Local boys play in national football championship

Five players from Sunset Youth Football's Varsity team are on the Oregon All Star Football Team. The team has been competing in the first ever National Eighth Grade Youth Football Championship being played in conjunction with the US Army All American Bowl in San Antonio Texas.

The tournament playoffs started in November with 40 teams from across the country made up of the best youth athletes selected from the best youth leagues throughout the United States. Oregon's team is made up of players from throughout the Portland area.

SYF team member Jason Talley carries the ball during the San Antonio tournament

The top five teams headed to San Antonio, Texas on January 2nd to battle it out for the Championship. Oregon outscored Kentucky 21-0 in the second half to roll to a 35-16 victory on January 4 in the semifinals. They played Texas Thursday evening, January 5th and suffered a heartbreaking loss in the last few seconds. Mother of one of the players, Cynthia Parent, says, "They were 15 yards from the end zone when what might have been a winning pass for Oregon was intercepted with 10 seconds on the clock."

Oregon will play a consolation game on Saturday morning against Massachusetts for second place.

Players from Sunset Youth Football include, Caden Carter, Quinn Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Parent, Jason Talley and Scott Wright. The boys were part of the SYF Varsity team that took second in the Tualatin Valley Youth League Football Championship held at Jeld-Wen Stadium early in November. 

The Oregon All Star Team beat Washington's team Thanksgiving weekend in Sammamish, Washington with a score of 40-36. They then beat Sunnyvale, California 62-2 at a game held mid-December at Lake Oswego High School. Inland Empire from the Los Angeles area was to have been their third game. But the other team forfeited last Wednesday, which put the Oregon All Stars on the road to San Antonio.

Cynthia says, "This has been an outstanding experience for Jon and the rest of the team. There was a tremendous amount of effort on the part of all the families and coaches to make this happen—especially during the holiday season. The boys are all outstanding athletes, which is great to see at this early stage just before they enter high school. We are proud to have a son who was asked to be on the team, and proud of the entire team for making it so far. Many thanks to the coaches who made it all happen.

Because of the last minute scheduling of games, the team found out less than two weeks before they had to be in San Antonio that they needed to find transportation. The team is trying to fund raise to help especially those families who are not in a position to finance the required last minute airline tickets and a week's worth of team meals while at the tournament. The goal is to try and raise $30,000.

Leedy Grange hosted a dance Friday, December 30th to benefit the team that raised about $200. But they still need donations since those last-minute expenses got covered by coaches' and parent's credit cards! If you want to help, Line Coach Kevin Maughan has set up an account at Key Bank for the Team. Donations can be made at any Keybank location: checks can be made payable to Kevin Maughan, Account Number 370282058921. On the memo line write: For the benefit of Team Oregon 8th grade FBU Football Team

For more information on the tournament go to www.footballuniversity.org or visit FBU National Championship page on Facebook.

Congratulations to the entire Oregon team and especially to our local Sunset Youth Football players.

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