Jeremy Patrick Falkner Football Festival

 In 2001, at the age of 19, Jeremy Patrick Falkner lost his life in a car accident. In his memory, every year since, a football festival is held to honor Jeremy’s love for the game and instill upon its youth participants the values of sportsmanship that he represented.
           
This 7th annual Jeremy Patrick Falkner Football Festival was held in Castle Rock over the weekend of August 23 and 24. Ranging from six to 13/14-year-olds, teams were capped at 140 to maintain the festival feel and ensure three games each.
           
In previous years, games for the festival were played anywhere from Montbello to Castle Rock. This is the first year it has been in one location.
             
Local Castle Rock youth league coach Steve Rohman was appointed chair of this year’s festival.
           
“The whole point is to have a good time playing a few games before the season starts, and to remember Jeremy,” said Rohman.
           
Games are arranged by age group, but also by “gold” and “silver” divisions according to the appropriate skill level a team registers into.  In this ‘tournament’ however, teams do not compete for a trophy, or any other prize for that matter. In fact score isn’t even kept.
           
The $350 entry fee for each team goes directly into the “Jeremy Patrick Falkner Scholarship- AYL” for Arapohoe Youth League participants. Each November, $1,000 scholarships for college are given to high school seniors that have been involved with the AYL the longest. The only requirement is that the winners attend college.
           
As the festival has grown each year, so has the number of scholarships. In 2007 there 10 awarded.
           
Rohman said the goal for this year is 24. The scholarship fund is run by Jeremy’s father, Patrick Falkner.
           
Among other activities during the festival, is the “Cow Chip Bowl”. This is a $25 raffle of sorts, in which the purchased ticket number corresponds with a patch of grass within an enclosure. A cow is put out to the pasture, and through natural and unbiased means, it designates the winner of up to $10,000. Proceeds of this event also go to the Jeremy Patrick Falkner Foundation.
           
For more information, visit falknerfootballfestival.com.