Friendly competition coming to Carbon Hill Park

Punt, Pass & Kick, one of the oldest youth sports competitions, is coming to the community in September.

Boys and girls ages 5-14 —except those 14-year-olds in high school—are invited and encouraged to participate in the upcoming competition that will find kids punting, passing and kicking a football.

Todd Cumming, of Carbon Hill, is organizing the event and has invited neighboring communities and local youth football organizations to join in.

A preliminary competition for Coal City area youth will take place at Carbon Hill Park starting at 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 3. The top two finishers in each age group will advance to the town finals to take place between the junior varsity and varsity Coaler football games on Friday, Sept. 16. The Coalers will be hosting Herscher that night.

Then its back to Carbon Hill Park for the overall finals between neighboring towns and youth conference programs. That contest is set to get underway at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 29.

There is no cost to participate, but registration is required and forms have been shared with district schools and Miners Youth Football. The form is also included in this week’s newspaper. Registration is due by Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Communities and youth programs invited to participate in the finals are Braidwood/Reed-Custer, Wilmington, Herscher, Peotone, Manteno, Bradley, Plano, Channahon/Minooka, Sandwich, Manhattan and Morris.

Awards will be given to the top three places in each age division—5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 13-14.

Cumming is looking forward to a good turn out and a lot of fun for the kids participating.

There is an option to purchase an event T-shirt, information is included on the registration form, and Carbon Hill will be operating its food stand for the events on Sept. 3 and 26.

Punt, Pass & Kick is being sponsored by Mustachio’s Bar and Grill in Carbon Hill and t.e.+co [Tori Elizabeth Photography].