The Plant City Dolphins are making another “run for the rings.”
Four PCD squads signed up for the 2018 United Youth Football League National Championships, held once again in Plant City at Ellis-Methvin Park, and began tournament play over the weekend. The Dolphins are fielding teams in the 8 Weighted, 10 Unlimited East, 12 Unlimited All-Star and 15 All-Star age brackets.
The 10 Unlimited East team is better known as the Midgets squad that has won 29 consecutive games and three Superbowls in Tri-County Youth Football and Cheerleading Conference play. The Dolphins’ All-Star bracket teams are made up of PCD players and others from teams around the TCYFCC.
The 8W Dolphins started things off with a 33-0 win over the North Carolina Giants at 7 p.m. Monday and advanced to play the Detroit Spartans at 8:30 a.m. in yesterday’s semifinal round. That bracket’s championship game will be played at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
The 10U East Dolphins came out of their first-round bye with a 40-7 win over the Reidsville Tigers on Monday evening, but then suffered a 31-0 loss to DFW Elite at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday. They will play MOT Cowboys at 3:30 p.m. today for the co-fourth place spot in the East-West tournament.
The 12U All Stars also got a first-round bye and looked good in a 24-6 win over the Elite Kids Tigers on Monday evening. They advanced to face Sportz Farm Elite in Wednesday afternoon’s semifinal round. That bracket’s championship game will be played at 1:45 p.m. Friday.
The 15U All Stars started their week by dominating the NY All Stars, 47-0, on Sunday evening and faced the Fayetteville Ducks in Wednesday’s semifinal round at 5:15 p.m. That bracket’s championship game will be played at 5:15 p.m. Friday.
Plant City has hosted the UYFL national championship tournaments since 2011, starting at the Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex and moving across the street to Ellis-Methvin Park upon the park’s completion. Each year, hundreds of youth football teams from all over the United States travel to Plant City for the first week of December to compete and the Dolphins organization typically fields several squads and helps the UYFL personnel with day-to-day operations like concessions. A full list of brackets, game times and field locations is viewable online at unitedyfl.com/brackets. Results from Wednesday’s games were not available at press time.