In a phenomenal year for UD athletics, even the intramurals is chipping in with the success.

Team Funky Chicken will be the first intramural team to represent UD at a national tournament in any sport.

The team has captured the UD coed competitive intramural football title two years in a row and has also made back-to-back appearances at the regional tournament. They will now move on to the national tournament in New Orleans from Dec. 28-31.

"Regionals was an absolute blast," senior team captain Jarrett Creely said. "We qualified for regionals last year, but unfortunately we were not able to win a single game. It was our first year playing so we did not have that much experience, especially playing teams who have been playing together for multiple years. However, this year we were able to come out and mercy our first three opponents and then advance to the championship."

The team is made up of all senior students. In addition to Creely, Funky Chicken team members are Jim O'Connor, AJ Martin, Jay Mergenthaler, Kaki Tighe, Carrie Minnick, Ryan LeMier, Elyse Grothouse, Ashley Miller, Patricia Snow and Jenny Roettker.

"The guys on our team have been roommates since sophomore year," Creely said. "The girls did not know each other until our team was formed and now they are all really good friends."

Funky Chicken clinched the regional title in a down-to-the-wire battle against Ohio State.

"We won the championship 24-20 in the last minutes when Kaki [Tighe] scrambled for the game winning touchdown," Creely said. "It was a pretty intense game since we were trailing throughout and had to come from behind to win in the last minutes."

Funky Chicken outscored its opponents 160-45 at the regional event and Creely was named MVP of the tournament. Amazingly, the team has only two former football players on the team (Creely played from seventh-12th grade and LeMier one year in fifth grade), so Creely attributes their success to their friendship.

"Our team is so good because we are all good friends and have played on multiple intramural teams together," he said. "The chemistry is there and since we all hang out a lot off the field, we play the game to have fun and rarely get stressed out. We bring the experience and wisdom of many gridiron battles every time we step on the field."

In addition to showing off their flag football skills, Funky Chicken has displayed great sportsmanship during its intramural play at UD.

"Team Funky Chicken has represented the university very well both on and off campus in the past couple of years," said assistant director for intramurals Mark Hoying. "They have been a finalist for the team sportsmanship award in each of the last two regional tournaments. The university community could not ask for a better group of students to spread the mission of UD and campus recreation through the spirit of competition."

Funky Chicken expects to succeed at nationals.

"We expect to compete against some of the best teams in the nation including UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, Nebraska and UL Monroe," Creely said. "Ultimately we expect to win a national title and put UD's name on the map for national intramurals. We are all seniors, I could not think of a better way to kick off our last semester than to bring home a national title back to UD."