Sister Jane Amiotte sat with a 9-year-old girl at a basketball camp inSlippery Rock.

Amiotte, a 64-year-old Lutheran Sister fromZelienople, turned to the girl and told her this was the first camp she had ever attended.

The girl crumpled her nose and gave Amiotte a confused look. The girl told Amiotte she had been to camp for five years and she was only 9.

That's not an unusual scene. When Amiotte was growing up in Minnesota, there were no opportunities for her to play organized sports.

There were no basketball teams to join. No jump shots to make. No lanes to drive.

That was for the boys. Not the girls.

Carol McCollough can relate to her Butler Cubs teammate. McCollough grew up without the chance to show her athleticism on a girls team.

"I played sports with the boys in the barn," McCollough said. "But that was it."

For years, women like Amiotte and McCollough had no outlet for their athletic drives. But a little more than seven years ago, McCollough took over a fledgling senior program in Butler and has turned it into an organization more than 70 members strong.

The Butler Cubs compete in senior games all over the region and country. Recently, they competed in the Pennsylvania State Senior Games and took home an impressive medal haul.

In October, they will travel to St. George, Utah, for the World Senior Games, an event that features 22 sports and more than 1,000 athletes.

"There are so few women in my age category who ever experienced sports in high school," said McCollough, now 63 and as spry as ever. "In high school, there were no sports for women."

Judy Butch, 60, of Butler knows that all too well. Until 2Z\x years ago, when she joined the Butler Cubs to get fit, she had little opportunity to play sports.

Now she is a member of the 60-and-over softball, volleyball and basketball teams that will travel to Utah in October, as well as to the National Senior Games in Kentucky next year.

Butch won gold medals in the javelin and softball throw, silver in the discus and football throw and a bronze in badminton at the Pennsylvania State Senior Games at Shippensburg University last month.

"I really never threw the javelin before," Butch said. "It was exciting."

She's equally excited to go to Utah and the World Senior Games. It will be her first trip. Many of her teammates made the journey west in 2005 when the last Games were held.

As the Cubs have grown in size, so has the skill level, as some of the 50-year-olds have joined the group.

The women in their 50s, like Melinda Rhoads of Slippery Rock, grew up in an era when women sports were blooming.

Rhoads played college basketball at Slippery Rock and was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic handball team.

She is now on the 50-and-over women's basketball team that qualified for the nationals next year.

"There is such a difference in talent (between the 50-year-olds and the 60-year-olds)," McCollough said. "(The 50-year-olds) have been coached and have the fundamentals. Very few of (the 60-year-olds) have been coached, so their skill level is not up there."

But Rhoads is trying to change that.

Through the SlipperyRock Parks and Recreation department, she runs camps, not only for young children, but also for the older women.

"As a camp director, it is really neat to see them want to learn," Rhoads said. "They are like sponges. They want to get it. They want to go as fast as they can and get it right. And they listened, sometimes a lot more than the younger ones."

The Cubs had five basketball teams, four volleyball teams and a softball team all qualify for nationals. They also took home 41 medals, including 10 golds, at the state games.