Athletics and academics don’t always go hand and hand, but the Flower Mound High School Jaguar football program is making strides toward changing that perception by sponsoring a program called Athletes for Literacy, a summer reading program for students in their elementary feeder schools. This past summer, students used a log to document their reading. Friday night, the winners of the contest received a treat when two students from each elementary school were honored for having read the most minutes during the summer. Athletes for Literacy Coordinator Mona Simpson said the contest, which is in its seventh year, has two main purposes. “First of all, the varsity players want to be good role models for our future Jaguars and secondly, inspire them to enjoy reading. We see the success of this program through our sponsored summer reading contest which had our Li'l Jags reading for over 150,000 minutes this last summer,” she said.        

     The winners of the contest are Will Vosburg and Carly Vosburg from Bluebonnet Elementary, Austin Curtis from Donald Elementary, Caden Cantwell and Roma Tragon from Forest Vista Elementary, Neetin Khadka and Charity Crook from Garden Ridge Elementary, Cedric Bernier and Emma Kaneira from Liberty Elementary, Matthew Heare and Caroline Hicks from Old Settlers Elementary, and Ville Jokitulppo and Yenna Park from Wellington Elementary. These hard working students were rewarded by getting to wear a Jaguar football jersey and lead the team on the field Friday night, and the group also was permitted to watch the first half of the game on the sidelines. The top reader was also given a special honor; Roma Tragon joined the captains and participated in the coin toss at the center of the field at the start of the game. She spent around 180 hours of her summer vacation reading.     

     Perhaps the biggest payoff for these youngsters is a love of reading that many of them acquired through the contest. “The books I read were very interesting,” said nine year-old Neetin of Garden Ridge Elementary, who spent 84.8 hours reading this summer.  Some of his favorites were several book series including Charlie Bone, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Currently, Neetin said he is reading The Boys are Dogs by Leslie Margolis, and he added that even though the contest is over, he continues to read. Besides a love of reading, his mother Wendy Trayler said she thinks the contest taught her son another important lesson about life. “I think it’s taught him that if you persevere, you can achieve what you want. Working hard pays off,” she said. Neetin agreed. “At the beginning, I doubted that I would ever do it,” he said, “and it boosted me up when I did.” Friday night’s game was the very first high school game Neetin ever attended, and it will probably be one he will never forget.