City’s Youth Football Stars Sweep Sectional ‘Punt, Pass & Kick’ Competition

Release Date: Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Emily Wilson
City of Fort Collins
Recreation Department: Youth Sports
970-221-6262

Finalists head to Bronco Region Team Finals at INVESCO Field

Thursday, October 29, 2009 (Fort Collins, CO) – Youth athletes representing the City of Fort Collins Recreation Department swept the Punt, Pass & Kick (PP&K) sectional competition on Sunday, October 18 at City Park. Officials of the PP&K competition measure the distance each participant can punt, pass and kick a football. The three distances are added together and those with the farthest distance in their age group win the division.
In the month of September, there were 66 ‘local’ PP&K competitions that took place across the state of Colorado. The first place winner from every division in the local competitions advanced onto a PP&K ‘sectional’ competition.
Coming to Fort Collins to compete in the sectional meet were youth from the Colorado towns of Fort Morgan, Wray, Berthoud, Fort Collins, Sterling, Iliff, Julesburg, Wellington, Windsor, Mead, Greeley, Hudson and Longmont. Wyoming families drove from Cheyenne, Torrington and Pine Bluffs as did participants from Chadron, NE to compete in the Fort Collins sectional PP&K competition.
Even with all of the participants attending the Fort Collins sectional PP&K competition, the Fort Collins boys and girls swept every first place win in all eight divisions! The winners from the sectional meet in each division are as follows:
Boys 8/9:
Ryan Lazarini, Fort Collins, 166' 11''
Boys 10/11:
Connor Gamlin, Fort Collins, 246'
Boys 12/13:
Zach Hooker, Fort Collins, 372' 5'' (advancing onto Bronco team finals)
Boys 14/15:
Shane Clark, Fort Collins, 338' 3'' (advancing onto Bronco team finals)
Girls 8/9:
Abby Harpman, Fort Collins, 142' 10'' (advancing onto Bronco team finals)
Girls 10/11:
Taylor Guzzardo, Fort Collins, 218' 10'' (advancing onto Bronco team finals)
Girls 12/13:
Jordan Rausch, Fort Collins, 277' 9'' (advancing onto Bronco team finals)

Girls 14/15:
Alisha Eskew, Fort Collins, 199' 1''

The winners of the Fort Collins sectional meet were compared against the winners from the 4 other sectional meets held in Colorado to determine the overall winners in each division. These finalists will be given the chance to advance onto the Bronco Region Team Finals, which will be held during the Broncos vs. San Diego game at INVESCO Field in Denver on November 22.
First place finishers from Sunday's competition at INVESCO will have their scores submitted to the NFL. Once all 32 teams have completed their Team Championship, the scores will be ranked and the top four finishers nationwide in each age group will receive a trip to the National Finals taking place at an NFL Playoff game in January 2010.
Since 1961, the NFL Punt, Pass and Kick program has been a free event for both organizers and participants. According to the NFL PP&K website, over four million boys and girls ages 8-15 participate in the national competition between July and January each year.

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The City of Fort Collins will make reasonable accommodations for access to City services, programs and activities and will make special communication arrangements for persons with disabilities. For Activities that require registration, it is recommended that requests be made one week in advance by calling 224-6027, TDD/TTY 224-6002.

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