Young players show their stuff at Soccer Challenge in Huntley

Submitted by St. Mary of Huntley Knights of Columbus Council 11666

On Sept. 8, the St. Mary of Huntley Knights of Columbus Council 11666 held the annual Soccer Challenge at Deicke Park in Huntley for ages 10 to 14. This event was free to all participants, allowing them to demonstrate their soccer goal kicking skills.

This event is sponsored annually, with winners progressing through local, district and state competitions. International champions are announced by the K of C international headquarters based in New Haven, Conn., on scores from state level competitions. All contestants on the local level were recognized for their participation.

The boy’s champions were Duncan Whitfield for the 10-year-olds, Zach Rojer for the 11-year-olds and Devan Turk was the champion for the 12-year-olds.

For the girls, Grace Kalischefski was the 10-year-old champion while Stephanie Varkados was the champion for the 11-year-olds with Shannon Pylypowycz as the 12-year-old champion and Kaitlyn White was the champion for the 13-year-old girls. Erin Gaitsch was the 14-year-old girls champion.

Each of these winners were eligible to compete in the district competitions held at St. Margaret Mary Church in Algonquin, on Oct. 14 with an eye toward moving on to the regional competition held at Tomaso Sports Fields in Huntley Nov. 3.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic family fraternal service organization with nearly 1.8 million members in more than 14,000 local councils. Last year, Knights donated 72 million volunteer hours and $151 million in charitable and benevolent causes, sponsoring projects to benefit their church, councils, communities, families and youth.