GRANBURY, Texas – For the second year in a row Southwestern University head football coach Joe Austin will join Global Football and Team Stars and Stripes in Mexico for the for the fifth annual Tazón de Estrellas (Bowl of the Stars).
Selected to join the American team for a second consecutive season Austin was tabbed the Offensive Coordinator for Don DeWaard, the head coach and defensive coordinator for Team Stars and Stripes. The traveling American Division III all-star team will face the CONADEIP All-Stars the 36,000-capacity Estadio Tecnológico on the Tec de Monterrey campus on Saturday, December 21.
Austin will be joined with DeWaard and Jim Catanzaro of Lake Forest College. Last year the American team scored 15 unanswered points in the second quarter last December for a 32-15 win.
The roster for both teams that is comprised of NCAA Division III seniors will be announced at the beginning of December.
Team Stars & Stripes Coaching Staff
Don De Waard, Central, Head Coach & Defensive Coordinator *
Joe Austin, Southwestern University, Offensive Coordinator *
Joe Adam, Elmhurst College, Defense
Erik Raeburn, Wabash College, Offense
Kyle Sweeney, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Defense
Jim Catanzaro, Lake Forest College, Offense *
John Roslien, Central College, Player Personnel Director *
* Returning coaches
Support staff
Frank Neu, Central College, Athletic Trainer
Dan Vande Lune, Duke University, Team Physician
Tim Glon, Ohio Northern University, Sports Information
Paden Kleinhesslink, Central College, Athletic Training Student/Equipment Manager
Chris Lobberecht, Central College, Athletic Training Student/Equipment Manager
Juan Lopez, Tarleton State University, Team Coordinator
The NCAA Division III all-star roster known collectively as Team Stars & Stripes will fly to Mexico on December 15to prepare for the game. The graduating college seniors will travel to Monterrey for a combination of two-a-day practices with an opportunity to explore the local region. They will experience the local culture and participate in a community service project. In 2012, the traveling group helped clear an area of land to benefit an impoverished neighborhood to make it more suitable as a play area for the community's children, and then held a football clinic for local youngsters.
The Tazón de Estrellas and its forerunner the Aztec Bowl have produced a series of exciting games and established a fierce but friendly rivalry between the Americans and Mexicans. The Tec Monterrey All-Stars won 24-12 in 2009 before Team Stars & Stripes leveled the series with a 48-7 victory in Toluca in 2010 and the CONADEIP All-Stars won by a margin of 45-27 in 2011. It was the turn of the Americans to triumph in 2012 by a score of 32-15 to level the series at 2-2.
Cesar Martinez, who took over the head-coaching role at Tec de Monterrey from legendary retired coach Frank Gonzalez, will coach the CONADEIP All-Stars.
Three current NFL stars - Pro Bowl linebacker London Fletcher (John Carroll University) of the Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson (Coe College) and Miami Dolphins linebacker Jason Trusnik (Ohio Northern) - played in the Aztec Bowl predecessor of the Tazón de Estrellas.