FlagFootballX.com interview with Tuffy Martinez, QB of McAllen Colors
FFX: You guys were on a roll, winning almost every tournament you entered including last years State Championship….lately though, you have stumbled a little. Can you talk about what happened in San Antonio, and in Houston that kept you off the podium?
Tuffy: I can’t put a finger on it right now. We just didn’t get some critical plays at the times we usually get them. We had a lot of 4th downs not go our way. We missed on plays that usually work out for us.
FFX: Do you think that some of the B teams should be playing in A?
Tuffy: I think all the A teams should drop down to B and let us all play together….some of the B teams belong in the B, some can’t win it, but some really should be playing in the A. I have seen them play and they can compete in the A division. Some of those guys need to step up to the plate or they are never going to get any better.
FFX: Are you looking for some revenge from the 2007 State Championships in Frisco?
Tuffy: Nah, not really, we never go in with that mentality, we go in one game at a time and whatever happens, happens. I don’t think we have ever had a revenge factor in our mind or our philosophy. We just go out there and compete and over the last three years we’ve been on the right side of winning most of the time.
FFX: What do you think about the different areas and the styles of football in those areas?
Tuffy: I think our style in South Texas is a little bit different than the other parts of Texas. Central Texas is more of a heave it and let’s go, more of a spread mentality, no blocking backs, the central teams play the double stack, and some of the North Texas teams play seven men across and get you to try and match up against them, but we look for mismatches and try to take advantage of them. Our pitching game sometimes gives us an advantage.
FFX: Do you consider the Scatbacks a rival?
Tuffy: At the beginning it was a rivalry but as the years have gone by I don’t consider them a rival any more. I consider them a good ball club and when we get into each others face it is just tough football. We don’t have any bad blood any more. I wish them luck except when they play us.
FFX: How long have you been playing, what got you into football?
Tuffy: I started in 1982 when I was 17 years old, I picked it up back in our hometown, you could meet at the local stadium and just play pick up games, they would have about 60 players and it got bad when you were playing 18 on 18 and that’s when we started trying to play more organized, I started as a blocking back and played a lot of defense…I wanted to play qb, I moved to Harlingen and started playing with a team called (didn’t understand name), that lasted a week, then I got picked up on a team called Santa Rosa out of Santa Rosa, …..the first play for them was always down the sideline, I learned the game from them, mostly from a guy named (didn’t understand the name), I think Andy should add him to the hall of fame……the majority of the teams we used to face back then were out of Houston….I then played with some teams out of Mcallen and played all over the valley during the weekdays….I have been very fortunate to have a lot of sponsors over the years that have taken care of everything we needed on the road.
FFX: Are there any upcoming teams in the valley that could compete at a high level if they travelled?
Tuffy: The Bengals will be there competing in the B, they are good but they may be a year or so away from being able to compete in the A division.
FlagFootballX.com interview with Storm QB Matt Kacal
FFX: Storm has dominated the B division for a long time. Some people argue that you should have moved up to A a long time ago, why did you finally move up to A now?
Matt: We wanted to move up to A back in 2003 but I was injured and it took me a little time to get back to full strength. The team was divided on whether or not to move up after that. The part of the team that wanted to move up to A made a deal with the other part that wanted to stay in B that if they agreed to play B in the tournament in Frisco in 2007 that that would be the last year we would play B. We would have moved up to A last year but they only had five teams in the A division in the valley tournament and we didn’t want to play in a small bracket.
FFX: What challenges do you think you will have to face in the A division; will you do well?
Matt: I think we will do well, but the intensity may be a little higher in the A so we can’t let up for even a second.
FFX: Why are so many teams coming out of Houston this year?
Matt: Our partnership with FlagFootballX has caused us to want to get the word out and try to get more teams to travel. We knew if FFX was involved in this tournament it would be a good tournament with all of the added benefits of photos, videos, updates online, and extra prizes, so we really worked hard at recruiting because we knew that if the new teams travelled they would have fun and would want to travel and play in more tournaments as a result.
FFX: What team do you think you would match up against the best in the championship out of Rams, Colors, and Scatbacks?
Matt: We would match up best against the Rams because they speak English most of the game.