Valley City Frog Jump attracts thousands to Medina County for 63rd annual celebration 🐸

Thousands of frog fanatics descended on the small community of Valley City's Mill Stream Park Sunday to watch frogs do what they do best, with lots of encouragement from their handlers of course.

When observing those just entering the fenced-in jumping ring, it was clear that there were various reasons as to why one might be participating in the long-time sport of frog jumping.

For some, participating was simply part of keeping a family tradition alive. Others were after one of the coveted green and gold trophies. A few were first-timers chomping at the bit to see if expectation lived up to reality.

Brunswick resident Brooke Kitson, 54, seen placing a smooch on her beloved frog LaDue just before competing, used the 63 ^rd annual Valley City Frog Jump to honor a loved one.

Kitson's boyfriend's father LaDue Janiac, whom her frog was named after, was spending his 83rd birthday in hospice Sunday. Janiac has been battling bone cancer, but smiled when he heard that Kitson planned to jump her frog this year as a tribute to him.

"I have people who are like 'Why did you name [the frog] after him?'" Kitson said. "And it's because it's important to me, the frog jump, and he knows that, and he's important to me too."

Kitson has been participating in the frog jump for 30 years. This time around, her four-legged green friend jumped a full 7 feet.

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Winners of the Valley City Frog Jump

Several hundred frogs, some caught the Friday prior, were individually placed in the center of a circular jumping ring with their jockey, who was tasked with encouraging them to jump.

The distance of each frog’s first three hops is measured and recorded. After over 750 jumps, Tom Mason and his frog, Jumper, were named grand champion after hopping a whopping 12 feet 11 inches. Other winners (not including flights) were:

• Reserve Champion: Tanner Zieg with his frog, Kangy, who jumped 12 feet 8 inches.
• Longest Jump of the day: Matt Malloy with his frog, Sleepy Joe, who jumped 15 feet 4 inches.
• Shortest Jump: Madison Seigler with her frog, Elle, who jumped half and inch.

In addition to watching the frog jump competition, there were bounce houses, a petting zoo, games and vendors scattered around the park for human attendees to enjoy.

Although, according to Dublin resident Nicholas Miller, the best aspect of the festival was watching little frogs barely make any headway in their jumps. Nicholas and his father, Josh, had frogs that jumped 5 feet 1 inch and 7 feet 6 inches, respectively.

Frog Jump starts, continues family traditions

The Knipper family was participating in the frog jump for the first time, having just heard about it after moving from Brunswick to Valley City the Monday prior.

The event informed Nora Knipper, 50, of the existence of Mill Stream Park and the various events held there. She noted it will be a great place to bring her grandkids, Nina and Emmett, to play in the future.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are Rod Knight, who serves as second vice president to the Valley City Community Group, and his four generations of frog-wranglers.

"My best day is when at the end of the day I look around, there's a family," Knight said. "Kids probably carrying a frog. Parents. Grandma and Grandpa. They're walking out. They're a little dirty. A little tired. Maybe a touch grouchy, but they have a lifetime memory."

Knight has volunteered at the Valley City Frog Jump for more than 45 years. He recalled when the Frog Jump consisted of one tent and when organizers first incorporated online registration into their system.

At nearly 1-year-old, Luna Bryan is the most recent addition to the fourth generation of the family's frog jockeys.

Luna's mother, Maddy, held the baby's right hand and used her left to slap the mat and encourage their frog, Dogg, to hop its way to victory (the little green creature leaped 6 feet 3 inches).

"It's basically a family reunion every year," Maddy said. "So, that's my favorite part, is my family."

Frog Jump shapes resident's passion

It's not every day you hear about someone aspiring to become a frog doctor, but it's no surprise that a woman with said aspirations plays a vital role in the Valley City Frog Jump each year.

Madison Brass , 21, is studying biology at the University of Central Florida and will soon be applying to vet school. Being a jockey in the frog jump kept her passion for animals, frogs especially, from drying out.

"I'm very fortunate to grow up somewhere so close to a frog-crazy event like this," Brass said. "I always felt like my insane love for frogs was slightly weird but then you go to this fun, fair-like event as a kid and everybody loves frogs, so it's not weird anymore."

Brass was 6 years old when she first participated in the frog jump. Fourteen years later, she's found herself two nights before the big event searching for frogs in local ponds and sorting the little creatures from small to large.

This, she says, lessens the chance that the frogs, which are carnivorous, will eat one another.

Brass focuses on the ethnicity and education surrounding American bullfrogs and green frogs borrowed from local ponds for the festival.

"There's always improvements that can be made and that's the thing I really want to work on in the following years," she said. "I do my best to get the bigger breeding frogs back to the same pond and just do our best to make it so that we can all have fun and enjoy bullfrogs and teach people about bullfrogs."

Valley City Frog Jump history

In 1962, a group of residents were planning the 150th Celebration of Liverpool Township. They wanted to add an event for children. A man named Andy Neff explained Mark Twain's famous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," and suggested they stage a frog jump. Another resident, Duane Naftzger, liked the idea, and so the tradition began.

Since its inception, the festival has been hosted at local farms and the Medina County fairgrounds. In fact, the frog jump wasn’t even billed as the event’s main attraction at first. The first three iterations of “Hardscrabble’s Old Time Days,” as the festival was then named, also featured a steam engine, pony pulling contest and horse pulling contest.

Even U.S. congressional candidate Dennis Kucinich got in on the fun and admired the inspiration behind Sunday's festival. Kucinich's assistant, Tim Kensinger, was tasked with getting their frog, who was quite stubborn, to make its three required jumps.

"It's such a wonderful community event and the Valley City Community Group, they do such a wonderful job for this area," Kucinich said. "I had to come out here because I know this is legendary. I'm a student of Mark Twain and I see that this whole thing developed from [one of] Mark Twain's writings."

Got a story recommendation? Contact Beacon Journal reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com and on Twitter @TawneyBeans. And follow her adventures on TikTok @akronbeaconjournal.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Valley City Frog Jump attracts thousands to Medina County for 63rd annual celebration 🐸