.