RW Sports: FAMU Women’s Flag Football Wins Two National Championships

Florida A&M University’s Women’s Flag Football Team recently won two national championship titles: the 2007 Pontiac American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS) Flag Football National Championship and the 2008 National Intramural & Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) National Campus Championship Series (NCCS)—Flag Football.

The team went 10-0 in both tournaments, resulting in “undefeated tournament play” for the duration of the competitions. Ruby Nugent, a 25-year-old Lake Wales native and a fall 2007 graduate, was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) for both tournaments.

“We had a rough start and it was a lot of hard work, but my team is made up of a great group of girls that developed into a strong team,” said Nugent. “We had a strong offense and a strong a defense that complimented each other. That’s what led us to the national championship.”

Hosted by the University of New Orleans, the ACIS Flag Football National Championship had seventy-seven state and regional champions from across the nation participated in the competition. In the championship game, FAMU defeated Campbell University team with a score of 21-19.

At the NCCS hosted by the University of Texas, a total of 70 state and regional champions from across the nation participated in the competition. FAMU defeated the University of West Florida with a score of 26-0 in the championship game.

“Our team has been in existence 1996,” said Marvin E. Green, Jr., who serves as the team coach and assistant director of the FAMU Campus Recreation Department. “We have traveled to this tournament probably eight times, but we have only had two runner-up appearances and this is our first championship. I am appreciative of all the hard work that the teams of the past have put in. They have laid the foundation for this team, a relatively young team, to accomplish this. They came in strong and really believed from day one that they could be national champions.”

Robert Brown served as the assistant coach and is the intramural sports coordinator of the FAMU Campus Recreation Department. The following team roster included the following: Ruby Nugent; Ravonda Claitt; Asia Evans; Nikki Goldthreate; Ashley Livingston; Trivia Richardson; April Roberts; Akuawana Sesler; Michelle Smith; Shemaiah Thames; and Crystal Wicks.