11U Green Hornets Go 10-2, Reach County Final

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The 11U Green Hornets football team followed its impressive regular season with a strong playoff run, reaching the championship game of the Anne Arundel Youth Football Association Central division playoffs.

Playoff wins over the Pasadena Panthers and Harundale Rebels preceded Severna Park’s loss to the Pasadena Bucs in the final, and the Green Hornets finished the year 10-2 overall.

The team of Will Garzon, Tim Gasque, Caleb Gremillion, Mason Keegan, Benji Beisler, Lukas Emrich, Mitch Murray, John Paul Miller, Brayden Murphy, Joey Tramontana, Teddy Evans, Connor Kemezis, Chris Pagan, Zachary Tambascio, Gabe MacRobbie, Will Campbell, Landon Zawartka, Andrew Volkov, TJ Morgan, Quinn Briggs, Connor Woodward, Brandon Beall, Reid Caughy, Julian Murphy and Gavin Hall mixed experienced players with first-year players and produced a season to be proud of, said head coach Chris Kunkel Jr.

“I am proud of our team for plenty of reasons,” said Kunkel Jr., who coached the team with assistant coaches Chris Kunkel Sr., Scott MacRobbie, Dean Tramontana, Aaron Martin and John Gremillion, with game and practice assistance from team mom Heather Woodward.

Kunkel Jr. noted the players’ collective ability to fill their roles—no one on the team started on both offense and defense—and achieve the goals they set forth at the beginning of the year.

“This team consisted of 10 first-year players out of the 25 total players on the team, and those new players were able to learn the game, contribute to the team, and have enough fun doing so that they all told me that they will be back to play again next season. Second, our team definitely epitomized the team concept. Finally, we achieved all three of our goals that we set out for the boys at the first practice. The first goal was to have fun, and they did that. The second goal was to play safely, and aside from one player sustaining a broken finger in the championship game, no other player sustained more than the normal bumps and bruises that come with playing the sport of football. And finally, our third goal was to make it to the championship game, because in the past four years, our team had lost in the semifinals of the playoffs. Our motto for the season was ‘One more game!’ and we did in fact get that one more game. Despite losing in the championship game, our season was a huge success and something that all of the coaches are looking to build upon as we move up to the D1 level in the AAYFA next season.”

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