Two Texas A&M University-Kingsville recreational sports student officials represented the university at the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Championship Series. The invitation from the NIRSA, put Jaime Villarreal and Ruben Mendiola among the top 46 flag football student officials in the nation.
Villarreal, a senior, and Mendiola, a fall graduate, each officiated several games at the series including a semi-final co-rec game, according to Ian Brown, director of recreational sports at Texas A&M-Kingsville. “Their clean, crisp mechanics, rule knowledge and penalty enforcement continued to impress the evaluators at the tournament,” Brown said.
Both Villarreal and Mendiola worked as officials for rec sports for several years working multiple sports including flag football, basketball and soccer. They applied and were selected to work on-campus intramurals, but the off-campus tournaments are more competitive, Brown said.
“They applied to each tournament’s officials committee and they were selected by those committees,” he said. “In the case of nationals, they had to receive a bid from a regional flag football tournament.
“This means they were one of the top three or four officials at one of the regional tournaments and that regional committee recognized their talent and sponsored their application to the national tournament. This is truly a top honor in extramural sports,” Brown added.
“The combined effort of student officials and players from Texas A&M-Kingsville continue to put this institution on the map as a great place to develop individuals and have fun along the way,” Brown said.
