Punt, pass and kick butt
Ronan’s Micalann McCrea takes first in sectional NFL competion
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Go ahead. Tell Ronan’s Micalann McCrea she throws like a girl. She would take it as a compliment.
The fifth-grader at Ronan’s K. William Harvey Elementary, who likes to play football with the boys during recess, proved her skills in Missoula Oct. 4 by winning the 10- to 11-year-old division of the NFL’s Punt, Pass and Kick Competition.
“It felt really good to get the win, but I was pretty nervous the whole time,” McCrea said about the competition. “There were a whole lot of other kids there at Missoula, and they were all pretty good.”
More than 100 boys and girls participated in the event, held at Missoula’s Big Sky High School, where the competition was broken down into five different age groups. Winners of the competition, which was sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Missoula and the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Missoula, now have the chance of advancing to the regional competition to be held in Seattle, Wash., on Dec. 4.
As an added bonus, those who make it to the regional competition are also awarded three tickets to the Seahawks vs. Carolina Panthers game set for Dec. 5.
For Micalann, a huge football fan, the chance to watch the Seahawks play would be a special treat.
“I might get to go to Seattle and meet (Seahawks quarterback) Matt Hasselbeck. That would be really cool,” she said. “My cousin would be really jealous because he is a huge Seattle Seahawks fan.”
Thirteen sectional competitions will be conducted throughout the Pacific Northwest during the month of October, with the top four winners earning a trip to Seattle. Historically, the winners of the Missoula competition have had a good chance of advancing to the regional level of the competition, but for Micalann, the chance to advance to Seattle came by only the slimmest of margins.
As Micalann and her family watched the competition in Missoula, they knew it would be a close battle between Micalann and Missoula’s Taylor Holmes. They just didn’t know exactly how close of a battle it would end up being.
At the end of the day, just 2 inches separated the pair as Micalann finished with a combined distance of 192 feet, 2 inches while Holmes finished at 192 feet even.
“It was really exciting when she won first,” Micalann’s mom, Michelle McCrea, said. “We knew she had first or second wrapped up. We could tell that by watching the competition. When they didn’t call her name for second, we were so excited because we knew she had gotten first.”
Micalann won the right to represent Ronan at the Missoula competition by winning the local competition at school but did not tell her parents about it until after the local competition was finished.
The reason was simple.
“I knew that if I told them about it, they would make me practice every day,” Micalann admitted.
“We didn’t even know that it was going on,” Michelle said. “She just came home one day with a blue ribbon and said she had gotten first in the Punt, Pass and Kick Competition at school and that we needed to go to Missoula the next weekend.”
While Micalann’s participation in the event may have come as a surprise, it was no surprise to anyone that she could win it.
Micalann admits to spending her recess time at school playing football with the boys and says that's how she got the skills she needed to win in Missoula. A member of Polson’s team in the Kalispell youth football league last year, Micalann plays for the Ronan squad this year. She wasted no time making a name for herself this season, scoring on a 70-yard punt return in her first game before adding two more touchdowns in her most recent game.
“It’s a lot of fun playing against the boys and laying them out on the ground,” Micalann said. “It’s a lot of fun to embarrass them. They are embarrassed, but they are still my friends and always want me to be on their team. They would rather have me on their side than against them.”
Micalann and her family should know if she will advance to the regional competition within the next few weeks.
McCrea’s combined distance of 192 feet, 2 inches was good enough to earn her first in the 10- to 11-year-old girls division of the competition, but she was not the only local athlete to do well in Missoula.
Polson’s Jeff Devlin finished eighth in the 6 to7-year-old boys' division with a distance of 53 feet, 2 inches. Ronan’s Eric Dolence was eighth in the 8 to 9-year-old boys' division with a distance of 133 feet, 1 inch, while Polson’s Bo Kelley was ninth with a distance of 132 feet, 7 inches.
Polson’s Shade Main was second in the 10 to 11-year-old boys' division with a distance of 226 feet, 1 inch; Ronan’s Brendon Blood was 10th at 169 feet, 7 inches; and Fisher Niemeyer of Ronan was 15th at 135 feet, 2 inches.
Matthew Rensvold of Polson was sixth in the 12 to 13-year-old boys' division with a distance of 238 feet, 5 inches; Emilio Bravo of St. Ignatius was 13th at 199 feet, 4 inches; and Ronan’s July Sorrell was 15th at 180 feet, 8 inches.
Raymond Matt of St. Ignatius was third in the 14 to 15-year-old boys' competition with a distance of 329 feet, 6 inches, and Ronan’s Dalton Marmon was 10th with a distance of 234 feet, 10 inches.
Jazmine Christensen of Ronan was eighth in the 8 to 9-year-old girls' competition with a distance of 26 feet, 3 inches; Jordyn Eichert of St. Ignatius was second in the 12 to 13-year-old girls' division with a distance of 164 feet, 10 inches; Jasmine Clark of Charlo was ninth in the same division with a distance of 135 feet, 4 inches; and Ronan’s Samantha Ashley finished sixth in the 14 to 15-year-old girl’s division with a distance of 73 feet, 10 inches.
