It was the last youth football game of the season, and the St. Wenceslaus Carolina Panthers had only one chance to use their trick play.
The team of 8- and 9-year-olds lined up on the field in Omaha, Nebraska – and when the ball was snapped, they started dancing and singing Silentó’s “ Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae).”
With the other team distracted, Tanner Evans threw a perfect pass to Tyler Edmundson, who ran for a touchdown.
The whole play — at Elkhorn Middle School — was caught on video by Thomas M. Worthington and posted to Facebook Sunday. The recording shows adults on the sideline cheering and howling with laughter.
“It worked,” one of them says.
Tyler Edmundson’s mother, Jill, told KTLA that the team’s coach, Jeff Evans, invented the play as a way to make practices fun.
“The boys practiced every Friday night and would end the evening with that play to let the kiddos end the night on a high note,” she said.
“All of us parents knew something funny was about to happen as we had all seen it in practice,” Edmundson continued. “We could not believe it actually worked. I think you can hear one of the dads yell … ‘I can’t believe they pulled it off!?!’ It was hilarious and epic all at the same time.”
So how did the other team like getting tricked?
“The best part was that the other team took it in stride with the coaches nodding to a pretty creative (albeit very tricky) play,” Edmundson said. “Lots of laughter all around … on and off the field.”