The Andalusia Youth Football League hosted the first AYFL Golf Classic at the Andalusia Country Club.

AYFL president Nichole Applelyard said that event was a huge success and credited AYFL board member Mitch Thorne for his part in making it successful.

“Several months ago, we started kicking around the idea of replacing our current helmets with a new, more modern version,” Appleyard said. “Football helmets have a shelf life of 10 year, plus they must be refurbished and recertified every three years.”

Appleyard said their current helmets will soon need to be replaced.

“We knew we were approaching a time when we would need to replace over 50-percent of our helmets and recondition the remainder,” Appleyard said. “We also wanted to change our helmet color from cardinal to white so we would replicate the AHS Bulldogs. The cost of doing that was going to be high.”

Thorne said he believed a golf tournament would be a great way to raise the funds to purchase new helmets.

“I enjoy playing golf and have played in tournaments for years,” Thorne said. “Once I got the O.K., from the AYFL board, I began seeking sponsors and teams for the tourney. The response was overwhelming. I can’t thank all of our sponsors and players enough. Not only did we raise some money, we had a lot of fun.”

There were 16 teams that took part in the tournament.

The weather looked like it might wash out the day, but it held off long enough to complete the tournament.

In the Andalusia Flight, CCB Community Bank took first place with Southeast Alabama Gas coming in second.

In the Bulldog flight, Andalusia Health and Fitness finished first and Splash Hopper came in second place.

The longest drive went to Justin Sightler and Closest to the Pin was Rob Martin.

AYFL vice president Shaun Jackson assisted Thorne with the tournament and said he was impressed with the response from the community.

“Mitch not only raised the funds needed for the purchase of the helmets, but exceeded that goal,” Jackson said. “He worked very hard over the last several weeks to pull this together and the community responded.”

Sponsors for the tournament were: Southeast Gas, Powersouth, Andalusia Health and Fitness, Riddell, CCB Community Bank, Southern Independent Bank, Sharyn Smith State Farm, Triple H Specialties, Alverson and Alverson Attorney at Law, Barton Sports and Design, Covington County Law Enforcement, Starr Insurance Group, Splash Hopper, Andalusia Rotary, CDG Engineers and Associates Inc., The Citizens Bank, Andalusia Animal Clinic, Posey-Kilcrease Timber Company, Charles Roland, Shaw Industries, First South Farm Credit, AHS Football, The Signman, Wright Brothers, Wright Manufacturing, O’Neal Agency and Mr. Mattress.

“This was such a huge success, we plan on making the AYFL Golf Classic an annual event,” Appleyard said. “We have ordered our new helmets and will have some very excited youth football players in August.”