Local players show their stuff at annual Soccer Challenge in Huntley

Submitted by St. Mary of Huntley Knights

On Sept. 7, the St. Mary of Huntley Knights of Columbus Council held the annual Soccer Challenge at Deicke Park in Huntley for youth, ages 10-14. 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 Mateo Raso of West Dundee for the 10-year-olds, Austin Nichols of Lake in the Hills for the 11-year-olds and Colin Raclaswski of Algonquin was the champion for the 12-year-olds.

For the girls, Katy Cassan of Huntley was the 10-year-old champion while Kyra Swartz of Lake in the Hills was the champion for the 11-year-olds with Amanda Guerra of Huntley as the 12-year-old champion and Shanaya Khaldi of Huntley, the champion for the 13-year-old girls.

Each of these winners is eligible to compete in the district competitions in October with an eye toward moving on to the regional competition which will be held at Tomaso Sports Fields in Huntley at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Then the regional winners will progress to state and hopefully national and international levels.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic family fraternal service organization with nearly 1.8 million members in over 14,000 local councils. Last year, Knights donated 70 million volunteer hours and $167 million in charitable and benevolent causes, sponsoring projects to benefit their church, councils, communities, families and youth.