LAS VEGAS — Neah Bay already has an 8-man state champion in football.
This weekend, it might add a national champion.
The Bay Eagles, a semipro team based in Neah Bay, will face the Vegas Cobras on Saturday at Freedom Park Football Field in Las Vegas.
The winner will be crowned the 8-man football national champion.
The Eagles, who are made up of players from Neah Bay, Silverdale and Marysville, earned a berth to Las Vegas by winning the Northwest 8-Man League’s 2013 championship.
The team is owned by Ronald Wright and coached by T.J. Greene.
Both also are players. Wright plays defensive line and Greene is a linebacker.
Greene also is a former Clallam Bay High School head coach, and was the defensive coordinator for Neah Bay’s 1B state runner-up team last year.
Jed Johnson, a safety and running back, was named the Northwest 8-Man League MVP.
The national championship was originally supposed to be a four-team tournament, with the semifinals on Thursday, but teams from Illinois and Georgia dropped out of the tournament.
Wright said the Neah Bay community helped the Eagles reach their fundraising goal so they could afford the trip to Las Vegas.
He said the team will have about 11 of its 23 players at the game.
The Bay Eagles formed earlier this year, and played three games, including two blowout wins over the Marysville Red Raiders.
The Northwest 8-Man League had three teams this year, but league president Larry Stovall-Moody told the Peninsula Daily News in June that the league should add a few more teams next season.
Wright said the Eagles will return to defend their league championship next year.
“Hopefully, we’ll be coming back [to Las Vegas] to defend this championship, too,” he said.
