HUGHESVILLE, Pa. — On Tuesday, Lycoming County middle schoolers cheered for their kickball team at the East Lycoming Little League Complex in Wolf Township near Hughesville. This is the first time the Kickin' It With Cops tournament has been able to take place after a five-year break from COVID.
"I had an idea of creating a kickball tournament with each school district and had 14 kids in seventh grade, seven boys, seven girls, to compete in a tournament with the school resource officers from the county, and so I thought it'd be a good way to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the youth," said Kyle Fera, school resource officer in the Jersey Shore Area High School.
The tournament is coordinated by the Youth Development Task Force--a Lycoming County organization made up of all nine schools in the county. The organization helps to improve the mental and physical well-being of youth.
"This is an amazing program brought together bringing—uniting all schools in the county, and working on physical and mental well-being, improving relationships with our police officers," said Jodi English, Youth Development Task Force adviser.
Eight Lycoming County police departments and the Pennsylvania State Police are participating in the event. The kickball games are double elimination with a championship game at the end.
"And then we're going to do a big kickball game of all the school resource officers versus the kids, so it's going to be roughly nine, ten, 12, 13 of us SROs versus like 180 kids," said Fera.
Students for the tournament were picked based on their grades and participation in gym class.
"It's been pretty fun. We won the first game, lost the second but the second game was—it was a lot of competition. It was fun," said Mya Ritter, a seventh grader at Williamsport Area Middle School.
While the tournament promotes fun and teamwork, it also builds a bond between the students and law enforcement.
"We work really hard with the kids on trying to have that relationship doing things like kickball, dodgeball, pickleball. We play with the kids as much as possible, interact with them as much as possible," said Fera.
Event organizers hope to have Kickin' It With Cops again next year.