Winners of the eighth annual Punt, Pass and Kick championships were crowned recently at White Sulphur Springs Elementary School during the first nine weeks award ceremony.

Over 150 students in grades three through five competed during P.E. classes for school championships in boys and girls grade and overall categories.

Students were allowed three tries each in punting, passing, and kicking a football for distance and accuracy, with the highest total of all three winning the Grand Champion prize. Winners of the individual events were the longest and most accurate in each grade and sex category.

“The two-week contest followed a teaching unit on football,” said P.E. teacher Tracy Asbury. “As you would expect, younger children do not know much about the game of football, but what amazed me most were the number of students that didn’t even know which end of the ball to hold onto when throwing a football.” This was the eighth year for the contest and there was one new school record set.

The P.E. classes are now involved in 7 on 7 flag football games, where each student is assigned a pass pattern to run. “Playing the games at the end of the unit really helped me evaluate how well the students grasped the instruction,” Asbury said. “By the end of football season, students who had never watched or even seen a football game on TV or in person were coming to school giving me scores from a game they had watched with their uncles and dads, or for the first time, attended a Spartan or Falcon game. I believe that most students are stigmatized by the perceived violence of football. Once we broke the game down into small chunks of information for them, they understood the finer points of football, not just the collisions.”

Asbury concluded by saying, “We are having some very competitive games in class, fun to watch. And to top it all off, our Varsity Falcons played in this year’s Super Bowl and have won or finished runner-up in the Super Bowl five out of the past seven years. The pride our school has for our football Falcons is greater now that the students understand the rules and strategies of the game. Look for the WSS Falcons to play for Championships each year in football, it’s no accident that they are succeeding.”

White Sulphur Elementary would like to dedicate this year’s Punt Pass and Kick contest to fallen classmate Liam Craft. All of our efforts are in memory of you.

2018 WSSE Punt Pass & Kick – Boys

Third Grade

Grand Champion: Clifford Lee, total 158’4”

Punt Champion: Clifford Lee, 55’10”

Pass Champion:, Clifford Lee, 53’10”

Kick Champion: Remington Scott, 53’9”

Fourth Grade

Grand Champion: Clayton Patton, total 193’

Punt Champion: James Calhoun, 60’6

Pass Champion: Clayton Patton, 70’6”

Kick Champion: Clayton Patton, 75’6”

Fifth Grade

Grand Champion: Jase Obermeyer, 209’4”

Punt Champion: Cayden Mcneeley, 76’6”

Pass Champion: Jase Obermeyer, 67’6”

Kick Champion: Gavin Craft, 77’3

2018 WSSE Punt Pass & Kick – Girls

Third Grade

Grand Champion: Gia White, total 121’1”

Punt Champion: Gia White, 49’5”

Pass Champion: Kassidy Vance, 47’ (new school record)

Kick Champion: Gia White, 33’

Fourth Grade

Grand Champion: India Woods, total 125’

Punt Champion: Alexis Hanson, 52’3”

Pass Champion: Aryn Cleghon, 41’2”

Kick Champion: Hydee Wykle, 52’4”

Fifth Grade

Grand Champion: Taylor Dowdy, total 167’1”

Punt Champion: Taylor Dowdy, 65’6”

Pass Champion: Taylor Dowdy, 58’

Kick Champion: Jade Montgomery, 65’2”