THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240262
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 37 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, BEACON SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Michael Cummins will today do something most kids only dream about. And he'll be doing it for the second time in two years.
Cummins will compete on the turf at Washington's RFK Stadium today in front of a packed house of screaming fans. The Rosemont Forest fourth-grader will be taking part in his age group championship in the NFL Gatorade Punt, Pass and Kick Championship.
Cummins will be battling for the Washington Redskins team portion of the national tournament - with the top four scorers from the 30 NFL team champions competing in the national finals during a Jan. 7 AFC playoff game.
He will compete today against five other 10-year-olds from around the Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia region.
Cummins isn't new to the competition. Last year, living in New England, he advanced to the Patriots final, finishing fourth.
A soccer player who loves throwing the ball, Cummins hopes to do better today.
``Every day I've been going out to my school with my dad and kicking the ball around. I've been improving,'' said the fan of three teams - Dallas, Washington and Kansas City.
In Punt, Pass and Kick competition, each competitor gets one punt, one pass and one kick, each measured for distance and accuracy.
Cummins won the Norfolk area championship and then the state title in Richmond to advance to today's competition.
Cummins, who turned 10 Wednesday, is the only South Hampton Roads youngster to compete in today's final.
Saving the future: Five members of area bass fishing clubs recently participated in a last-minute effort to save more than 400 fish from death - plucking the bass, bream and eels from a drainage pond near Indian River Road.
The pond was being drained as part of the building of a new housing development.
Virginia Bass Federation president Roger Fitchett went out with Region 7 fishermen Bruce Pomery, Dan Knight, Elvis Cressell and Steve Bartneck in the pouring rain to save the fish.
``We put them into one of our tank trucks and took them to Mercer's boat dock,'' Fitchett said. ``It was a muddy mess. We used throw nets, got them all into the tanks. Only one died. We did a good job.''
Pomery - an employee of Princess Anne Marine - was credited with finding out about the plight of the fish. by CNB