It was four days of fun competition for participants in the annual Vista Regional Games.
“We’re delighted with how the games played out,” chimed games co-chairs Stacy Sheppard and Collette Short.
Nearly 200 boys and girls participated in ball hockey, softball, beach volleyball, cross-country running, bowling, soccer and basketball.
To ensure the games went smoothly approximately 80 volunteers and nine sports coordinators were on hand throughout the week
“Swimming had the most volunteers with 40 because there were nearly 100 competitors daylong event last Wednesday,” says Short.
Following the opening ceremonies last Monday the games kicked into high gear as the soccer players took the field for their opening matches. According to reports several of the games went to shootouts.
That evening Caribous Lanes was a beehive of activity as nearly 40 bowlers participated. That sport was also an integrated event that saw several Special Olympics athletes strut their stuff.
At the ball hockey competition played at Clarenville middle and high school gymnasiums the games were fast paced with plenty of great play making. While sportsmanship was prevalent throughout the games Short pointed out one player that went above and beyond what true sportsmanship is about.
Lucas Adams noticed he was placed on a team with a number of strong ice hockey players. According to Short, Adams asked to be placed on another team that didn’t have as many strong players to make the teams more even.
“It was just fantastic to see that kind of sportsmanship coming from these young athletes,” says Short.
Throughout the week the weather cooperated for the most part. The only event that was postponed was the beach volleyball. That event was set for Wednesday evening.
“It was supposed to start around 4 p.m. but it was calling for heavy rains later in the evening so the beach volleyball coordinator called it off and ran the event the next day,” says Short. “It turned out to be the right call because by six that evening the skies opened up and there were heavy downpours.
It was extremely hot for the final day of competition on Thursday as players in the softball event took to the field.
Thirty-six boys and girls stuck it out despite temperatures nearing the high 20 degree Celsius mark. Despite the high temperatures there was a fairly large group of participants for the cross-country event, the final competition of the games.
With the games over for another year co-chairs Sheppard and Short say other than a few scrapes and bruises the event was an overwhelming success.
“Other than a few band-aids being used and a ball in the nose we came away pretty much unscathed,” noted Sheppard.
The organizing committee held its final meeting earlier this week and had a couple of recommendations for CARA for next year’s games.
“We’re going to recommend they add golfing to the games. There’s a lot of junior golfers in the area and there are certainly enough golf courses,” says Short.
Both Sheppard and Short says the way the games are scheduled it allowed for every participant the opportunity to participate in every sport in the games and many participants took part in more than one sport over the course of the four days.
“We even had participants from Marystown take part in the swimming. We we’re really pleased to be able to accommodate athletes outside our area and that’s what these games are all about. Fun, and friendly competition. I think we accomplished that,” says Short.
Sheppard says there were so much positive feedback from parents and athletes that kept pouring in during the games and even after the event concluded.
“There were just so many emails about how great the games were,” says Shepherd. “With so much positive feedback it won’t be hard to sign on again for next year’s games.”
View swimming results HERE
View cross country results HERE
View softball results HERE
View ball hockey results HERE
