Carthage Family Fitness plans youth football and soccer programs

LaDonna Nolden won the bicycle in the Totally Awesome Loser competition at the Carthage Family Fitness center in Carthage.

Carthage Family Fitness is planning fall team sports for the coming months.

Registration is currently being taken for flag football and soccer teams.

Flag football games are Saturday mornings, starting Sept. 20, and continuing for six weeks for boys and girls in first to fourth grade, and four weeks for the Pee Wee players four years through kindergarten.

Registration deadline is Wednesday, Aug. 27. The cost is $25 for CFF members and $40 for non-members.

Soccer league games start on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21. Divisions are for boys and girls in first to fourth grade, and a Pee Wee group for four years through kindergarten. The cost is $25 for members and $40 for non-members. Registration deadline for soccer is Aug. 27.

For information on either of these sports, call CFF at 217/357-2739, or call youth director Christine Murphy at 357-3016.

Frank Hanks of Carthage is the new head wrestling coach for CFF for the 2008-09 wrestling season. Assistant coach is John Wilde, also of Carthage. The wrestling season runs from November to February.

Hanks has been the assistant coach for the past two years. He is a graduate of Carthage High School and began wrestling in the second grade through the Keokuk YMCA. He continued to eighth grade and then wrestled independently through high school since Carthage didn't have a program.

Several fund raising events are planned to help the team buy uniforms and offset the cost of traveling to tournaments.

A volleyball program is planned to begin in November. Information will be released later.

For information on the CFF programs, call site director Maxine Trapp at 217/357-2739.