By Breven Honda
The spring schedule for the 2024 Mesquite Senior Games begins next month with events lined up and registration open for participants.
Verla Ahrens (left) and Rosie Daniele took home the bronze medal recently in the 90-and-up division of bocce ball at the Mesquite Senior Games. Beth Caplinger photo
There are more than a dozen sports and events that the Mesquite Senior Games Board of Directors is preparing this spring, which begins on March 2 with Table Tennis.
As planning is ongoing, Mesquite Senior Games President Sandy Tudor said she is hoping the spring games will run smoothly and a lot of people will compete and attend each event, including those making their first appearance.
“I expect them to go really well,” Tudor said on Jan. 25. “I expect a lot of participants and I really think we’ll get a lot of first-time participants.”
Registration opened on Jan. 22 and after two hours, there were nearly 50 spots that had been filled, including about half of those spots taken up between the target pistol and shotgun sports event.
This is the first year Tudor does not have the interim tag to her presidency, however it is also the first year the five new board members are contributing as board members to the spring games since joining last June.
Tudor said the planning for this year’s spring games between the newer board members with the more experienced ones has been smooth as they are stepping up.
“It’s been awesome. (Marge Mongolo) is going to be the director for table tennis,” Tudor said. “(Kara Myers) has been sitting at our storage for the last two days taking the old ribbons off and getting ready to put the new ribbons on (for the medals). It’s huge that somebody has the time to do that. (Jim Armstrong) is the event director for target pistol and shotgun sports. He went and met with the venues and worked everything out with them.”
Joining Mongolo and Armstrong as an event director among the new board members also includes Krista Kilpatrick, who will be leading the basketball skills event.
As a result of new personnel stepping up into event director roles, it has opened the time for Tudor and Sports Director Shaun Edwards to tackle any other possible problems that may pop up, including within their own events that they are both leading.
Tudor is the event director for softball while Edwards is leading poker, pickleball, golf and cornhole.
“He works directly with the event directors at each event,” Tudor said of Edwards’ proactiveness. “He’s what keeps me sane because he handles the actual sport, making sure we have what we need, you know, ordering ping pong balls and that kind of stuff, so that we’ve got the equipment that we need for all of the events.”
This spring, there are some new things to the schedule while other events are making their return.
One of those events making their return to the spring schedule include having a tennis skills challenge for the first time in a few years, which will be led by Mongolo and Duane Catania.
“We haven’t had it in the last four years, but we have tennis now,” Tudor said of tennis making its return. “It’s going be at the Hafen tennis courts. It’s a four-day event but you only play when you want. (Catania) has done this quite a bit in the past and he runs a format where you sign up to play three, four or five matches, and then it is scored at the end.”
In addition to having tennis, there will be not one, but two fitness hikes this year.
The fitness hikes, which are led by Clint Bostwick, gives an increased opportunity for participants to go on a four-mile walk that will showcase the scenery of both the desert and canyon areas in Mesquite while getting in some exercise.
“Clint, who runs our who runs our fitness hikes, said he wants to showcase Mesquite more and he thinks if we do it on two different days, we’ll have more people,” Tudor said.
As registration is ongoing this month and leading into each event, the Mesquite Senior Games are also looking for volunteers for each sport.
Tudor said the event directors need the assistance from the volunteers in order to have a successful event, even for the smallest of things.
Whether it is keeping score for each game within an event or even checking people off as they arrive, the volunteers play a vital role.
“It’s critical. Beth Caplinger, who is our volunteer coordinator, does a fabulous job of finding people who want to help with the game,” Tudor said. “What we’re trying to do is make sure we get the word out there. All of our flyers has a little blurb on the bottom. It’s even on the schedule of events that says we’re always looking for volunteers, and you can go to the website and there’s a place on there to sign up as a volunteer.”
As the month February progresses and people continue to sign up, Tudor understands the community support Mesquite provides to center its vision for the upcoming games, whether it is the Virgin River Lanes for the bowling event or the city’s recreation center for the table tennis, basketball skills and cornhole events.
“Our mission is to provide healthy activities to the seniors and that’s those 50 and above in the City of Mesquite and to provide some economic impact to the city as well,” Tudor said.
