By Marie DeMars, NSC Media Intern
I woke up this morning slightly disoriented. I'd been working the past three days, so it shouldn't be Sunday or Monday. But I have the distinct feeling it's not Friday. Maybe Thursday? Shaking the sleepiness out of my brain, I realized it was Monday, and I was trying to catch up after working long days at Star of the North in St. Cloud.
For those of you who aren't familiar, the Star of the North Games is Minnesota’s annual Olympic-style amateur sports festival. Over the last two weekends, over 6,000 athletes from all over the state competed in 24 different sports. There was even a team there from Baudette, which is nestled along the Minnesota/Canada border.
Bartt Gevens (local director), Abby Maxon (intern) and Kathy Petron (soccer director) watch soccer - and Barclay's camera.
Three interns from the NSC plus Barclay, who is the State Games director in Minnesota, hauled two cars full of office supplies and team registrations to St. Cloud for two weekends in a row. It was a little more intense than your run-of-the-mill weekend tournament because we were hosting so many sports at one time in several different venues. Some of the most interesting competitions included the Family Eco Adventure Race, which we held in a granite quarry. Child/adult teams ran, biked, canoed and "orienteered" their way around the course. Also fun to witness was Carter Holmes, a Star of the North regular who returned after having a combined stroke and heart attack.
One of our gold medalists in track & field.
Seeing Minnesota's amateur sports community in action was a new experience for me. The infrastructure behind each sport proved sturdy, and the personalities of generous volunteers and directors made me hopeful that the spirit of the games has a long life ahead of it. We're lucky to have such a vibrant group of athletes, too. From lacrosse to disc golf, Minnesota's youth and adults are getting out there and playing games. Being a part of that was worth not knowing what day of the week it is. (It is Monday, right?)
See oodles more photos here in our galleries on the Star of the North homepage.
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