In Pop Warner, football isn't the only game in town
Youth sports program focuses on scholastics as well as athletics
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

KATHY CHANG Several players from the Port Reading Saints named to the Little Scholars team for the 2006-2007 season join Janet Thomas, the team's coordinator; Pedro Rosario, the team's president; and head coach Mark Thomas.

WOODBRIDGE - Pop Warner Football and Cheerleading is not all about the sport and game.

As kids are getting into the back-toschool routine, the members of the Pop Warner Little Scholars Football and Cheerleading teams are working hard to be All American Scholars.

Coaches like Mark Thomas of the Port Reading Saints make it their point to talk about grades.

"I ask each and every one of our players how they are doing in school at least once a week," said Thomas, whose son Griffin and daughter Mackenzie are on the Saints. "Of course they all say 'good.' "

Pedro Rosario, who is president of the Port Reading Saints, said he's very big on education.

"If they don't study, they don't play," he said.

Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc., which is going into its 48th season and is the nation's largest youth football and cheerleading organization, is the only national youth sports organization in America that requires its participants to perform adequately in the classroom before permitting them to play.

"We believe that the standards we have set give these children a sense of responsibility and an appreciation for academics and athletics that will help them develop later on in life," Pop Warner officials said.

Children must be in the fifth grade or above to be named a Pop Warner Little Scholar. The overall Pop Warner program is for children 5 to 16 years old.

"The national [Pop Warner organization] selects 35 football and 35 cheerleaders from the fifth grade and above [in the various Pop Warner regions] for the first and second teams," said Avie Sanders, scholastics director for the Pop Warner Little Scholars Eastern Region. "They must have a grade point average [GPA] of 96 percent and have an addendum and report card."

Sanders added that most of the All American Scholars chosen for first and second teams have a GPA of 98.5 percent or higher.

Woodbridge Township has five Pop Warner teams: the Fords Bearcats, Iselin Giants, Colonia Patriots, Port Reading Saints and the St. Cecelia's Golden Knights.

Linda Pinter, who has been president of the Fords Bearcats for five years, said it is very important that academics come first.

Ten boys and girls out of 475 children on the Fords Bearcats Pop Warner football and cheerleading teams were named second team All-American Little Scholars and two received $500 scholarships.

William Anner, who has been coaching the Colonia Patriots Pop Warner football team for six years, said he stresses every day to his kids that they should be a scholar first and then an athlete.

"Sometimes I have kids calling and telling me, 'Coach, I can't make practice because I have a test tomorrow,' or, 'I have a lot of homework,' and I have no problems with it," he said. "My own son knows he can't leave for practice unless his homework is done, and 99 percent of the time he has it done before practice."

Anner said he has rules set for the 12- to 15-year-olds and makes sure they follow the three rules of working hard and doing the best they can, being respectful, and paying 100 percent attention whether they are on the football field or in a classroom.

"They must stay out of trouble in and out of school," he said. "They must keep up their grades and go to school every day. Whatever they do, they represent Colonia Pop Warner [which has approximately 250 members]. If they break any rules, they are suspended from games or do extra running at practice."

Five Port Reading Saints football players - Andrew Cunningham, 11, Andre Farago, 12, Jake Fasano, 14, Thomas Olsen, 11, and Tom Petti, 14 - and six cheerleaders - Ashley Battista, 12, Taylor Dulemba, 12, Heather Kadash, 12, Jackie Kovach, 12, Stephanie Laties, 11, and Alexa Speer, 12 - were named Second Team All-American Scholars for the 2006-07 season in the Eastern Region, which includes New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

The boys and girls, who received the award for the first time, ranked in the top 2 percent of approximately 400,000 children who took part in the Pop Warner Little Scholars spirit and football programs nationwide this past year.

Cunningham, who entered the sixth grade at Colonia Middle School and is on the Pee Wee team, Farago, who is in the seventh grade at Iselin Middle School and is also on the Pee Wee team, and Olsen, who entered the sixth grade at Woodbridge Middle School and plays tight end on the Junior Pee Wee team, said they felt proud of their accomplishments and look forward to becoming a scholar again this year.

Petti, who played Pop Warner football for nine years and also received a $500 scholarship for the Pop Warner essay contest, said it felt pretty good to be named a Pop Warner Scholar and receive the scholarship.

"I was brought up to get good grades," said Petti, now a co-captain on the Colonia High School freshman football team. "I worked hard and got to play football."

Fasano, who now plays football on the Woodbridge High School team, said he really didn't know about the scholars program.

"My coach told us about it and I accepted," said Fasano. "It felt good because not a lot of kids got to be named a scholar."

The Little Scholars of the Port Reading Saints cheerleading team said they were all proud of themselves.

"I didn't really feel that I did that good," said Alexa Speer, a seventh-grader at Avenel Middle School.

Janet Thomas, coordinator of the Little Scholars program for the Port Reading Saints, said that a practice on Sept. 17 showed how schoolwork is very important.

"Seven kids are missing from the Pee Wee team because of homework," said Thomas, who has been the coordinator of the scholars program for three years. "The kids practice five days a week during the summer and three nights a week once school starts."

Thomas said 11 boys and girls out of 212 children this year have qualified as Little Scholars. For the 2006-07 season, 19 boys and girls qualified out of 186 children.

"We will know the results by the end of this month," she said. "We sent out the applications, which includes their report cards and an addendum, which shows other activities the children are involved in, which does not include sports."

For more information on Pop Warner Little Scholars, visit www.popwarner.com.