|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
With Veterans Memorial Early College High School cheerleaders on hand to punctuate the excitement, the city of Brownsville and Texas Amateur Athletic Federal held a press conference Wednesday in the school library to welcome TAAF’s Summer Games of Texas.
The event begins June 27 with adult pickleball at the Brownsville Sports Park, swimming at the Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center, and track and field at Veterans Memorial.
Other scheduled athletic events scheduled for July 27 to 30 are youth boys and girls basketball, youth and adult boxing, youth and adult disc golf, adult flag football, youth and adult golf, youth boys and girls soccer, youth and adult skateboarding, youth boys and girls fast-pitch softball, and youth and adult tennis.
The swimming and track and field competitions continue daily through July 30.
Additional venues are the Brownsville Events Center, Brownsville Golf Center, Brownsville Sports Park, Brownsville Tennis Center and Monte Bella Park and Trails.
Opening ceremonies, free to the public, will be held June 28 at the Brownsville Sports Park and will include fireworks, a parade of athletes, music and live performances showcasing the city’s culture and talent.
Avelo Airlines, one of the sponsors of the games, will be giving away four round-trip tickets to Orlando, Fla., and four tickets to Disney World. Drawings for other prizes will take place as well. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., the pre-show starts at 7 p.m. and the main event begins at 8 p.m.
TAAF is a nonprofit organization founded in 1925 in Georgetown to promote, organize and conduct amateur athletic competition. The first Games of Texas took place in San Antonio in 1986. Essentially an amateur Olympics, the games draw thousands of athletes and their families to cities chosen to host the event. Host cities get to host the games two years in a row.
Brownsville was selected by TAAF’s board back in 2018 to host the summer 2022-2023 games, though they were pushed back a year after COVID forced cancellation of the 2020 games. The 2024 summer games are scheduled for July 25-28 in Brownsville.
Brownsville City Manager Helen Ramirez said this summer’s event has taken years of planning, programming and budgeting and couldn’t happen without the participation of the many sponsors, volunteers and city staff from multiple departments, the Brownsville Independent School District and other organizations.
“I’m very proud of the leadership of the city and our community partners,” she said. “This couldn’t be done by just one entity.”
Partners also include the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and Valley Regional Medical Center, whose volunteers will be posted at events to respond to any medical emergencies.
Ramirez said about 6,000 athletes from around Texas have registered, not counting family members.
“Think of 20,000 people coming to Brownsville,” she said. “All the hotels are very occupied.”
With the city’s hotels and motels full, it was necessary to look to Harlingen and South Padre Island to find accommodations for everyone, Ramirez said.
“It’s a regional event and positive economic impact,” she said.
Ramirez said the games are a way to showcase the city’s state-of-the-art facilities, as well as an opportunity to learn how to do it even better next year.
“We’ve had families that have wanted additional sports brought into the competition,” she said. “We actually identified 12, so we’re looking at different sports next year. … We’re going to look at what sports make sense for TAAF but also what sports the community is asking for.”
Brownsville Parks and Recreation Director Damaris McGlone said a number of safety precautions will be in place at outdoor venues due to the extreme heat, including EMS personnel on standby, cooling tents with misters, and allowing spectators to bring their own water bottles. Water and sports drinks will also be available for sale at the competitions, she said.
“We also ask that spectators look out for one another, to kind of look for those signs of dehydration,” McGlone said. “We’re trying to provide as much shade as possible but there’s not a lot out here at the track. … We just encourage everyone to look out for one another like we’re just one big family, a Texas family, and to make sure we are safe at the games.”
TAAF Executive Director Mark Lord invited everyone to the opening ceremony and the various athletic competitions, some of which are free to attend.
“The games are awesome,” he said. “You never know, you may be seeing a future Olympian. TAAF has many. We’ve got a whole list.”
That list includes three-time Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Dana Vollmer, gold medalist Louise Ritter, Michael Carter and Marquis Goodman, Lord said, adding that it’s good to be back in the Rio Grande Valley. McAllen hosted the games in 2016-2017.
“We love the Valley. … We love coming here,” he said. “You’re rolling out the red carpet for us, and let’s have a great games.”
Tickets for the 2024 Summer Games of Texas and complete information are available online at gamesoftexas.com.
