MYAL holds first Punt, Pass & Kick contest

Kids test their skills, win prizes

By: Mary Ellen Zangara
   
   The Manville Youth Athletic League held its first Punt, Pass and Kick competition Sunday at Gerber field. The free event was open to all Manville boys and girls ages 5-13 with 25 participants competing.
   Originally, the competition was scheduled for the day before the official start of the season on July 29 but was rescheduled due to the weather. The purpose of the event was to have kids come down and show what they could do in hopes to have more sign up for the football teams. The MYAL still needs players to complete their teams and this event was intended to help the recruiting process.
   The competition began with each age group at one of the events. The punt and kick contests showed how far the participants could kick the ball. Points were given by using the football yard markers in each of the events. For the pass contest, the ball was thrown on the field using the yard markers also. The MYAL coaches acted as the judges and kept individual scores. The participant with the highest combined score from the three events was the winner in their age group.
   Each participant was given three tries at each of the events. The longest mark counted toward the final score.
   The boys and girls were grouped into ages of 5-6 year-olds, 7-8 year- olds, 9-10 year-olds and 11-13 year-olds. The Pass, Punt and Kick competition was a great way for the kids to show their skills while learning what the MYAL program was all about.
   The winners from the event included Jake Stapert, Troy Oset, Kyle Puza, Nick Harenza, Brittany Kozlowski, Paige Miller, Karina Kozlowski and Allie Puza. They all received a football as a prize. All of the participants received a T-shirt with the MYAL Punt, Pass and Kick competition on it.
   MYAL President Gregg Snyder was pleased with the turnout.
   "This was a good turnout for the first time that were tried it," Snyder said. "Most of the kids that came out already are playing. We will hopefully continue and each year we will get better at it and get more kids and expand it. We are getting close to our numbers this year so if we get a couple more kids for each spot, we’ll be all right. It wasn’t a bad turnout for the first event so maybe we will try to make it better next year."