Marymount of Santa Barbara eighth-grader Lanea Pearson showed off her athletic talents to earn first place in the regionals and a National Top 10 ranking in the NFL/Pepsi Punt, Pass and Kick competition at Chargers Stadium in San Diego.
Pearson has been an avid and successful competitor since elementary school, when she placed third nationally as a fourth-grader.
In this year’s contest during halftime of the San Diego Chargers game, Pearson punted 94 feet 2 inches, passed the football for 89 feet 11 inches and made a kick that distanced 29 feet 5 inches. Her total footage of 233 feet 6 inches propelled her into first place among girls in Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, and gave her a national ninth place among girls ages 12 to 13 in the United States.
Pearson is happy about her victory, but she says the best thing about the competition is “the people…getting to know the other kids year after year and seeing all of us improve over that time.”
More than 4 million boys and girls from around the country participate in the NFL/Pepsi Punt, Pass and Kick competition, making it one of the world’s largest youth programs. Established in 1961, the PP&K program also is the oldest NFL Youth Football program.
Rageshwar Kaur Wilcox is Marymount of Santa Barbara‘s admissions director.