Kimberly Santistevan’s three TD passes lead Mile High Blaze to national title
3 min read
On Monday, significantly less than 48 hrs following foremost the Mile High Blaze to a nationwide title, Kimberly Santistevan was back again to get the job done. Initial there was an early-morning summertime camp as a soccer mentor at Douglas County High College, then off to her work as a pre-K teacher.
It was there, doing the job with 4-12 months-olds, that the magnitude of quarterbacking the Blaze to the largest feat in Colorado women’s deal with football background began to sink in.
“I’m nevertheless pretty much in disbelief it truly took place,” Santistevan claimed Monday. “But then I was actively playing capture with a bunch of the small ladies. They were being so psyched about catching the soccer from me… and I was like , ‘Huh, I consider that is sort of what my more substantial motive was.
“I did what I did because I want those women to be enthusiastic to perform sports as perfectly. That is the initially time it established in what I had just achieved.”
Santistevan threw three touchdown passes in the Blaze’s 21-20 victory about the Derby Metropolis Dynamite in the Women’s Soccer Alliance Division II national championship this earlier Saturday in Canton, Ohio. The victory created the Blaze the state’s first women’s tackle crew to gain a nationwide title.
Two of Santistevan’s landing passes moreover a pivotal two-position conversion went to wideout Smooth Lowery-Jones, a former DU basketball standout who is now a security analyst.
And the sport-successful touchdown was hauled in by wideout Stephanie Skinner, an MMA fighter and Starbucks barista who epitomizes the heart and commitment of a semi-pro football team that includes gamers of all styles of backgrounds and professions. Gamers variety from young adults to those people in their mid-50s, who just about every pay back $400 in yearly dues though also footing the bill for their possess travel.
“Being in Canton and enjoying on the (Tom Benson) Hall of Fame Area, it was an wonderful atmosphere, and we like how Canton is supporting women’s football, so that is a begin for us to get much more exposure nationally,” Lowery-Jones mentioned. “Hopefully, all the NFL groups commence supporting their community women’s soccer groups, like the Patriots do (with the Pro division winner Boston Renegades).”
Although the Blaze’s earn mandates they go up to the WFA’s Professional division up coming year — exactly where the competitors is heading to be much stiffer — Mile High’s longtime proprietor Wyn Flato-Dominy is stepping back from the club. Flato-Dominy has served as the WFA’s director of functions for the past a few several years and is now getting on that purpose whole-time with a concentration on “the development and betterment of women’s football in normal.”
“I’m not walking away from the Blaze completely — that’s my baby and I built it — but I did formally retire from the team and handed it more than to (head mentor and new owner) Rob Sandlin on Saturday evening,” Flato-Dominy explained. “The team offered me the activity ball in the end zone immediately after the sport, and I allow the girls know it was formal, and all people was crying.”
Flato-Dominy operates Group United, an worldwide group consisting of WFA stars. She’ll now turn her interest to prepping that staff — which will characteristic a handful of Blaze players, which includes 17-calendar year-aged linebacker Leilani Caamal and 40-calendar year-aged veteran defensive lineman Yolanda Searcy — for a few online games in opposition to championship Mexican groups in mid-September in Mexico Town.
