March 28, 2019
Riverside Under Armour Under the Lights Flag Football K-2 Steelers Travel to Menifee
For Immediate Release
On Friday, March 29, 2019, the Riverside Under Armour K-2 Flag Football Team – the Steelers (1-0), will be traveling to Paloma Valley High School in Menifee to challenge the 2-0 Menifee Steelers, in a showcase game between the two leagues.
The 1-0 Riverside Under Armour K-2 Raiders, will also be challenging a Menifee league team on Friday night.
The Steelers team features 5 returning members from last years Championship game squad: Luke Sevilla, Gracie Sevilla, Jayden Sage, Guillermo Villareal, & Noah Corona.
The Steelers have added 3 dynamic players to their mix this year: Sese Tuolioa, Eden Esau and Zane Sedoris – increasing their speed and skill exponentially.
Sese Tuolia, is the 6 year-old brother of Lokeni and Leni Tuolia; starting linebackers for the UCLA Bruins, and Lemusu Toailoa; starting Linebacker for the Sacramento State Hornets.
The UCLA tandem helps out at practices brings their friends and teammates and will be in attendance for Friday nights game in Menifee.
Unique to the Riverside Under the Lights Flag Football League is Receiver, Running Back and Defensive End, Gracie Sevilla, the only girl in the league, the youngest player in the league (5) and a Type 1 Diabetic, recently diagnosed last year.
Type 1 Diabetes is an incurable auto-immune disease that affects mostly children from 4 years old and rarely strikes adults. Type 1 Diabetes is thought to be triggered by viruses/illnesses common to school aged children (RotoVirus, Foot and Mouth, etc) who have the genetic markers of Type 1 Diabetes, which causes the Pancreas to fight against its own beta cells and shut down partially, then entirely, rendering the Pancreas useless to produce life saving Insulin.
Gracie, whose blood glucose levels have dipped to deadly levels (32 mg/dl) or has risen to deadly levels (600 + mg/dl), plays with a continuous glucose monitoring device affixed to her thigh that sends a reading to her dad, mom and school teachers & nurses (River Springs Magnolia Center in Riverside, where sister Sophia is a member of the Varsity Swim Team) cell phone app, alerting them of both highs and lows. The device is a Dexcom G6 and her father, Tommy Sevilla, the teams head coach of two years, keeps the receiver in his pocket as he coaches the kids; including Gracie, on the playing field.
Gracie’s father, Tommy, is a member of the Jurupa Valley Boxing Club’s Board of Directors; Gracie has a desire to add boxing to her resume of athletics; a sport that her 7 year old brother and football teammate, Luke, will be taking up as he soon reaches the required age of 8.
Gracie was recently featured in Insulin Nation and on Channel 2 & 9 news – Los Angeles affiliates, regarding her Type 1 Diabetes and athletic prowess; Gracie also excels in Baseball, Soccer and Basketball. She currently stars for the Jurupa Valley Single A – Angels Baseball Team as an infielder and power hitter.
Gracie Sevilla has a website in development: https://GracieSevilla.com
which links to her GoFundMe page where she is raising Type 1 Diabetes awareness and also money for a Diabetic Alert Dog.
Diabetic Alert Dogs are specially trained dogs that alert the affected persona those around them of impending highs and lows, a full 15 minutes before a CGM like the Dexcom G6 or other man-made technologies, and can even sense these phenomenons miles away when they are away from their owners; such as when Gracie is in school.
The Riverside Under Armour K-2 Steelers will return to their home stadium – Riverside’s Arlington High School, Friday, April 5th at 5:30 pm, and every friday night thereafter, as they play to reach the Under Armour National Championship Game to be played at UCLA.
For inquiries, please contact:
Tommy Sevilla (951) 289-1710
UPDATE: The Riverside Steelers beat the Menifee Raiders by a score 20-8 with Riverside Quarterback, Luke Sevilla, the older brother of Gracie Sevilla, recordig an epic game with 3 interceptions at Safety; one was a pick 6. Luke also was 5/6 passing with a touchdown pass and had many long gains at running back.
Guillermo Villareal, had a strong game on defense with 6 stops.
The Riverside Steelers played exceptionally well alongside the Riverside Steelers who also won their game against Menifee.