The Suffolk Charging Warriors semi-professional football team was well represented in the Atlantic Coast Football Alliance’s fall 2014 all-star game earlier this month in Washington D.C.

Charging Warriors coach Jay Watkins explained that each team’s coach in the alliance selected and sent up to seven of their own players, while some sent five or six.

“We could’ve sent more because it was such a team effort,” Watkins said, alluding to his team’s success this season. “I felt that we had seven guys who could really represent the team.”

The Charging Warriors’ all-stars included Suffolk residents Neil McKoy, A.J. Harper and Ricky Taylor, along with C.J. Baker of Yorktown, Mark Granville of Hampton, Nickson Josephs of Norfolk and Marquette Mercer of Hampton.

The team is still recognized by the Atlantic Coast Football Alliance as the Suffolk Chargers, but the Chargers merged in June with the Virginia Warriors, a team with players largely from Hampton and Newport News. Independently, each team had been fairly small in number.

Once combined, they produced a 5-4 regular season record and No. 4 conference seeding in the postseason. They rallied against the Virginia Swarm in a wildcard playoff game, but ultimately fell 18-14.

Watkins cited the season as a success given all of the circumstances involved.

Serving as a reminder of that success were the all-star selections.

“It just shows that we can all work together to accomplish something even though it’s kind of an individual recognition,” Watkins said. “It was an honor to be able to send guys up there.”

He explained why he selected McKoy.

“When we first brought the team together, he seemed to fit in with what we wanted to do,” Watkins said. “He was aggressive; he had athleticism; he wanted to make plays.”

McKoy starred as a defensive back, and he said the honor meant a lot because of the progress he has made in a year with the Chargers.

He had been selected as an all-star during a previous season, but was unable to participate in the all-star game then. This time, he could.

“It means a lot to actually be able to play in it this year,” he said. “I had a lot of fun.”

McKoy and his teammates contributed to the South’s 16-0 win in an abbreviated contest before the ACFA fall championship game.

“We had to nip it in the bud fast,” Ricky Taylor said.

Watkins said he selected Taylor, a middle linebacker and defensive end, because of his leadership by example.

“He’s a veteran, he’s been around here for a while,” the coach said, after highlighting Taylor’s aggressiveness and knowledge of the game.

Taylor is a second-time all-star, having won the game MVP award after the ACFA’s spring 2013 all-star game. He said he was trying to earn that award again, and though he did not, the experience was great overall.

“I played fairly well coming off an injury, because I had broken my wrist at the end of the season, so I missed, like, three or four games,” he said.

Defensive back A.J. Harper has also been selected before, but was not able to participate in the game this time due to knee surgery.

“To be selected, it was quite a good feeling, nice honor, knowing that I played my season with a torn (posterior cruciate ligament),” Harper said. “So (that) I played during the season, basically like 50 percent, and still performed well enough to make the all-star (team) was a great feeling.”

Watkins was impressed with Harper’s toughness in the face of his health not being at 100 percent.

“He was always around the ball, just whether he was intercepting a pass or knocking the ball away,” Watkins said. “He wanted to make things happen out there, and often times he did when he had the opportunity to play.”

Harper missed the last game of the regular season and the playoff game to avoid further injury before knee surgery, but made a strong impression in the last game he played, grabbing an interception and returning it 70 yards.