Game of inches: NxtGen brings home silver from first Jr. Olympics flag football games

One of the special aspects of youth sports is the immense impact that being part of a team can have on a person. 

Each team is profoundly different. Like a good meal, each ingredient used to form a team brings its own unique spice and flavor to the end product. And throughout the length of a slow-cooked season, that collection of individuals shares a collective and singular experience that can never be reproduced. 

For Thomas Ochoa — coach of NxtGen’s 10U flag football team and father of the team’s starting quarterback — no experience better captured this overarching impact more than the three days his NxtGen team spent at the AAU Junior Olympics’ inaugural Flag Football Games in Houston, Texas. And no moment better exemplified the opportunity youth sports have on creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences than the final play of the tournament’s Gold-Medal Match. 

After running the table in pool play on Day 1 and shutting out its second-round opponent, 19-0, NxtGen pulled out a pair of close wins in the quarterfinals — a 22-21 overtime win over a Massachusetts-based team — and semifinals — a 13-6 victory over a strong Connecticut team — to set up a championship battle against Spiked Elite, the No. 1 team in the country.

“We’re incredibly proud of the boys’ effort — fighting tooth-and-nail in every game to reach the Gold Medal Round,” Ochoa said. “This was, by far, the toughest tournament we’ve played in, with so many tightly contested games. Hundreds of teams tried to qualify, but only 24 made it, (so) it was truly the best of the best.”

NxtGen’s New Hampshire-based foes were as tough as advertised, taking a one-touchdown lead and holding the Southwest Orange team scoreless throughout most of the championship round. With the time on the game clock dwindling, NxtGen began its final charge toward the end zone in the 7-0 game. As the clock reached zero, the Windermere-based team crossed the goal line for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 7-6.

One play now stood between a historic victory for the area’s prolific flag football program and a heart-wrenching defeat in the Lone Star State. Ochoa had a choice to make — one that was much less about the strategic merits of whether to spot the ball at the 5-yard line and attempt a one-point conversion to tie the game or double the distance to the 10-yard line and go for the win by attempting a two-point conversion. 

Instead, Ochoa and his assistant coaches understood the incredible opportunity they had to use this decision to make a powerful impact on these children's lives.

“The final was a true battle,” Ochoa said. “They were up 7-0 with under a minute to go, but we drove down the field and scored with no time left, (and) as a team, we made the bold decision to go for the win and attempt a two-point conversion.”

Ultimately, whether they converted the attempt or not, this group of athletes were going to earn various profound life lessons and experiences. If they converted and won the historic gold medal, they would have walked away with the confidence of not only being the first team to ever have reached this pinnacle but also the belief in themselves earned from facing and overcoming adversity. If they came up short, they’d have the opportunity to learn from their failures and to go home knowing they left it all on the field. 

Regardless of the outcome, at the very least, the choice to go for the win guaranteed these athletes this one thing: The absolute certainty that their coaches — in the face of adversity, with a championship on the line and also with the understanding that the community around the organization rallied together to raise the money necessary to send the team to the out-of-state competition — believed in them. 

“That moment was a powerful teaching opportunity for the boys: Don’t pass up the chance to control your own narrative,” Ochoa said. “We walked away with the silver medal, proud of our effort, our heart and the journey we shared together. … (We) are a very successful team and their work ethic and chemistry is unmatched (but) football is a game of inches and we needed about two more inches in that Gold Medal game we lost.”

Still, despite falling a couple of inches short in the title game, the growth Ochoa has seen in his players and this organization as a whole is heartwarming. 

“When I started coaching a few of these kids three years ago, I never would have imagined this type of success or opportunity, so my heart is beyond full,” he said.