USA U18 Girls National Fistball Team heads to Germany with Maplewood's Valerie Houghton

July 13, 2016 - Maplewood,NJ - At the end of the week, the first ever USA U18 Girls National Fistball Team will be leaving for Germany with Columbia High School’s Valerie Houghton wearing jersey #1. The team is competing at the Youth World Fistball Championships, Nürnberg-Eibach, Germany on July 20-24, 2016.

At 15 years old, Ms. Houghton is the youngest member of the team. In addition to playing on the National Fistball team, Ms. Houghton keeps very busy with other pursuits, including Swimming, Volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, and Model U.N.

When asked about Fistball and what inspired her to try out for the U18 USA National Fistball Team, she had this to say “I thought it would be a good opportunity and that it would be a fun thing to try! I've learned that people with different backgrounds who don't know each other can come together and become great friends. I’ve been surprised by how nice and caring everyone that I have met has been!”

When asked about what she would tell people about Fistball, Valerie continued “I would say that they should look it up and learn more about it because it's a lot of fun and it's a great experience!”

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

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 #ColumbiaHS #SSCFlanders