SIXTEENTH RECIPIENT

PORTER WILSON AWARD 2014

REBECCA SUAREZ

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

 

REBECCA SUAREZ

 

REBECCA has opened the gate for IWFFA to enter Latin America and has since, created a new world for all female flag football players around the world.

Rebecca Suarez: IWFFA's first Latin Region Director.

- Diane Beruldsen President of the IWFFA

 

Born in 1989, I started playing sports since 4th grade. I began with basketball, but eventually ended up in volleyball, soccer, and my biggest passion, surfing.

                       


 

I kept playing with the Isleña’s and my love for female flag football has kept on growing everyday.

 

 

 


 

Rebecca left

 

 

Four months later, player Dhara Adkins and I, flew to Guatemala to supervise the First Latin American IWFFA Tournament, where six (6) teams participated: three (3) teams from Honduras, two (2) teams from El Salvador, and one (1) team from Guatemala.

Rebecca front row - center

 

So, in 6 months, the Isleñas Puerto Rico Flag Football team were ready for our first IWFFA tournament in Key West, and to our surprise, we won the Division 2 Championship. The energy I felt in that moment was incredible, playing flag football with other countries, meeting so many people, traveling to represent my Island, everything was amazing, so I decided to keep going.
 

(photo left) Rebecca on left - Puerto Rico Islenas Championship Team in 2014 Kelly McGillis Classic / (photo right ) Isleanas were 2013 World Challenge Champs

 

 

But, in 2012, I began to play female flag football. It was the first time in Puerto Rico that American Football really gives an opportunity for women to play in an only female football team. I didn’t know anything about the sport back then, and neither did the other ladies, but thanks to our great coaches we all fell in love with it and committed to the team.

 

Porter Wilson Award

The Inventor of the Sonic Boom Belts & Flags and Founder of Flag A Tag
 
 
 
Porter Wilson
The Inventor of the Sonic Boom Belts & Flags and Founder of Flag A Tag
Passed Away in September of 2000
.
Porter was our biggest supporter for girls and women's flag football
.
In Memory and to Honor
We Bestow the Porter Wilson Award
 
 

I have been playing Female Flag Football for three years, and from all the experiences I have learned so much and it has also helped me a lot with my personal things. We (Isleñas) were given the task to help the growth and promotion of the IWFFA in my and other Latin American Countries. After our trip to El Salvador, where my coach Joel Otero, Isleña’s player Lucille Ruiz and I teached IWFFA rules 8 vs 8 for the first time in these countries to women from El Salvador and Guatemala, I became the First Female Flag Football Representative of IWFFA Latin American Region

Rebecca, Joel Ortero, Roberto Cerna, Lucille Ruiz

 

Puerto Rico’s league is growing, and for the first time in our Island, the IWFFA Puerto Rico Tournament, hosted by Blue Waves Female Flag Football team, will be on June 11-15, 2015.

  

 
 
 Through all these years of playing, I've learned that everything you do, however difficult it may seem, the end always has a good taste, and the sacrifices have there good deliveries. Learn from the mistakes, and with the bad always comes something good.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rebecca the Model

Thank you IWFFA for honor me with the Porter Wilson Award, 2014.
The trophy will remind me all the good times I had in each of the events that I participated as a IWFFA player and as the Latin Female Flag Football IWFFA Representative.
 

 



 

Porter Wilson Award

The Inventor of the Sonic Boom Belts & Flags and Founder of Flag A Tag

Porter was our biggest supporter for girls and women's flag football
.
In Memory and to Honor
We Bestow the Porter Wilson Award

 

 

Long lives the women’s football!


 
 
Rebecca makes a great running play .