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Pop Warner Contenders Need Money -- Fast -- To Hit Football Playoffs In Orlando

Local Team Raising Funds

(CBS) -- A football team from Hoffman Estates plans to go to the Pop Warner playoffs in Orlando, Fla. beginning Saturday – but they need to raise some money fast.

The Hoffman Estates Junior Midgets are champions of an 11-state region, and have had to come up quickly with $32,000. That sum will pay for vans, Orlando hotel rooms, food and incidentals for the players and their chaperones, plus passes to Disney World.

Redhawks League President Mark Mueller, a Hoffman Estate police sergeant who is also an assistant coach, said the team of middle-school students has raised about $27,000 of the amount they need.

"I don't think the boys actually realize the experience of a lifetime that about to hit them," Mueller tells WBBM Newsradio.  "They're very excited.  Chicagoland Pop Warner is one of the strongest youth football leagues around."

Mueller said  ESPN already has declared Saturday's game against the Loveland (Col.) Titans its "game of the day." There's an added distraction: Their cheerleading squad has also reached its national semifinal, also in Orlando.

Donations for the football team are being accepted online. Click here to learn more.

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