(11 a.m. Time Certain) Presentation - Florida Senior Games - No Funding Required

56:47All right, we're moving on to R sixty seven. Commissioner Morton.

56:51Thank you, Madam Chair. So if I can invite um Mr. Hill, uh Mr. Gandy, the Florida Sports Coast team, Adam and whoever else is coming up. We had talked last time about uh the awesome news that uh Florida Sports Coach of Pasco County um won the Florida Senior Games for the next three years. So we thought it would be a um great to have a presentation so you know exactly what the Florida Senior Games are and uh the benefit they'll have for our citizens um here in Pasco

57:22County. So Adam, you can take it away.

57:23Good morning, Madam Chairman, fellow commissioners. Thank you so much. Adam Thomas, Tourism Director. Thank you, Commissioner Moore, for bringing this conversation to the Board of County Commissioners. We are extremely excited to have not just one, not two, but three annual Florida Senior Games here in Pasco County. You know, we we talk about all the time about the many great things and the events that we bring in, but it's it's based off relationships and we have a great relationship with the state's agency, the Florida Senior Florida Sports Foundation that

57:54allows us to bring these types of events to Pasco County because there's a trust factor there. They trust in us, they trust in the community, they trust in our industry partners, and they trust in the facilities to pull off an event such as the Florida Senior Games. With me today is uh OJ Hill and Nick Gandy who are the the brain trust behind the Florida Senior Games, but we wouldn't have him here today if it wasn't for the person who really owns the sports development for the Pasco County Tourism Office, which is

58:23Consuelo Sanchez, and she's here with us today. So thank you again. I'll turn it over to OJ to discuss and kind of present what's to come for Pasco County. Thank you. What do you said?

58:36Good morning, Chairman Starkey. Um, all the county commissioners, happy to be here with you all today. My name is Orithius O. J. Hill. I represent the Florida Sports Foundation as the event manager, but the person who happens to chair the Florida Senior Games, and we're happy to be here in Pasco County on behalf of Ms. Angela Adam Suggs, our president CEO, our chairman Jesse Bider, and the Governor Ron DeSantis. Thank you all for allowing. us to be in Pasco County for the next three years. Nick Gandy will

59:06do the presentation for us on the Florida Senior Games. For anybody in the room who doesn't know anything about the Florida Senior Games, you'll hopefully like this presentation. And if you're 50 and older, you can come join us in December. So Nick, take the presentation away.

59:20Did now Madam Chair, did you hear what he just said?

59:25I'm actually eligible for the senior names

59:27now.

59:29Makes me use golf buttons.

59:31I've been at it a little bit.

59:31I

59:31mean

59:32I don't know. I thought it you know. I thought it was uh seventy in order and Commissioner Oakley could at least done it, but but

59:40I'm still qualified. I'm over fifty.

59:46Again, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Moore, I have worked with the Florida Senior Games long enough that I have advanced into competition age. and I am a bowler. in the Capitol City senior games in Tallahassee. in trying to bowl and compete while working at the Florida Senior Games is a little bit too much. But again Thank you all and thank you to Adam and Consuelo and the Florida Sports Coast. for this three year partnership between

1:00:16the Florida Sports Foundation and Florida Sports Coast. Pasco County becomes the ninth community, host community in Florida to host the Florida Senior Games on a multi-year level. This past year in twenty twenty one we celebrated our thirtieth anniversary of the Florida Senior Games and over fifty thousand athletes have competed in the Florida Senior Games since nineteen ninety two. Those are athletes age fifty and over, and we've yes, we've had three

1:00:47one hundred year old athletes compete in the Florida senior games. So for the next three years, twenty twenty two through twenty twenty four, The first two weekends in December. Pasco County and Florida Sports Coast will be the center of the Florida Senior Games universe, and we hope to have Approximately about eight thousand athletes come to Florida Sports Coast for those first two weekends in December for the next three years. Not

1:01:18only will these athletes be taking advantage of the facilities that have been constructed here in the last few years. In 2020, we were able to use the Wiregrass Sports. Warngrass Ranch Sports Campus and Sarah Van De Berne Tennis and Wellness Center. But they'll all they'll be returning to those again. And Some other places. And because of the facilities offered in this area, we will be adding two new sports. to the

1:01:48Florida Senior Games, Padell and Foot Golf. What was the first one? When should we be playing at? Uh Sarah. and Saddlebrook Golf Course will be hosting foot golf. So those two sports will bring in international athletes and the Florida Senior Games because of where they sit on the calendar being the last national event, state event to qualify for the national senior games, which we will be qualifier for. This

1:02:18year and in twenty twenty four We've had athletes from over 40 states come to compete in the Florida Senior Games. And I always say every year That Cities from Alachua to Zephyrhills are represented in the Florida Senior Games, and I've counted over 200 cities where athletes have come to the Florida Senior Games to compete. We've even had athletes come from the Caribbean islands. There's track teams from Barbados

1:02:49and Jamaica that come.

1:02:51So these are international Florida.

1:02:53Yes, they're they're international athletes come too. So we'll we're taking advantage of all the communities in in Pasco County, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, Land O' Lakes, Trinity. The whole gamut east to west.

1:03:12And besides taking advantage of these athletic facilities your county has to offer, the Florida Senior Games is also about fellowship. Among the athletes. So once these athletes are done competing for the m days that they compete, they come to spend time together. They'll be hanging out together in the hotel. catching up with one another, going out for dinner, taking in a lot of the amenities that the county has to offer. So the fellowship part and the camaraderie that the

1:03:42Florida Senior Games is gonna spread over the next three years from the athletes and they'll tell each other. You didn't come to Pasco County last year, why not? You need to come next year. The Florida Sports Coast has a lot to offer besides the healthy and health benefits that the senior games offer. I like to say that

1:04:05And the senior athletes, these are people Not n the younger ones in the fifties and sixties. Some of them are still working. But the sixty five enough athletes, these are people who have work their careers, they've raised their family. And this is now what they do. They compete in athletic competitions in the Florida Senior Games. And that's what Pasco County is going to benefit from. And once they start in their fifties, they keep going. They might have

1:04:36to take some time off because of some nagging injuries, but they always come back. So much so that in twenty twenty one at our thirtieth anniversary games we gave lifetime achievement awards to nine athletes. How they qualified for these lifetime achievement awards was They competed in all four decades from the Florida games from nineteen ninety-two to twenty twenty-one. And that's a commitment right there. They

1:05:06probably started in their 50s and they were well into their 70s or 80s and they're still competing. So thank you for this opportunity. And I I hope that you will all will pass this along. This is the first of a three-year commitment. Registration is open right now. We're already receiving registrations and we will be until November fifteenth and on December second we'll be having a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Wiregrass Ranch

1:05:36Sports Campus and we hope you'll all be there.

1:05:39Are are any events happening on the west side?

1:05:43November second or December? December. December. I just teasing because I won't play December. Uh we have golf in in Trinity.

1:05:50At Fox Hollow?

1:05:51At Fox Hollow. And in the past we've used uh Ritchie Racket for Racquet Ball. Uh they're they're undergoing some renovations right now and um hopefully we'll be able to return there.

1:06:04Okay. I I'll I'll get with you on an idea I have.

1:06:08And I got uh we were at the Florida Recreation and Parks uh Association conference last week and uh a director from Holiday came up and approached us and asked about something they might be able to do in holiday.

1:06:22Yeah, we have a new park at Starkey Ranch District Park. There are tennis courts there, there's multi use fields, there's softball fields. Um it's a really nice softball complex that just opened. Do you have softball going on?

1:06:36Yes we do. Um right now we we host that in Another it's coming up next in a couple of weeks actually. Oh, so it's it's away from our our December dates, but Okay. Who knows?

1:06:51Is there some place uh people can go to see a list of the activities?

1:06:57Thank you for that reminder. Uh Florid Senior Games dot com.

1:07:02Okay. Because I'm gonna go look myself.

1:07:04Florida Senior Games dot com and you can follow us on Facebook as well. Foreign senior games.

1:07:11Wonderful. We're excited that you're here.

1:07:13And we're excited to be here.

1:07:15Thank you so much.

1:07:17Yeah, very very excited. We have said foot golf as I hope this is regular golf too. So I think we had a couple other commissioners here that would like to probably play. I know I would it's

1:07:25very popular in the senior games and you'd be surprised. Um of the number of golfers that shoot below their age. Do they

1:07:36have to qualif do you have to qualify to participate?

1:07:38In certain sports you do. Um The track and field, the swimming, the pickleball, and the more popular events require a a qualifying performance at one of twenty-one local games. throughout the year leading up to December. But some register and come on out.

1:07:56And I you mentioned Pedal?

1:07:59Padell.

1:08:00Padell. What's that?

1:08:03Consuelo.

1:08:07I'm still learning. Kind of a mixture between three sports yeah, racquetball, tennis, tennis, and pickleball. All played in the easy. There's a wall. There's a glass wall on the side. Consuelo can do

1:08:19this is a very popular sport in Europe and Latin America. Therefore we're gonna have a lot of international attendees. But the Sport itself is basically a mix between squash and racquall. And you play it in four walls plus doors. We have four of them right now at the Saravan Denver Tennis Center. And that's the reason why we propose Florida Sports Foundation to include Padel and Foot Golf as new sports for Florida Senior Games. And are are there

1:08:49any um bicycle activities? Like gravel riding is becoming very big, especially with the seniors. So

1:08:57And for cycling, all we offer is the five and ten K time trials, which is just a lone rider competing against themselves, and then the twenty K and forty K Rune race.

1:09:10Okay, so we do have that going on? Okay, wonderful.

1:09:15And OJ just informed me for any of uh you that might want to participate, mm we won't require a qualifying performance.

1:09:25And once again, th a big thank you to Florida Sports Coast. We've had a very good relationship over the years and we hope to make the Florida Senior Games and Florida Sports Coast a flagship event. We're excited. I appreciate it.

1:09:40We are happy you're coming.

1:09:41Big stuff.

1:09:42Very good.