Oct. 25—ASHTABULA — Members of the Conneaut varsity team celebrated on the Lakeside soccer field after beating Geneva 16-7 in the Youth Freeway League as family and friends took to the field to join in the festivities .
The game culminated months of practice and hard work. Team Conneaut was the last of three crowned champions in FYFL.
Several hours earlier, a similar scene unfolded on the same field as Lakeside claimed a 22-20 win over Geneva in the junior varsity championship.
The FYFL Freshman Championship was won several weeks ago by Lakeside in a close match at Pymatuning Valley.
The FYFL includes teams from Geneva, Conneaut, Buckeye, Pymatuning Valley and Lakeside, said league president Herdy Christian. He said each community has two representatives on the league board which makes decisions about how the league is run.
Christian said he played midget football and believes there are important lessons for young people to learn.
“It’s definitely a sport where you learn to depend on each other,” he said.
Christian said there is a lot of hard work going into league operations. “We couldn’t do this without the parents,” he said.
Fundraising is a key part of the programs. “We have parents who no longer have kids in the league helping us out,” he said.
The children are ages 5 to sixth grade. The younger kids play in the freshman division and the older athletes play in the junior and varsity varsity divisions.
After sixth grade, players move on to middle school or college teams, Christian said.