Practicing for perfection
Hours of hard work, community support help Micalann McCrea win at regional level
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Practice really does make perfect. Just ask Ronan’s Micalann McCrea.
Two months after winning the section level of the NFL’s Punt, Pass and Kick Compeition, McCrea upped her game to take home a new trophy: the Regional Championship.
McCrea entered the competition with the third-best score among the four competitors at the regional level in Seattle but came away with the girls’ 10-11-year old title by more than 30 feet.
According to McCrea, all of the practice she put in over the past two months did help, whether she wanted to do it or not.
“I liked practicing okay; they just made me mad trying to change everything I did,” she said about her family. “I always had to practice with a bunch of people around and in a really small space. I would want to go home, but they kept wanting me to stay and change what I was doing, so I ended up changing them. It sure worked out well, though.”
One perk of making it to the regional competition was the opportunity for Micalann to attend her first NFL football game, where she and the other competitors were introduced at halftime.
“We got to see the Seahawks take on the Carolina Panthers, and it was my first time at a game. That was the best part of the whole thing,” she said. “It was way better than watching it on TV.”
The journey to Seattle and the regional competition began for McCrea back in September when she won the contest at her school and got to go to Missoula for the sectional level.
The funny thing was that she didn’t tell her parents about the competition until a few days before sectionals. The reason? She didn’t want them to make her practice.
Ironically, she now admits that it was the extra practice she put in over the past two months that led to her win in Seattle.
According to her family, the town was quick to rally around Micalann and was very generous when it came time for her to travel to Seattle.
“We went around here and talked to some of the local folks trying to get support, and everyone was great about it,” Micalann’s mom Michele McCrea said. “People were great about giving us donations so she could go. We couldn’t have done it without their help.”
According to Michele, Ronan Dodge, Johnson Brothers Recycle of Missoula, S&K Electronics and China Gate were of great help to the cause. She also said Polson basketball coach Brad Pluff won a 50/50 raffle that was held to help support Micalann and he donated his half of the winnings back to Micalann.
Ronan High School even got into the act, allowing Micalann to practice in the gym when the weather outside turned bad.
When the time came, Micalann and her family piled into the car and made the eight-hour drive to Seattle for the competition.
The competition, held at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, pitted Micalann against the other top-three placers from the sectional competitions.
Split into two groups, the contestants did not learn how they had finished until the following morning.
“I was pretty nervous when they started telling us the results,” Micalann admitted. “Then it was awesome when they said I had won first.”
Things only got better later in the day when the contestants were taken onto Qwest Field at halftime of the Seahawks vs. Panthers game and introduced to the 65,000 fans in attendance. Micalann got to punt the ball for the crowd and attempt a field goal, an experience she will never forget.
“I was really nervous going out there in front of all of those people,” she said. “It sure was a lot of fun, though.”
Now that she has a taste of winning at the higher levels of the competition, Micalann says she is ready for more when next year rolls around.
“I know things will be tougher next year because I will have to take on older kids, but I am more than ready to win it again,” she said.
Micalann finished the regional competition with a total distance of 218 feet, 2 inches with a punt of 63 feet, 7 inches, a pass of 75 feet and a kick of 79 feet, 7 inches.
