Maplewood Teen Heads to Germany with the USA U18 National Fistball Team

July 8, 2016 - Maplewood, NJ - Olivia Woodruff, Maplewood resident and student at Columbia High School is heading to the Youth Worlds Fistball Championships in Nürnberg-Eibach, Germany. The competition to be held on July 20-24, 2016 is the first ever appearance for the USA in the U18 Girls division.

The 16 year old who enjoys ultimate frisbee and art, tried out for the team because ‘I thought it would be really cool and one of my friends loved playing it.’ Ms. Woodruff also added “I learned how to play fistball and how cool it is to play for it internationally and going to Worlds.”

Like many members of the team, Olivia had never heard of the sport and was surprised to learn how well known it is in Europe and the community that is here in New Jersey.

What would you say to people who don’t know about Fistball? “It's a lot of fun to watch and play and is a lot harder than you think! It's also a lot of fun with how much diving you can do.” continued Ms. Woodruff.

The team has been practicing at the Swim and Sport Club at 272 Emmans Road, Roxbury, NJ since early May to compete against U18 Girl’s teams from Austria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, India, Kenya, Switzerland and Togo.

With partial funding from the United States Fistball Association, the team has been pursuing corporate sponsorships, individual donations and apparrel sales to help defer the extensive costs to the team members.

The team funding page is found at: https://igg.me/at/-OGgNYeM35I

Official USFA apparel with all profits going to the U18 Girls Team is found at the following link.. http://ascuniforms.soccercorner.com/stores/usfajuly

Photo Credit: USFA U18 Girls National Team: Valerie Houghton, Alexandra Berdej, Christine Connelly, Kayley Moran, Kelli Vogel, Bayleigh Takacs, and Kate Tagliareni (not pictured is Kumali Schoen)

Team Roster:

#1 Valerie Houghton - Maplewood, NJ
#2 Olivia Woodruff - Maplewood, NJ
#3 Christine Connelly (capt.) - Rockaway, NJ
#4 Kayley Moran - Hacketstown, NJ
#5 Kelli Vogel - Sparta, NJ
#7 Bayleigh Takacs - Sparta, NJ
#9 Alexx Berdej - Roxbury, NJ
#10 Kate Tagliareni - Hacketstown, NJ
missing in the picture #8 Kumali Schoen - Menlo Park, Ca.

For US National Team corporate sponsorship or other details please contact Bob Feid, President, USFA - bobf2@optonline.net

CLICK HERE to learn more about Fistball - http://usfistball.com/

CLICK HERE for information on their home field, the Swim and Sport Club - http://www.swimandsportclub.org/

CLICK HERE for more information on the Youth World Fistball Championships - http://u18wm2016.de/en/

#USFA #MaplewoodHS #SSCFlanders