TEAM CORINA, CHEATERS?

TEAM CORINA, CHEATERS?

To: Team Corina Officials, Raymondville Chronicle, Valley Morning Star, American Cancer Society, Relay 4 Life, KGBT Ch. 4

Re: Free Entry To 2012 Team Corina's Annual BBQ Cook-Off to be held on March 24, 2012



    It has come to my attention that after having verified through Marty Longoria that my team's(formerly Lion's Grill) free entry for this year's Cook-off to be held on March 24, 2012, has been reversed by Shorty Colchado due to our team changing names.  According to Shortly Colchado, the free entry is given to the name and not the team. My team, regardless of the name was the Grand Champion of last year's(2011) Team Corina's 1st Annual BBQ Cook-Off. I would like to stress that the team, not the name is what cooked, won and was awarded 1st Place Fajitas, 2nd Place Beans, and 3rd Place Pan De Campo which in turn pushed us to overall Grand Champion status and in turn was awarded with a free entry to the following year's(2012) cook-off. Again, it was the team and/or it's members that did all the work in acquiring Grand Champion status, and again I will stress that it wasn't the name, it wasn't the sponsor and it wasn't the backer that won the awards, it was the individuals of my team that won the individual awards and those members that won those awards are still a part of my team.

Why Team Corina officials insist on giving a free entry to the name and not the team that actually won the event is beyond me and there shouldn't even be a debate about it but I will use an NFL team as an example. Take the Tennessee Titans, formerly known as the Houston Oilers. Notice the name change? The other night after having talked this matter over with Team Corina Officials, I came home to try to find a way to explain to them that the name is meaningless because a name is nothing but a label but the team which is made up of people/humans that do all the work is what is most important. Anyhow, I thought about this name stuff and remembered the Houston Oilers. They moved from Houston to Nashville, Tennessee and they took everything with them but the name and being an NFL fan, I remembered this. Well, I thought I'd do a Google search on the Houston Oilers and I came across this link: http://www.titansonline.com/team/history/oilers-logo-history.html This link was at the very top of the list of my Google search web page. I would like for everyone involved to now do the same. Please go to google, type in Houston Oilers and tell me if you don't get the same link at the very top of the list. What does this mean? It means that despite the Houston Oilers moving to Nashville and changing their name to the Tennessee Titans that it's the same team despite of that name change.

Now when I was discussing this matter the other night with Team Corina officials, one of them, Shorty Colchado insisted it was the name that got the free entry and not the team. So I then proceeded to ask, "Ok then, so you say it's the name so if I don't want to use that name anymore and somebody from Falfurias comes along and they call themselves Lion's Grill, they will be awarded the free entry?" Shorty Colchado immediately said, "No!" So then I ask what's the problem? Why is Team Corina so adamant about awarding the free entry to someone else and not the SAME EXACT team that won last year? I don't understand, it is not Team Corina's business who sponsored my team, it is none of their business who paid for my entry, their only business should lie with the actual people involved, the ones that worked their tails off to win the awards that led to getting Grand Champion Status which in turn led to a free entry to this year's event. I was the head cook, I was the one that signed all the papers that needed to be signed, I was the one responsible for keeping my team and my area in check, I was the one that showed the Event Marshall the meat when he came to inspect it, etc, etc, etc...


Now a little story, just so everyone knows how my team got started. One day I got a phone call from a friend, it was a Wednesday night. He said, Hey Mike, you're on a cooking team." I said, "What are you talking about? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." He said, "Yeah, I was at a friends house just now and they said you were going to be on a cooking team." I said, "OK, whatever, don't know what you're talking about so I'll check it out tomorrow." The following evening, I went to my friend's house and sure enough, he told me that Commissioner Beto Guerra would pay his entry if he started a cooking team. My friend said, "Is Mike(me) going to be on the team, if Mike is going to be on another team then forget about it." So that's how my name came up in all this cook-off business.

Anyhow, I agreed to be on the team and was given the honor of being Head Cook/Team Leader. Well, the cook-off was Saturday so I was actually only given a day to prepare everything for Saturday. I proceeded to make list of everything we were going to need, etc, etc, etc...

Now comes the name part...where did we get the name, Lion's Grill? To be honest, according to Commissioner Guerra, we were sponsored by some construction company from Hidalgo County, they were the ones that supposedly put up the entry fee but we didn't find out til afterward, anyhow back to the name part, on Friday, the day after I was asked to be on the team and head that team, and a day before the event, we were there thinking of a name and after giving it some thought, I decided that I would help my friend out and promote his cafe which was still in the building phase at the time and we would use the name that he was going to use to name said cafe...Lion's Grill, yet, despite me explaining all of this to Team Corina officials they still want to give the free entry to the name instead of the actual team that won it.

And now we come to the members of my team from last year, John Hickerson(Chili), Gabriel(Pan De Campo 3rd place), Mike Juarez(me)(Fajitas 1st place, Beans 2nd place & Spare Ribs), Rolie Cantu(Fire), Arnold Alvarado(Nothing but we used the name of what was supposed to be his cafe in Lasara to promote said Cafe). Four of those members are still on my team which has yet to be named for this year's event. Arnold Alvarado, wanting to take advantage of the free entry, wants to use the same name as last year because of said free entry. John Hickerson, which agreed to be on my team this year will not be able to attend due to health reasons.

Now again I ask all of you after reading through everything I just wrote, was it the name that won the event last year or was it a team, my team?  Or do you need more?

NFL, NBA and many other teams that play in arenas/stadiums throughout the world change sponsors from time to time thus they change the name of those arenas/stadiums but the teams that play in those places always remain the same. Just remember, Houston Oilers, Seattle Sonics...when they left the city of their origin, they might have changed names but the players and coaches which made up the team were still the same. Had the Houston Oilers won the Super Bowl prior to moving to Nashville and being called the Tennessee Titans, who would have been called the defending NFL Champs? The Oilers didn't exist anymore by name but the actual team did so had the Houston Texans moved in right after the Titans left, would the new Houston team be called the defending champs or would the Tennessee Titans have been called the defending champs? Let's even go as far as saying that the Houston Texans moved in and were called the Houston Oilers? Who would be called the defending champs? My bet would have been on the Titans but according to Team Corina's theory, it would have been the new Houston team.

Houston Oilers = Tennessee Titans, the TEAM name changed but they kept all the same players and coaches.Seattle Sonics = Oklahoma Thunder, the TEAM name changed but they kept all the same players and coaches.

The point is, the players make up the team, not the name. A name is just a label, the team consists of people that do the actual work.

Hey Shorty, ever watch Nascar? Probably not. Teams change sponsors from year to year, but everyone with half a brain that does watch Nascar knows that when a driver wins a race, he gets the credit, not the sponsor. The driver gets the points, not the sponsor. At the end of the season, the driver with the most points wins the championship, not the sponsor. What the sponsor does get is advertisement. Last year I gave that advertisement to Lion's Grill, this year I chose not to but I'm the person that won 1st place fajitas and 2nd place beans and my guy Gabriel won 3rd place pan de campo.I still have the awards that I was given at last year's cook-off. What awards will the new team called Lion's Grill show Team Corina as proof that they won anything last year? Yes, we were all given aprons for being Grand Champions and my team still has four of those five aprons but Team Corina is trying to say that 1 is greater than 4 because of the name, never mind the one had absolutely zero to do with winning any awards last year, unless Team Corina is trying to say a name can actually cook things. Please forgive me for sounding a bit childish or even stupid but I'd like to see a name do anything physical other than being printed, painted, or displayed on another item. Can a name speak, can it add more wood to a fire, can it flip over the fajitas, can it taste the ribs to see which ones we should turn in, etc, etc, etc...?

If I do enter this year's cook-off which now I'm beginning to think I might not because of this corruption that's going on, and you knew I had won 1st place fajitas but another team used the name I had last year, where are you gonna go to taste the award winning fajitas, my team with a new name or the team with a same name but a new team? When you see the faces of people involved, what are you gonna say? Are you gonna go with the name that won or the people that won? My bet is the people make up the team, not the name but again, I still don't understand what the problem is here, maybe there's more behind Team Corina's decision...which should be a very easy one, maybe there's some politics behind all this, I really don't know but I do know this shouldn't even be debatable....it's obvious that everyone other than Team Corina knows that it's the people that make up a team and not a name. This isn't Coke or Budweiser, it's a five person team and sometimes not even five people as last year we really only had 4 and the other one was just along for the ride and we were generous enough to use the name of his still non-existent cafe as a way to help him promote it and it seems that despite winning Grand Champion last year, that was our biggest mistake.

Let me use another example. Say you've been going to a certain restaurant all your life, it's your favorite, mainly because of the great food. Let's call it Lion's Grill. Now let's say Mike is the cook of Lion's Grill. One day, Mike opens up his own restaurant and he again is the cook. He names his restaurant Mike's Cafe, the rest of the staff follows Mike. Lion's Grill hires another cook and another staff, the food isn't the same, definitely not the same as when Mike was the cook. Is Shorty gonna sit there and tell me he's sticking to Lion's Grill because of the name? I say most people that ate at Lion's Grill because of the food, will now be going to Mike's Cafe because Mike is the cook and Mike has all the same staff that was once at Lion's Grill.

Anyhow, the funny part in all of this if there's anything funny about this whole situation is that I had discussed this with Shorty Colchado about 2 plus months ago and he said he needed to get with Marty to talk about it. I never heard anything back from Shorty and one day I came across Marty and decided to ask him myself. After a few minutes of discussion, he agreed that it was the team and not the name that gets the free entry. The other night when I mentioned this to Shorty, he said Marty didn't have anything to do with it, yet, after getting a copy of this year's rules and regulations, it says if you have any questions, Call Cathy or Marty. Cathy was present the other night along with Shorty but it was Shorty that was making the actual decisions. First he said it's up to Marty, Marty agrees that my team should get the free entry, then Shorty says Marty has nothing to do with it that it's the name that won the entry, then I tell Shorty if it's the name then if I don't want to use that name and somebody else does, they get the free entry, he says no. Maybe Shorty just doesn't want me to compete this year, maybe he just wants me to pay to compete, I don't know, the only thing I do know is that my team is the team that won the event last year and we're being denied our free entry.

Well, I don't know what else to say, it's obvious there's more to this than Team Corina, mainly Shorty Colchado, wants me to know. After giving all these explanations, there shouldn't be a question as to who is actually owed the free entry but I will say that my wife and I have always supported the American Cancer Society whenever we could but after this, we're beginning to think there's some signs of corruption going on and it might change the way we think about helping out these organizations in the future. It's really a shame that things like this have to happen, it's things like this that make other people think twice about joining and maybe after reading this, sponsoring events like this. When an entity like Team Corina, that supposedly donates most or all of the event's profits to the American Cancer Society doesn't follow through on it's promises, it hurts the very cause that it's supposedly trying to help....that we're all trying to help.

When I have to take time to write a letter like this, one that takes me a few hours, I do it because I know I am right and I want everyone to know that I am being wronged, that my team is being wronged. At the same time, I now feel like I'm begging and this makes me feel that now, it's not worth it to participate in an event that is making me beg for something that was promised to us, something we earned fair and square with hard work and determination. What's in it for me now? What if we win it all again this year and next year we want to use the name of another sponsor, although again the team would be made up of the same members, will I have to beg again for what is rightfully ours? Well, at the very least, the public will know that Team Corina has wronged the TRUE WINNERS of last year's event and although I am no quitter, I don't think I'll be cooking at this year's event....not after having to go through all this BS.

Oh well, regardless of what team Corina wants to do now, I don't care anymore who they give the free entry to, it's obvious Shorty doesn't want me to get it, so he can give it to whomever he wants. Again, I hope the public realizes that my team was cheated out of it's free entry. The part that ticks me off the most is that I know most of Team Corina's members, personally and they know me and they know my team won it all last year and still they don't want to give me and my team what we deserve. Hey, just look at the pictures from last year's event, the faces of my team are there, THERE'S NO NAME ON THE PICTURES, just faces of people, those faces belong to my team and my team doesn't belong to a name...we get to choose a name for our team, a name doesn't get to choose us.

If anyone is interested in why I want to change the name, it’s because I no longer support the person/s involved with the previous name and although I appreciate what Commissioner Guerra did for us last year, I no longer support any politician at any level because the only ones I ever did support and voted for turned their backs on me and my family when we needed them or their help the most. Anyhow as an American, I believe I have the right to change the name of a team or  business that I own, and my own name if I choose. Changing my name doesn’t make me a different person, I will still look the same, have the same blood type, same organs, etc,.. and I will also always be the person that led his team to Team Corina’s 1st Annual Cook-Off Grand Championship and nobody, not even Shorty Colchado can change that or take that away from us. My team gave me most of the credit and it was them that made me realize that we made history that day because although this event might go on for years, only one team will be able to say they won the very first one, that team was my team, our team, first timers at that. For that, I’d like to thank Rolie Cantu, for having confidence in me, Gabriel for doing his best in the Pan De Campo and John Hickerson for trying his hardest to earn us a victory in the chili and ribs contest. Y’all deserve as much credit as I do and it is you the actual persons on the team, not the name we used that day, that will always get the recognition that you and I deserve from everybody except I guess from Team Corina.

The bottom line is, Team Corina isn't giving credit where it is due and although they know 100% without a doubt who won the awards, they refuse to acknowledge the team and the actual people that won those awards and thus refuse to give us the free entry that we won and deserve but I guess that's life. Speaking of which, Team Corina is supposed to be about saving lives, people's lives yet, they refuse to see the people that won their event last year and would rather give all the credit to a name, a name that to this day belongs to a bogus restaurant...or one which has never been completed, etc... Why would I or anyone else for that matter want to compete in an event that doesn't recognize humans and disregards the very awards they handed out the previous year to said humans?



Feelin' Cheated,



~Mike Juarez          ph. 956-966-0341


PS. I was approached by a sponsor this year and they have told me they would gladly provide the $175 entry fee but the point is, I(my team) shouldn't have to pay because as Grand Champions of last year's event, we were awarded a free entry that for some unknown reason Shorty Colchado refuses to honor or at the very least is trying to force me to promote Lion's Grill again this year. If I still have all the same cooks from last year on my team this year, what difference does a name make? I nor my team want to promote Lion's Grill. We were going to promote or be sponsored by another company/business but everything is moot at this point since Shorty Colchado and Team Corina refuse to see the TRUE Grand Champions of last year's event.

On the 2012 Annual Team Corina Cook-off rules pages it says for additional information contact:

Marty Longoria(whom the other night Shorty said had nothing to do with it)956-873-0628 or CathyWeaver 956-245-8485

So please call these people and ask them why they're denying last year's Grand Champions their free entry.

According to Shorty Colchado and Team Corina, this plaque(see image below) doesn't mean anything despite them being the ones handing it to me.