A youth football team in Buffalo is capping off their tough year on a high note. 

The Beast Elite Ducks arrived in Buffalo Saturday with a big win under their belt.

“The children were resilient. I mean with what we went through, a lot of children could’ve failed or fell down. Our boys came prepared to play every day,” said Kenya Peoples, the president of the team.

The team had five of their age divisions compete for national titles at the United Youth Football League Championships in Florida. Their Mighty Mites group took home first place, Peewees and 13u placed second, 7u finished in third, and Junior Peewees took fourth place.

“We were competing against Texas teams, Florida teams, they got top tier teams so Buffalo is not a big recruiting city and for us to be able to bring that back to Buffalo... 716 is big,” said Douglas Hunt, the vice president of the team.

They made it this far despite a year plagued by difficulties. Norzell Aldridge, one of their coaches, was killed in a shooting over the summer near one of their practice fields.

Despite the tragedy, they fought their way to a winning season.

And even when they were set to leave for Florida to play in the national championship, the team’s Frontier Airlines flight out of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport was cancelled last minute. The team had to hop on taxis to Cleveland and then catch a flight to Florida, just so they could play.

“We keep on standing up time after time. Time after time we never let a barrier stop us, there’s nothing that’s going to stop us,” said Peoples.

The team can now look back on the season that at times could have broken them down, but in the end has made them stronger than ever.

“If we didn’t have the coaches, then we wouldn’t be here right now,” said Elijah Chambers, one of the players.