Florida A&M Saturday honored Simply Marvelous, the university’s women’s intramural flag football team, for winning two recent national championships. The university recognized the team in front of thousands of fans in a special ceremony during half-time at the men’s basketball game against rival Bethune-Cookman University.
Over the holiday break, the team won the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association National Championship, as well as the American Collegiate Intramural Sports national championship. This is the third consecutive year that the team has won both championships. Overall, it has collected eight championships in the last five years.
The team cruised past Campbell University 35-0 to win the ACIS 32nd National Flag Football Tournament on Dec. 31, 2011. Sophomore quarterback Erika Collins earned the Offensive Most Valuable Player, and Kimbryana Lewis was named Defensive MVP.
They each made the All-Tournament team along with Ashley Livingston, Sharonta Williams and Tynequia Roberts.
The women won the NIRSA NCCS National Championship on Jan. 6, 2011, defeating Texas State University by a score of 7-0. This was a rematch of last years’ NIRSA NCCS National Championship.
Williams, Roberts and Collins made their way to the All-Tournament team again after impressive performances. Collins garnered MVP of the tournament for the second-straight year.
Collins, a second-year physical therapy student from Tallahassee, said she is excited about the team’s accomplishments.
“We played great,” said Collins. “We are all talented and blended together well.”
Even though three key players graduated, the team managed to dominate on the field. It also set the record for most points scored in a season with 368 points. It also set the record for least points allowed, allowing only one touchdown all season.
Sharonta Williams, a third-year sociology major from Tallahassee, was a huge contributor to the team’s success this season.
“My expectations coming into this year were to bond to win a championship and bond with the girls and I did more than that,” Williams said.
Head coach Marvin Green said he is proud of the team. He said this season’s team appeared to be on a mission.
“We didn’t know how we would do this year but it seemed like these girls were on a mission,” Green said. “It’s scary to think how good they can be.”