ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The West Mesa Mustangs have qualified to compete in the Young American Football League Nationals in Florida.

“We practice two hours every night. And then later in the season, we start losing daylight, so fitting a lot of football in a short amount of time, plus making sure that they’re on top of their schoolwork, it’s hard, and they work hard at it,” assistant coach Mike Andrews said.

It wasn’t easy for the Mustangs to qualify for Nationals.

“This season, we were plagued with quite a few injuries, and we’re low on numbers as a team anyway, so we had to have kids step up in positions that they weren’t familiar with or even comfortable with,” Andrews said. “It’s a Cinderella story. We didn’t expect it at all. Then the kids figure out how to come together. They rally around each other and pull it out.”

Now the challenge is getting to Nationals.

“The money is always an issue for all the kids and parents and stuff. And not having a head start on that is something that maybe, we feel as coaches, but we wanted to take the pressure off of the kids and let them just finish out the season and play the game,” Andrews said.

The players are excited to hopefully represent the 505 in Florida.

• Fabian Yanez: “It’s gonna be a great experience and, overall, just a great trip for us to represent New Mexico.”
• Juan Carlos Garcia: “We’re gonna bring home the W because we didn’t go through all of this hard work for nothing.”
• Uriah Apodaca: “I’m very excited to play. This competition will put team and family on the map.”

To help them get to Florida, you can donate to their GoFundMe. The team is accepting donations until Dec. 4 and expect to hit the road Dec. 7.

You can also eat at Gyro Shack this Saturday to support them, as 10% of sales will go to the team.