According to assistant coach Todd Freitas, Mickey Mouse was
secondary. The Hollister Vikings conquered the Fairfield Giants of
Connecticut 18-6 Friday morning at Disney’s Wide World of Sports
Complex in Orlando, Fla., and will return home today with shiny new
medals around their necks and a national championship trophy in
their possession.
According to assistant coach Todd Freitas, Mickey Mouse was secondary.
The Hollister Vikings conquered the Fairfield Giants of Connecticut 18-6 Friday morning at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., and will return home today with shiny new medals around their necks and a national championship trophy in their possession.
The Vikings are kings of the Junior Pee Wee world.
As with most who are flushed with power, the Vikings were lounging by an Orlando pool Friday night, soaking in their success, eating pizza, dunking their coaches and receiving their national medals.
“It’s a good night,” said head coach Gino Andrade over the phone, practically yelling into the speaker amid all the fanfare in the background. “This was not expected (at the beginning of the season). We figured we’d be in the playoffs, but 15-0 with a national championship, this was totally unexpected.”
The Vikings defeated the Orange Park (Florida) Cyclones 14-6 Tuesday, setting up Friday’s national championship in the Pop Warner Super Bowl.
After Friday’s big win, a win that wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter, word spread from coast to coast of Hollister’s national supremacy.
“We just won the national championship,” said Freitas over the phone just a few hours after the game went final. “We are ecstatic. We’ve reached the pinnacle, and we got it done.
“Personally, I would like to say that we got a core group of kids from last year and they knew what it took … The captains earned the trust of all the kids and they would run through a fence for them.”
The Vikings broke a scoreless game on a first-and-goal in which quarterback Tyler Fhurong knew what play to call before the coaches did: I-Right 34 Pop.
“It really makes it fun to coach them,” Freitas said. “What we lack in size, we make up for in smarts. Our kids just get it. They know where to be and they know how to play the game.”
Fhurong would later seal the game with a pick-six late in the fourth quarter, solidifying the win, and giving his father a pretty decent birthday present.
“He was glad he was able to seal it on his dad’s birthday,” Andrade said.
When I got the chance to interview some of the players last week, even I was taken aback by their maturity, attitude and approach toward the game. Heck, I was blown away with some of their answers.
For instance, when I asked them if they wanted to supply me with any predictions on how well they think they’ll do, Cody Freitas responded, “I don’t want to make any predictions.”
I interviewed 13 people for that story, and each answer spoken carried as much weight and importance as an entire 15-0 season could carry.
The Vikings traveled to Florida knowing they were leaving with a championship trophy in hand.
“To hear the leaders of the team tell you that and then to come down here and do it, that was really phenomenal,” Todd Freitas said.
What may even be more phenomenal was the team’s second score. It was called Double Wide Right Special, and the Vikings learned it Friday morning, before the championship.
“We practiced it four times,” Freitas said, “and the kids ran it to perfection.”
The play called for Cody Freitas and Joshua George to line up on the right side, run a criss-crossing pattern to knock the defensive backs out of position, and find a wide-open receiver between the two of them.
And George was open.
A proclamation will be made at the next city council meeting for the Vikings, while another story and photos will be in Tuesday’s edition of the Hollister Free Lance.
“They stayed focused,” Freitas said, “and they won it.”
