Mesquite Senior Games has successful final event of 2025, eyes special 2026 year

By: Breven Honda

The last event of the 2025 calendar year for the Mesquite Senior Games took place last month to a fun and festive bowling tournament at the Virgin River Bowling Center.

With the theme of the bowling tournament, “Winter Wonderland,” a sold-out tournament was filled with players in holiday attire.

“Everybody had a great time. They always do,” Mesquite Senior Games President Sandy Tudor said. “It’s such a lighthearted event. Nobody takes anything too seriously.

“They were pretty festive. We had a Best Dressed competition, and one gal had on a dress that was a Christmas tree. Quite a few people were dressed up. We had some elves, and all of that stuff.”

In addition to the fun camaraderie that took place outside the bowling, when it came to the competition in the lanes, there were high scores in this 9-pin No-Tap tournament. On the men’s side, in the 50-54 age group, Mark Burkhardt rolled a 300 while Kert Robbins in the 65-69 age group also rolled a perfect game.

“(The tournament) was No-Tap, which means, nine pins qualifies as a strike,” Tudor said. “Last year we had one person bowl a perfect game and this year we had two.”

As a result of rolling a perfect game, the Mesquite Senor Games hands out a 300 medal, which Burkhardt and Robbins each received.

Burkhardt and Robbins also took home the high handicap series honors in their respective age groups across the three games played with scores of 799 and 842, respectively.

Joining Robbins with 800 or more pins in the handicap series on the men’s side for those 69 and younger was Chuck Werner, Rey Washington and James Webb with respective scores on 813, 827 and 829.

For those men competing at 70 years old and older, five players reached at least 800, including Greg Sant recording a scratch game-high of 287.

On the women’s side, Bobbie Robbins in the 60-64 age group logged a 265 scratch game and an 857 handicap score, which both led all women.

In addition, there were two women – one in the 70-74 and 75-79 age groups – that reached 800 in their handicap score. Sherry Williamson and Pamela Jukes both registered an 806 handicap score as Williams edged out Jukes by one for the high scratch game 242 to 241 as both earned gold medals in their respective age groups.

After the bowling tournament was completed, a raffle commenced as the Mesquite Senior Games received a lot of prizes from the community as extra tickets were purchased.

“A lot of people were able to get a raffle prize,” Tudor said. “We not only gave everybody one (ticket) at the door when they first registered, but we gave them the opportunity to buy a few more (tickets) if they wanted to. And they did. We actually sold about $300 worth of additional raffle tickets because we had so many nice raffle prices,”

Some of the prizes that people won included fuzzy blankets, a round of golf at Coyote Willows Golf Course, a dart board cabinet and gift cards to local restaurants.

Tudor said the local community does a lot when it comes to supporting non-profit organizations, including the Mesquite Senior Games.

“This town is very generous when it comes to donations for nonprofits,” Tudor said. “I was at a chamber event, and there must have been 20 raffle prizes there. The next day, I was at another event. There were another 25 raffle prizes and a lot of them were from the same companies.”

The bowling event ultimately caps off a successful 2025 calendar year. As 2025 ends, the Mesquite Senior Games hosted 13 spring events and three fall season events, while participating in other local community events.

However, one of the most notable things that made the year a success did not come in one singular event, but a necessity that made each event run smoothly.

This year marked the first full year of the box truck that was purchased in 2024. The truck was present at every event for the board members and event directors to access if something was misplaced or left somewhere.

“There has not been an event in my experience at all that at some point someone didn’t go, ‘Oh, darn, we forgot so and so,’” Tudor said. “Well, now it’s just a matter of going to the parking lot and getting it out of the truck. We were down at Virgin Valley High School for track and field, that was a bit daunt to go get whatever it was we forgot. But with the truck there, you go to the parking lot and you get it.

“Just having it there makes all the difference in the world.”

As the new year arrives, Tudor has high expectations with 2026 being the 25^th Anniversary for the Mesquite Senior Games.

“I want it to be our best year yet. I want to have the most events. I want to have as many events as we can handle,” Tudor said. “We have to be mindful of weather conditions as well as population. So, most of our events (in the spring season) are in late February, March and April.”

Looking at the calendar, there is already one obstacle that Tudor and the board are facing when it comes to planning the spring season schedule.

However, they have already planned around that hurdle.

“Easter is the first weekend in April. That’s usually when women’s softball takes place,” said Tudor, who is the event director for softball. “So, the younger women, 50, 55, and 60s will play March 28 and 29^th.

“The older women, 65, 70 and 75s, they’re happy to play during the week, so they’ll play the 31st of March and the first of April. That works really well because hotels are cheaper. Everything’s cheaper during the week than it is on weekends. The older women, who most of whom are retired, don’t have a problem playing during the week.”

As the full schedule will be finalized rather soon, that means registration will also be coming out.

Tudor is targeting to open registration later this month or early February.