By Cheryl Sarnwick, EVRPD
For the Trail-Gazette
The Estes Valley Recreation and Park District concluded its fall youth sports season last weekend.
This fall, EVRPD offered youth soccer leagues and rec cheer. There were approximately 100 participants in youth soccer and nearly 40 cheerleaders!
Youth soccer offered programs for 3 and 4 years old, K-first grade, second-third grade and fourth-sixth grade.
While the 3 and 4 year olds program was an instructional program once a week, all the other age groups practiced twice a week and played games against the other teams in their division on Saturday mornings.
The teams also participated in the first-ever “Game Day with the Bobcats/EVRPD Youth Recognition Day,” in which all the youth soccer players got into the varsity soccer game for free and all the teams were introduced during halftime. The district also hosted its first-ever end-of-season potluck, which was a small way to say thank you to all the parents, players and coaches who participated this season.
Players also wore their game jerseys to school on “Jersey Thursdays.” With the help of the amazing fall weather we had, it turned out to be a wonderful fall season of youth soccer!
Although the weather helped us have a good season, we couldn’t have done it without the many sponsors, refs and volunteer coaches we had. The EVRPD would like to extend a warm thank you to the following sponsors: Ingram Drilling, Dr. Oja, Twin Owls Steakhouse, Families for Estes, Estes Park Lumber, Prudential Realty, Airbits, Park Flooring and the Bank of Estes Park.
The coaches did a great job teaching the kids the fundamentals of the game, motivating them, and building excitement around the sport of soccer. Thank you to the following coaches for all their dedication and hard work this season: Brian Berg, Jimmy Frickey, Mike Balduzzi, Christie Adams, Nolan Oberg, Steve Sumner, David Fischer, Thad Eggen, Jeff Klipstein and Kathy Klipstein. And of course we haven’t forgotten the Eagle Rock coaches.
EVRPD and Eagle Rock work together in providing Eagle Rock students volunteer opportunities to coach the soccer teams and the students receive course credit for their work. Thank you to: Anna Magle-Haberek, Chris Iafrati, Nigel Taylor, Ebony McDuffie, Brianna Campbell, Theara Bolanos, Yeshra Perez, Avante Barnwell, Chemi Lewis, and June Jones-Knight. Thank you to the following refs who kept the games moving and under control: Amos Westley, Alison Koziol, Maggie Poyant, Chemi Lewis and Tom Carosello.
In our second year of offering rec cheer, our participation numbers hit a record high! We had 38 kindergarten through fifth-grade cheerleaders in our rec cheer program!
The cheerleaders cheered in five separate events this season; two middle school football games, two varsity football games, and the homecoming pep rally at the high school. A big thank you goes out to all of the coaches who made this possible, especially to varsity cheer coach, Jenn Rodda, for spearheading the program. Thank you, also to: Kari MacElwee, Pamela Wallace, Renee Conley, Kodi Tlamka and Annika Throne.
Don’t forget to “Like” the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District Facebook page and look for pictures of this year’s soccer and cheer season. If you are interested in volunteer coaching or getting your child involved in youth sports, make sure to check out our website at www.evrpd.com or contact Recreation Supervisor Cheryl Sarnwick at cheryl@evrpd.com or 586-8191 ext. 3.
The district is currently taking registration for fourth- through sixth-grade youth volleyball and third- through sixth-grade travel basketball. Keep an eye out for youth basketball information in Friday Folders, with registration starting in December.