Muskogee Senior Games bring competition, fun
Jun. 15—Nancy Malone says she'll try any sport once.
Back in her first Senior Games as part of a basketball team at nationals in Kentucky, the Muskogee resident saw an exhibition in pickleball, which organizers were looking at as an expansion sport.
"I thought to myself, 'this is a game I could pick up,'" she said.
For seven years she's done it, just as she'll do Saturday at the Muskogee Senior Games, which begins its two-weekend run with bowling at Green Country Lanes and swimming at Muskogee Swim and Fitness Center.
Oh, and pickleball too, the indoor version, at First Baptist Church.
Wikipedia defines the game as "a paddleball sport that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis. Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, much like a wiffle ball, with 26-40 round holes, over a net."
Malone, 66, is competitive in a sport that ranks similar to tennis.
"I'm competitive but I'm not yet a 5.0 player. I'm trying to move into the 4.0 bracket," she said. "I started playing at Broken Arrow Community Center where they have competitive matches and such. I just played in both an inside and outside tournament at Columbia, Missouri."
She's entered in mixed doubles and will play with Bob Stephenson of Tulsa — which she's never played with up to now. Contestants are matched though by age and skill.
Up to the time she started playing it she had never played tennis.
"A little backyard tennis but I never had any training it it," she said. "I've tried ping pong, racquetball, badminton, all the racquet sports. I feel like this is a sport I could play into my 80s or 90s.
She's also playing horseshoes and cornhole, both offerings coming up a week from Saturday. But that's all for fun and helping out the turnout.
Mike Dickerson, 72, bowls in multiple leagues at Green Country Lanes. He averages 190 in one of his leagues.
So obviously he's more than ready for bowling.
"I did it in Tulsa the last time and here this year," he said. "We won in Tulsa but you don't have to bowl real good to win it up there.
"In my group there's some good bowlers and there's some bad bowlers. If you bowl bad, it's just good exercise. Thing is, of late I've been getting too much exercise and need to get back to bowling good."
He's been bowling for the most part since coming out of the Army in 1971.
Not everyone is from the area.
Kathleen Fitzgerald, 78, is from Norman. She is entering swimming, a sport she connected to through the Senior Games in Florida in her mid 50s.
"I was a lifeguard growing up on Lake Erie and raised in Ohio but I wasn't a competitive swimmer," she said. "But I saw this brochure with all these wonderful events and they had a swim meet as part of it.
"I found a coach who worked with me and I learned the strokes we learned when I was young had been altered to be more efficient. I stayed with it because it's more gentle on my body."
But she runs in the fall.
"I wanted to do the Muskogee games but I thought it's really hot in Oklahoma in the summer, so wouldn't it be smart if I put my efforts into swimming and gradually do more running in the fall when it gets cooler?" she said. "I finish all my races. I do breaststroke and backstroke and I'm a sprinter, not a distance person."
Growing up at a girls school, she played every sport she could — field hockey, volleyball, basketball and track, she said, among others.
Participants must be the minimum age of 50. There's still time to register for tennis, golf, cornhole and horseshoes, all to be held June 26. To register, go to okseniorgames.com or in person at Muskogee Swim and Fitness Center.
WANNA PLAY?
As listed in our events calendar since the spring, the sports scheduled for Saturday (bowling, pickleball, swimming) have all reached a deadline. The cutoff was Monday. However if you're interested in golf, cornhole or horseshoes, you can sign up through Monday at okseniorgames.com or at the Muskogee Swim and Fitness Center.
