Local athletes qualify in football skills competition
<p>RONAN MIDDLE School punt, pass, and kick participant <strong>Delonte Old Person</strong> qualified for the regional competition in Seattle and will perform at the Seahawks' halftime show on their Nov. 20 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. </p>
RONAN — Ronan’s Delonte Old Person is one of four area players that qualified for the Punt, Pass, and Kick program that will be held at halftime when the Seahawks face the Eagles on Nov. 20.
Old Person qualified in the 7-year-old division, Macao Jackson qualified in the 13-year old division, and Elizabeth Bluemel, 14, were all Ronan players that qualified.
Old Person credits his father for teaching him how to kick.
“My dad taught me to take three steps before I threw, and he taught me to kick with the laces as part of my shoe,” Old Person said. “I practiced at school with my cousins and the rest of my family.”
Old Person said he was “nervous” when he competed in front of thousands of football fans at the University of Montana Grizzles’ game.
“Yes, it was embarrassing, and competing in front of thousands made me feel nervous,” Old Person said. “Especially the first time I saw all of those people. I just keep practicing really hard with my uncle or my dad.”
Other competitors from the area include: Sawyer Tackett, 8, and Kale Konen, 11, both from Dillon; Hailey Lowe, 7, from Thompson Falls; Marisa Snider, 9, from Ennis; Cade Morgan,13, from Columbia Falls; and Addison Arlint, 14, from St. Ignatius. Both Bluemel and Morgan are making their second appearance at the Seattle event.
The Seattle Seahawks’ region includes all of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, plus Western Montana. The Montana youngsters had to win not only their respective local PPK competition and the western Montana sectional event, held in Missoula on Oct. 9, but also be among the top four of the 11 sectional age-group winners in the Seahawks’ region.
Thirteen other central and eastern Montana youngsters qualified to compete in the Denver NFL Team Championship, making a total of 22 Montana regional PPK qualifiers in 2016.
Western Montana youths have fared well at the Seattle regional competition, never failing to win at least one age-group championship over the past 21 years, and winning three age-group championships in three of those years. To advance to the national PPK championship in January, the youths competing in Seattle or Denver must win that event and be one of the top four scorers among all other regional winners representing each of the 32 NFL teams throughout the country.
Several Western Montana youths have performed at the national level. In 2015, then 15-year-old Calla Haldorson of Corvallis won her age group at the national finals, and in 2014, then-7-year-old Easton Reimers of Missoula won the national title for his age group. Including Haldorson and Reimers, Montana has produced ten national finalists and four national champions over the past 21 years.