Youth sports winter season wrap up

The Greater Marco Family YMCA winter season youth sports has come to an end, with great success. We had a total of five girls’ volleyball teams ranging in ages 7-14 and two boys’ basketball teams ranging in ages 9-12. Our winter season ran from January 17th though March 19th with games every weekend at the YMCA of the Palms in Naples. Each season runs for eight weeks with a playoff tournament at the end of the season.

This winter, we had 6 out of the 7 teams play in the playoff tournament and 4 out of those teams won their division. Boys 9-10 year old Basketball, Girls 10-11 year old Volleyball, Boys 11-12 year old Basketball, Girls Middle School Volleyball and both Girls High School Volleyball teams.

Our middle school girls volleyball team was coached by Stephanie Percel and had the following line up: Katie Moss, Samantha Baron, McKenna Lampos, Rebecca Gates, Vanessa Torres, Kamryn Bertrand and Olivia Davis who only lost 2 games throughout the season and won the playoff tournament for their age level. The girls had to play 4 games total to win the tournament and won each match in two games. The girls played amazingly. Everyone had great serves and they played to win!

Our boys 11-12 year old basketball team coached by Mike Vanderjagt consisted of; Jay Vanderjagt, Andrew Hurdis, Tyler Grishim, Bon Deese, Matthew Estrada, Jordan Barrett, Evan Meredith, Tanner Prange, Tyler Raisor, Jack Remaks and Vincent Moller. The boys had a great winter season; they only lost one game. At the playoff tournament, Mike and his team won the first game 40-31 which took them into the finals. With a lot of hard work and determination, the boys were able to have a rematch against the only team that they lost to, and won 43-29 in the finals to win the championship game for the league. Mike did a great job with the kids and each and everyone showed improvement from the beginning of the season to the end.

This season,

we had 2 teams in the girls’ high school volleyball division. Four out of the 16 girls were high school students, the rest were all 8th grade students at the Marco Island Charter Middle School. The two teams consisted of; Brianna Anguilano, Annie Rosenblum, Brooke Bragenzer, Ciera Parcelles, Shyan Surber, Nikki Iannotta, Olivia Guzzo, Alyssa Stolinas, Ashley Schneller, Sophi Popoff, Monica Lora, Lauren Hanscom, Romina Gimenez, Darrah Warshel, Jessica Simon and Savannah Garner. Both teams played extremely well this season. One team went undefeated and the other team lost one game. When it came to the playoff tournament, we had a lot of girls out of town so we combined our teams to make one Marco team. We won the first match of the playoff; 25-16, 25-12 to make it to the finals. The scores to the final match was; 25-12, 22-25, 15-6. This is the 6th season that the Greater Marco Family YMCA girls’ volleyball team has won the playoff tournament.

A special thanks to all the kids who participated in our winter youth sports and also to all the parents and volunteer coaches! We really appreciate all your hard work. I would also like to thank all of our team sponsors for this season; A & D Better Landscaping, Southwest Florida Auto Transport, www.kidsbowlfree.com, Cocomo’s Island Grill, Marco Island Junior Eagles and A.R.A Insurance. Thank you for not only sponsoring our teams, but also giving the kids an opportunity to participate in our youth sports programs.

The Greater Marco Family YMCA will be continuing our youth sport program of Girls Youth Volleyball and Youth Basketball into the Spring. Registration is now open, please visit the Marco YMCA to register. Practices will begin the week of April 25th and continue through the week of June 11th. Games are every Saturday and are held at the YMCA of the Palms in Naples. This is a great opportunity to keep your kids active until summer rolls around! For additional information please contact Stephanie Percel at spercel@marcoislandymca.org or 239-394-3144 ext. 227.