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  • Traverse City Central football players have been handing out tickets to a pair of elementary schools for every home game. Special to the Record-Eagle

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September 14, 2012

Central players distribute tickets to youth

Elementary schools benefit from Junior Trojan program

BY DENNIS CHASE dchase@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City Central football players were spreading good will on Wednesday.

Distributing tickets to Friday night's Big North Conference battle with Petoskey, too.

Team members stopped by Eastern Elementary and Old Mission Elementary to pass out free tickets to tonight's contest at Thirlby Field.

It's all part of the Junior Trojan program.

"We try to hand out tickets to two different elementary schools per home game," said Paul Bonaccini, who's on the coaching staff.

The elementary schools are those on the east side that act as feeders for the junior high and high school at TC Central.

Players who attended those elementary schools return to distribute the tickets.

"They get a kick out of it," Bonaccini said.

Between 800-900 tickets were doled out to students Wednesday.

Obviously, not all tickets are used. But because the tickets are specifically made for the Junior program, officials can keep an accurate count of how many are turned in at the gate.

Coach Tom Passinault said, depending on the weather, between 100-300 students — plus their families and/or friends — attend.

"We were trying to drum up ideas to get more kids at our games," Passinault said. "This has worked pretty well.

"They (kids) get a free ticket, bring their parents and, hopefully, make it a tradition."

This is the third year the Junior ticket program has been utilized, Bonaccini said. He pushed the plan, in part, because he wanted to create a link between the youth Pop Warner teams and the high school programs.

"I used to coach Pop Warner and I thought what a great opportunity to not only deal with Pop Warner kids, but TCAPS elementary schools across the board," Bonaccini said. "This is like an olive branch that we can extend to these lower levels, just letting these kids know they are a part of the Trojan family. That's important."

It also helps in a couple other ways. It boosts attendance and introduces many to Trojan football.

Of course, it helps if the team is having a good season, too.

"Rest assured, the better we're playing, the more kids show up," Bonaccini said.

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