Index of University Press Releases

Sept. 11, 2007

DWU athletes lend a hand at Senior Games
Matt Higgins The Daily Republic

When South Dakota State Senior Games director Al Weisbecker was working on moving the games to Mitchell for 2007 and 2008, he called Dakota Wesleyan University to see if any of the athletic programs would be interested in volunteering some of their time or facilities for the games.

The answer was a resounding “yes,” as many Tigers’ teams and athletes spent last week helping to make sure the state competition ran smoothly, and was a positive event for the more than 450 competing athletes.

“Our Senior Games has been changing (location) every two years and when we were in Sioux Falls we used a lot of the Augustana students and when we were in Brookings we used the South Dakota State University students,” Weisbecker said. “It takes well over 100 volunteers to run the games, and that’s a great source for volunteers — the college athletes.”

At last week’s games, Weisbecker said that the DWU wrestling, volleyball, basketball and baseball programs all made significant volunteer contributions towards making the games a success.

Tigers’ head wrestling coach Josh Hardman said that his program is always looking to get involved in service projects, and when Weisbecker first approached him about the Senior Games, he realized it was a perfect fit.

“Every year we try to find at least one or more service projects,” Hardman said. “Last year we helped the National Guard in Kimball, and this year we were contacted by Al, so we thought it would be a good idea to do that. It gives our guys a face in the community and we knew it would it be a big event in Mitchell.”

To be able to compete at the collegiate level, it’s obvious that Hardman’s wrestlers are top-notch athletes, but even they were impressed by the skills that were on display in Mitchell over the weekend.

“My assistant coach was out there kind of running everything and he said the guys enjoyed seeing some of the athletes and how good and competitive they were,” Hardman said. “I know some of the athletes stopped in and made comments about how competitive and athletic they were.”

Weisbecker said that he had heard similar reports.

“If you get a chance to talk to any of the kids, they’ll tall you they had fun watching the old fogies run and throw and stuff,” he said. “Let me tell you about what the site managers said. They said the kids were wonderful, they were pleasant to all the contestants and there were just all kinds of compliments on the way the kids handled themselves.”

In addition to manpower, DWU also lent some of its facilities to the Senior Games, which was a big help considering the organization is non-profit.

“Facilities were available to us and we’re non-profit so we just run on donations and they basically donated the sites to our games,” Weisbecker said. “That had to start from the top and work itself down. We used the Corn Palace and (the DWU) gym and we had our banquet at the college.”

Tigers’ volleyball coach Melissa Waddell was also a site manager for volleyball. The Tigers’ opened up their gym for the Senior Games, and though Waddell and the varsity were traveling Friday for a game in Spearfish, some of her players that stayed behind stepped in and ran the show. In fact, a few even joined in on a few pickup volleyball games with the seniors.

In addition, the basketball program helped run the different basketball events, which included free throw and field goal shooting contests, and the baseball team also sent volunteers to help where they were needed.

Hardman said that he spoke with many of his wrestlers following their volunteering, and not only did it go smooth, he said they even had some fun in the process.

“Some of the athletes stopped in and made comments about how competitive and athletic (the seniors) were,” Hardman said. “They enjoyed it, and they said it was fun. They got to hear stories and have conversations with the athletes and that was a lot of fun for them.

“It was a good day to see Dakota Wesleyan helping out.”

The Tigers will get a chance to do it again next year as the Senior Games returns to Mitchell in 2008. According to Weisbecker, the Games are always on a two-year rotation at a site, and they’re already looking forward to next year’s encore performance in Mitchell.

“You can’t believe the cooperation all the way from the mayor on down,” Weisbecker said. “Just a great big thank you, and we’ll be back next year and hopefully have the same type of cooperation.”