Hot Tub Time Machine
It was 2019, Diego Valenzuela was sitting in a hot tub with his Mexican lacrosse brothers enjoying a beer and chatting. Rewind 10 days and it’s the start of the 2019 World Lacrosse indoor championship in Vancouver. All the emotions accompanied being able to represent Mexico on the international stage. All the hours Diego invested in preparation come down to this week. The tournament was amazing and the games challenging, but looking back on the experience, the most rewarding thing Diego took from it was the relationships he built. The personal connections in lacrosse are one thing that this sport has that no other sports compare to.
Back to the hot tub, Diego and his bros were healing their bruises after 10 grueling days of lacrosse. They were talking about how they were going to continue getting together as a group in the future. That’s when they decided that starting a traveling team would be the answer. Diego always wanted to create a team where fellow Mexicans can get together drink tequila and play lacrosse! Thinking of names “Los Aztecas” was one of the first ones he thought of and instantly knew the warrior culture of the people would lend itself perfectly to the sport of lacrosse. After this conversation Diego couldn’t stop thinking of all the endless possibilities.
Ernesto Valenzuela, Diego’s twin brother also has represented Mexico in 2010 World Games which was the first ever Mexican team to play internationally. His teammates and him also had dreams of creating a traveling team as well. Unfortunately, back in those times there were not as many tournaments to play in, and harder to communicate and organize with players. Fast forward 10 years and now they have a traveling team with a pool of players that come from Mexican heritage.
Once Diego got back home it was time to start putting his design ideas on paper. After thinking of what represents an Azteca. He thought a warrior in an eagle headdress would be the perfect design. After some brainstorming with his twin brother Ernesto, they started getting some concepts on paper and within a few days they had a main and secondary logo ready to be transferred to a digital format!
Lots of questions had to be answered to make this idea a reality. Where would we play, who would be on the team, and what would the jerseys look like! So to get the checklist started Diego first heard of a tournament in Vegas. Soon the dream started to become a reality. Once the tournament was selected, we needed to fill a roster! With a lot of help from Team Mexico we were able to reach lots of Mexican heritage players through an Instagram ad. One of those players was Enrique, who stepped up and took the lead on designing the jerseys. He offered to help because that slacker only works 3 days a week. He kept in touch with the twins and started brainstorming ideas for colors. We did some research, and came up with turquoise and gold. After months of figuring out what we want. We finally got our jersey. The jerseys let us represent the culture and how they want to be perceived. The bold imagery and traditional colors were chosen to represent what was important to the Aztec culture.
On a leap of faith Diego paid the deposit to enter the tournament with no roster being confirmed. After finding a group of familiar faces from the world team and new faces, Los Aztecas ended up placing 6th out of 16th which was a great accomplishment for a newly organized team. After our first Vegas tournament we were brainstorming on how we can stay relevant. We have gotten a good amount of traction through Instagram. The Los Aztecas first team store was a great success in getting our supporters outfitted with shafts and clothing! The team has interest in playing in the US, Mexico, Canada, and Europe! Through building the team it’s been great to see the support from the Mexican lacrosse community. We have been surprised with such a large pool of Mexican lacrosse players.
Los Aztecas have players throughout the US that compete in the IBLA and NCAA to name a few. in fact, we had 3 Aztecas who represented at the IBLA Nationals this past year. The love and passion our players give is unmatched! This sport has given us the opportunity to all travel together and build relationships that go beyond the game and that makes hanging with the boys that much better!
The long term goal is to keep the core group together to continue to improve till the next world games come around. We have met lots of players in our short time as a group and have much more planned for the future. We just got back from competing in Vegas for the second time, placing 3rd out of 5th. We are currently working on our short term goals which include 2-3 tournaments a year including field and box lacrosse. To stay up to date on our future plans and gear give us a follow on Instagram.
Instagram
@losaztecaslax
If you have pictures with us tag us and use our original hashtag #AztecasOnTres
