By Lori Brown
GRAHAMSVILLE — The Tri-Valley Youth Football program has three teams that play games at 9 a.m. on Saturdays.
The T-V teams compete against three area teams – Liberty, Monticello SCORS and the Rockland Devilcats – in the Sullivan County Youth Football League, which is now in its fourth year.
The T-V teams started their 2011 season with the first practice on Aug. 16 and their last scheduled game is on Saturday, Oct. 21.
“This football program helps to build the school program as we run the same plays as the varsity football players,” said Greg Botsford, who is one of the coaches for the T-V Youth Football program.
Jason Semo, the former Athletic Director at Liberty Central School and Bill Hendrickson from the Rockland Devilcats helped Botsford create the T-V program.
“When we started this football program, we got support from the town, a lot of people, the school board as well as the Neversink town board,” Botsford commented.
“We have a great group of kids,” he continued. “They work hard and for the most part they are here all the time.
“The coaching staff is very experienced,” Botsford said. “Jon Allison use to be the varsity coach here at Tri-Valley and has been here since the beginning of this program. We have nine former Tri-Valley football players that are coaches. We have a lot of experience and we all get along very well as a cohesive unit.”
The Pee Wees football team consists of second- and third- graders. They are coached by Head Coach Fernando Costa, Bryan Delaney, Russ Turner, Timmy Yager and B.J. Hendrickson. The team members are Gary Clearwater, Andrew Cox, Dylan Dean, Griffin Kavleski, Brian Kelly, Ethan Mentnech, Bryce Tyndell, Nathaniel Viningre, Kyle Bernstein, Keegan Countryman, William Haas, Aidan Healy, Griffin Hunt, Juan Journet, Colin Mickelson, Kyle North, Keegan Streimer, and Gio Espada.
The Mighty Mites football team consists of third- and fourth-graders. They are coached by Bruce Cox, Charlie Streimer, Gary Clearwater, and Scott Mentnech. The team members are Isiah Mathews, Cody Sherwood, Matthew Stungis, Jayden Villalobos, Jacob Yager, Colby Costa, Austin Delaney, Nicholas Dexheimer, Christopher DiToro, Jared Espinosa-Phillips, Kyle Giminiani, Noah Hendrickson, Quincy Irby, Trevor Johnson, Devin Mullen, Ryan Parsons, Nathaniel Perry, Justin Pietruche, Ethan Shaver and Justin Smith.
Fifth and sixth graders compose The Juniors football team. They are coached by Greg Botsford, Dominick Scanna, Chris Krummack, Jon Allison, Lyle Wilsen and Keith Mentnech. The players are Jacob Allison, Christopher Barr, Mark Bell, Scott Cevallos, Andrew Coddington, Winston Coddington, Julius Colon, Skyler Espinosa-Phillips, Daniel Garlinghouse, Andrew Hartman, Brauke Hunt, Dakota Matthews, Aidan Mentnech, Brendan Pavese, Colin Pomeroy, Joseph Quick, Matthew Ryan, Johnathan Schmidt, Joseph Schulte, Alexander Schultz, Matthew Tierney, Jake Wilsen, James Alongi, Ryan Banks, Robert Barr, Chase Botsford, Connor Campbell, Devon Duloff, Jack Eddings, Brennan Healy, Patrick Krummack, Bruce Lynch and Dustin Rogers.
Where there are football teams there are generally cheerleaders. Coach Margo Bowers-Hendrickson’s has a total of 26 girls cheering on the Youth Football teams. Girls from second grade to eighth grade cheer at every game on Saturdays.
“I have a really great group of kids,” Bowers-Hendrickson said. “They are good listeners, they are enthusiastic, they have spirit and most of all they can be loud.”
The team members are Anna Hendrickson, Ashley Pietrucha, Autumn Buley, Brianna Torrens, Brittany Edwards, Brittney Mears, Britney Lee, Christina Reilly, Danielle Bertholf, Emily Schmidt, Emily Starner, Erin Markle, Frances Wallace, Jenna Donevan, Jenay Wilsen, Jaylyn Diaz, Katerina Plescia, Kayla Giminiani, Leann Roach, Lindsay McCoy, Melana Quick-Lepke, Montana Sherwood, Rebecca Reynolds, Samantha Rodrigues, Sanna Carter and Aiyana Brown.
This Sunday, Oct. 9, the Tri-Valley Youth Football and Cheerleading Program is sponsoring a Golf Tournament at Tarry Brae Golf Course in South Fallsburg. Registration is at 8 a.m. and tee-off is at 9 a.m.
The event costs $60 per golfer and all the proceeds will go to help fund the Tri-Valley Youth Football and Cheerleading program.