Education
Football: Yokota subs in new snapper and doesn’t miss a beat
Stars and Stripes
September 27, 2026
Yokota's Kysiem Banks rushed for three touchdowns and caught a scoring pass against Henry Everheart and Perry. (Photo by Leon DeJesus/Special to Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — Michael Woodworth got one of those phone calls that every coach dreads before his Yokota football team set off on its journey to play Matthew C. Perry — his starting center, Cooper Kenney, caught the flu and could not play.
So the Panthers’ coach rolled the dice, asking sophomore Raffaele Ricco-Carson if he would step in. And the backup center showed he was more than up to the task, helping anchor Yokota to its second straight shutout victory, 52-0 over the Samurai.
“He was the story of the game,” Woodworth said of Ricco-Carson. On one of the bus stops along the expressway to Iwakuni, “we worked with him. That kid did not know he was going to be snapping the ball. And he did outstanding. That’s a lot of pressure on somebody that young.”
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