The Thanksfelix Bowl

Date: November 30, 2009
Start Time: Probably 1:00 PM
Location: Thomas Fitzwater Elementary School

Attendees
4 Teams (no particular order)

Team 1 (Brian Maggio was captain)
Brian Maggio*
Francis Ferruzzi
Tom Plasket (?)
Mark Pyfer
Zach Jacobs (?)

Team 2 (Mitch Sacks was captain)
Mitch Sacks*
Jarrett Felix
Mitch Silver
Evan Mao
Joe Lauman

Team 3 (I believe Max Massey was captain)
Ian McGrath
Dan Johnson
Max Massey*
Justinas Paskevicius
Charlie Smugar (?)

Team 4 (Ed Brown was captain)
John Miller
Ed Brown*
Pete Schartel
Josh Lowenstern
Todd Warszawski

What I Wrote in 2011's Felix Bowl, A History

For the first time in Felixbowl history Felix was not a captain, and neither was 3 time champion MarkPyfer. There was much hype about the Massey Felix rivalry from the previous bowl, as well as much hype surrounding first time players Evan Mao, John Miller and Pete Schartel. The tournament started with John Miller really making his presence felt by scoring a boat load of early touchdowns. Three squads went 2 and 1 while Pyfer and Maggio’s squad went 0-3 in the regular season. Then came the playoffs, a double elimination tournament to decide the champions.  Massey and McGrath lived up to their #1 seed knocking off the winless Maggio squad, while in the 2^nd straight game Ed Brown and Mitch Sack’s teams battled it out in intense rivalry and once again Miller and Schartel as well as Todd and Josh Lowenstern just proved too much for Silver, Mao, Felix, Sacks and company. So in the winner’s bracket, Massey and his team continued their winning streak and roared on to the finals with a bye, meanwhile Felix’s team edged out Maggio, eliminating them from the tournament. This meant it was a Brown v. Sacks rematch again, the rivalry having been brilliantly built up. Ultimately it was a stunning upset as Felix and his team beat Ed’s team by implementing their wild cat offense and taking down a tired John Miller and maybe slightly injured Pete Schartel. In the championship game the Felix v. McGrath/Massey rivalry was certainly talked about, but proved to not be the story as Felix’s team took a lead into the half behind touchdowns by Silver and Mao, and a key interception by Sacks. In the second half Massey’s team hung tough and battled to within one on the game’s final play. Johnson heaved a bomb downfield which McGrath just couldn’t quite get a grip on. To this day this is the only loss McGrath has in a Felixbowl championship. Meanwhile it is still Felix’s only championship he has won.

What I Remember Now
This tournament was held on my 18th birthday and also provided my first ever Felix Bowl victory. But it was not without controversy. In a classic Felix Bowl set-up, it started with every team playing each other team once. That set up the seeding for a double elimination tournament. So naturally that is a lot of games, many of which don't mean anything.

I remember Ed's team (featuring John Miller) came out the gates very hot and John scored maybe 4 TDs in his Felix Bowl debut. Ed's team and Mitch Sacks's team (AKA my team) had some epic battles as well. We lost to them the first two times we played, but then we played against each other in the semi-finals and defeated them. It seemed kind of silly that we had gotten beat by them twice, but with one victory we were able to get to the finals and there was definitely some arguments about this. Especially because John was not a distance athlete and he didn't quite save himself for the finishing stretch (admittedly its definitely possible the tournament structure may not have been adequately explained upfront).

In the championship, we managed to squeak by with a victory. The Massey/McGrath/Johnson team memorably tried a hail mary at the very end of the game that was barely missed by McGrath and otherwise would have served as a game tying touchdown. Instead, it fell incomplete and I won my first ever Felix Bowl.

Results
Winning Team: Mitch Sacks, Jarrett Felix, Mitch Silver, Evan Mao, Joe Lauman
Runner-Up: Ian McGrath, Dan Johnson, Max Massey, Justinas Paskevicius, Charlie Smugar

Pretty sure it was a one score game, maybe like 4-3 or something

I was still giving out MVPs at this point: Mitch Silver Offensive MVP, Mitch Sacks Defensive MVP