With registration for 2010 in a few days, the Farmingdale Hawks Midget Football Association ended the 2009 season with its annual awards ceremony, held at the Milleridge Inn recently.
The party started with coaches presenting the 5 and 6-year-old players with their trophies. For many kids this will be the first of many awards they will win in their athletic and personal lives and seeing their faces light up was priceless. It ended with Coach Bob Kirk awarding outgoing Hawk Michael Scheurer with the MVP award.
Some of the highlights in between included Coach Peter Nazario congratulating his team of 7-year-olds on an undefeated season and the 10 and 11-year-old Hawk players accepting their championship trophies. In keeping with their almost 50-year-old tradition, the Hawks presented awards to members of all competitive age groups. These awards include best offensive and defensive linemen and backs as well as most improved, honorable mentions and coaches’ awards. In addition to Scheurer, most valuable player award winners for their respective teams were Kevin McCormick, Michael Manetta and Keyshawn Petit.
The commitment from the boys and their families to complete a football season is a little different from other youth sports. Many sacrifice summer vacations to make three or four weekly practices during the August heat even though games don’t begin until the middle of September. Once the games start the sacrifice continues on to cold November nights of practice at Allen Park in order to compete at the highest level. The commitment of the volunteers, coaches, families and players is outstanding and teaches the boys about hard work and team goals. As a result, all the boys were rewarded with either championship or participation awards. While all the parents and volunteers couldn’t be rewarded by the organization, Hawk president Jim Marlow presented Chris Lundin with a President’s Award for his service to his team and the organization.
The Hawks have sent many alumni on to play at Farmingdale High School through the years and even have several members who have made it to the National Football League. The highlight of the event was what makes the organization special as Farmingdale High School Coach Buddy Krumenacker was on hand to address the crowd and present Hayden Kirk with the Clinton Award and Carmine Demieri with the Comeback Player of the Year Award. Both young men are FHS seniors who excelled as Dalers and as Hawks. They each addressed the crowd with words of encouragement to current players and special thanks to Coach Krumenacker, their former Hawk coaches and their families.
Hawk football and cheerleading registration for the 2010 season begins March 13 and 14 at Allen Park. In order to better serve the community this year all five and 6-year-olds play for free and all first-time Hawks pay only half price. As always there are discounts for families with more than one child enrolling.
