DENVILLE - Kayla Coutts has done it again!
For the second year in a row, the 15-year-old Morris Knolls sophomore from Denville won the NFL's Punt Pass & Kick Eastern Regional competition in her age group, out-kicking and out-throwing three 14-15 year-old sectional winners at Giants Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 29.
Coutts, who plays junior varsity soccer and lacrosse at Knolls and referees in the township's PAL basketball program in the winter, will now wait to see if she is among the top four finishers after results from all 32 regional competitions are tabulated to see who moves on to the national competition that will be held during the upcoming NFL playoffs.
"I came in 13th in the country last year and didn't get to go to the nationals," Coutts was saying over the phone the day after she competed at Giants Stadium on the morning of the Jets-Panthers game. "I doubt if I'll go this year, either, because my combined distance this year was less than last year's."
Last year, Coutts punted, passed and place-kicked for a combined 259-feet, 10 inches. This year's total was 248-9.
Like last year, Coutts won the local competition held at Gardner Field here earlier in the fall and then went on to win the sectional competition at Garfield.
This year, she represented the Jets; last year, it was the Giants.
She also competed three years ago but didn't make it past the sectional competition that was held at Rutgers University.
"I got too nervous at Rutgers and it hurt me," Coutts says. "So I tried not to be nervous the next year and that helped. This year, I wasn't nervous at all."
This year's competition was held on the Giants Stadium field at 10 a.m. "... when the cheerleaders were out there practicing and warming up.
"We got to watch the players warm up and then watched the first half of the game ... they took the winners out onto the field at halftime and announced us to the crowd and put us on the big screen.
"It was a lot of fun these three years and I really enjoyed it," adds Coutts. "It was quite an experience and I'm glad I got into the competition."
