Dozens of youth learn exercise, football skills at workshop

PALMER — There was no way Blitz was going to allow Krista Beranek to sit on the sidelines.

The shy 8-year-old seemed a little intimidated by the energy generated from hundreds of kids performing up-tempo football drills. As she clung close to her dad, Todd, Blitz noticed she wasn’t out participating with the other Valley youth at Thursday’s Mat-Se Sea Hawkers Play 60 Challenge at the AT&T Sports Center.

“As you can tell, she’s a little shy,” Todd Beranek said. “My son’s here too, and he’s shy also.”

That would be 9-year-old Konnor. Between the pair, the kids “kind of tend to stay home and do stuff,” their dad said, adding that Play 60 “is a good way to get them out and meeting new kids.”

That Seattle Seahawks mascot Blitz would pull Krista out and take her over to meet new friends and do some football-style drills “is absolutely wonderful,” Todd said. “He’s sitting here giving autographs and he looks her way and gets her involved. He’s great.”

Blitz was arguably the most popular member of the Seahawks who made the trip to the Last Frontier to work with Southcentral kids. Joining the mascot was Clint Gresham, a long snapper for the Seahawks, and kicker Steven Hauschka.

“Play 60 is all about getting kids out and exercising three or four days a week for 60 minutes,” Hauschka said. “We also try to get them to eat healthy, too, and get in good lifestyle habits.”

For part of the Thursday afternoon session, Hauschka and Gresham spent some time in the back parking lot of the AT&T Sports Center playing street ball with groups of kids. The impromptu games brought back memories of childhood football for Gresham.

“I love that stuff,” he said, adding that if an NFL player had come to play with him when he was a kid, “I would’ve probably passed out. I grew up loving football. My dad played football at the University of Texas.”

Showing kids the importance of developing good exercise and eating habits early is an important goal for the Play 60 program and the Mat-Su Sea Hawkers, said Tom Spindler, a club member.

“Mostly, it’s to get them out and active,” he said. “We want them to understand the importance of playing — physical play, not just Nintendo. It’s also the nutritional aspect of it, the education in learning the lifelong value of exercise.”

That’s a value supported by the NFL and Seattle Seahawks organization, said Mike Flood, the club’s vice president of community relations.

“We consider Alaska to be right in our back yard,” he said. “We have a ton of fans here and we know it’s an area that could use attention for the kind of community programs we do in Washington. We try to extend those programs up into Alaska.”

Jesse Bostwick spent part of the session standing behind a tackling dummy at the end of a ropes drill. Kids at that station ran through the ropes as fast as they could, then put their best hit on Bostwick’s dummy.

“These kids are amazing,” said an impressed Bostwick. “I’ve only dealt with the smaller ones so far, but man, these kids are hitting. Some of them hit pretty dang hard. They’ve definitely got it going on.”

Blitz cheers the young athletes on as they complete the drill, giving out high-fives and fist-pumps.

“They love Blitz, they really do,” Bostwick said. “Blitz gets them all fired up, and he’s everywhere.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or

greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.