Butler senior Olympics players enjoy competition
The women who play volleyball every Saturday morning at the Butler Cubs hall are all smiles as they hit the volleyball around the court, but it’s when they actually step onto the court to play against another team that they really come alive.
Many of the players thought they would never get to feel the rush of competitive sports after college age, let alone past the age of 50. The Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania gives them the chance to join a team with other athletes their age, and the National Senior Games Association lets them put their game faces on, some for the very first time ever.
The Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania has about 85 members who hail from around the western part of the state. The group had several basketball and volleyball teams compete in July at the National Senior Games in Des Moines, Iowa, with some taking home medals from placing well in their age group brackets.
Nancy Graham, president of the Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania, said the group is beneficial to the women in many ways, but taking home medals from a national tournament is always a highlight for the players.
“It just means so much to them,” Graham said. “Any kind of medal, any kind of success means a lot to them, so it makes it worthwhile.”
People can officially join the Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania when they turn 50 years old, but Graham said people can be associate members and attend the group’s practices and open gyms once they hit age 45.
Graham has been involved with the senior Olympics for about two decades, and said she was elated to find the group in her 40s, when she had been seeking a place to return to her sport of basketball.
“I walked into the gym when I was like 48 or so and they said, 'Are you 50?' I said, 'No, but I can't wait until I am,' which is pretty odd for anybody to say,” Graham said.
The Senior Olympics of Western PA was founded by Carol McCollough in 1998 and incorporated in 2007. McCollough said she started the group after playing basketball with other senior women for a study that was going on at the time at Slippery Rock University. When that study ended, she was still hungry for the game.
Despite her enjoyment of basketball and other team sports, McCollough said she didn’t get to experience them until she was in college, because public schools seldom had programs for girls when she was a student.
“Back then we had absolutely nothing in high school for girls. We got the gym for 15 minutes during half time,” McCollough said. “So when I got to Slippery Rock (University), I played basketball, volleyball and field hockey, and that's funny because I had never even seen a field hockey stick, let alone a game.”
McCollough doesn’t compete with the team anymore, but sometimes will shoot a few hoops with her colleagues. She watched members of the group hit a volleyball around the Butler Cubs on Saturday morning, Aug. 16, saying she also enjoys simply supporting the group.
“If you want to see something funny, watch a bunch of 80-year-olds play basketball,” McCollough said. “It's slow-motion, it's three-on-three half-court.”
Graham said official members of the Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania pay dues to the club, which help cover costs of entering tournaments. Graham added that members of the group help recruit new members, keeping their eyes peeled at local courts, gyms and the YMCA.
Like Graham, many members of the club got recruited before they even turned 50, including Heather Starcher, who is now the basketball representative for the club. Starcher said that even though she has been able to keep playing basketball since she was 40 and the YMCA started an all-ages program for it, she didn’t expect to still be hitting the paint at the ripe age of 59. The club has given her that opportunity, to the surprise of some of her contemporaries.
“If you're an athlete, you're competitive, it doesn't matter how old you are,” Starcher said. “When I tell people I still play competitive basketball, the look on their face is absolute shock. They expect that you're 60 years old, you should be sitting and knitting.”
Starcher also said there are many other sports to compete in at the National Senior Games, which include archery, badminton, swimming, table tennis and more. Local clubs like Western Pennsylvania’s give people the chance to play these sports hard after age 50.
“People pick up all these sports later in life, so it's just a very encouraging atmosphere,” Starcher said. “That's what's fabulous about this, it's a whole new group of friends, just comradery.”
Graham said that while many people join the Senior Olympics group to get to compete against other people and teams, others join simply to have a team, and stay active into their later years.
“That's the whole philosophy is provide an opportunity for people to stay active, because that's a big key in helping them live healthy lives,” Graham said. “It doesn't matter the level of play it's just stay active.”
Teams can qualify for the National Senior Games by placing in regional or state competitions in age and sport categories. Graham explained that Western Pennsylvania teams typically attend a few regional events each year, including in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, to qualify for the national event, which happens every other year.
According to McCollough, people on rival teams are friendly with one another, but when the whistle blows, they get serious. Even at the regional level, some teams are cagey about fraternizing with other teams.
“When we first started going, some of these ex-collegiate players wouldn't even socialize,” Abby Corbin, treasurer of the Western Pennsylvania group, said. “After a couple years of going, now they say, ‘Hello,’ and they come over and talk to you.”
Teams for basketball and volleyball — the Western Pennsylvania group’s main sports — are divided by age. Teams are comprised of people ages 50 to 54, 55 to 59, etc., Graham said. The national games also has brackets for different skill levels for each sport, but Graham said she typically divides players onto teams that help them be more balanced. Western Pennsylvania has two basketball teams for players ages 65 to 69, but neither team is comprised completely of the club’s best players.
Corbin, who considers herself a “gym nut,” said that even though the national games are not the most serious competitions in the world, she still enjoys a competitive game and going for the win.
“I ran into someone years later and they said, 'Oh God, you're still competitive,’” Corbin said. “I enjoy that part of it, but I also enjoy the fellowship. This really offers a lot of fellowship for people too.”
The national games can still get pretty serious, with players diving onto the ground to dig a volleyball headed for a point. According to Graham, “everybody wants to play and wants to be competitive,” but they also show players how to deal with their changing physicality.
“People throw their bodies on the floor,” Graham said. “I used to pop up and now I can't just pop up. That's something, just realizing your limitations as you age and you realize you have limitations you never had when you were younger.
“It changes and that's hard to deal with for me, because I still feel like I can get to everything.”
Starcher joked that although some people cringe when they see 60-year-olds hit the hardwood floor while playing, it’s still worth it to get to play the game. She also said the Western Pennsylvania teams have their own built-in fan club in the players’ own family members.
“As mothers, we went and watched our children play all these sports all these years, now they have to come watch us play so it's fair,” Starcher said.
For more information on the Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania club, visit its website at seniorolympicswpa.weebly.com.
Senior Olympics of Western Pennsylvania placed in the following events
Basketball:
The age 70 to 74 team placed second out of 17 teams
One age 65 to 69 team finished in sixth place and the other placed seventh out of 18 teams
The age 55 to 59 team finished fourth out of 16 teams
Volleyball:
The age 70 to 74 team finished seventh out of nine teams, receiving a bronze medal in the silver bracket
The age 65 to 69 team finished 17th out of 23 teams, receiving a silver medal in the bronze bracket
The age 60 to 64 team finished 15th out of 34 teams, receiving a bronze medal in the bronze bracket
The age 55 to 59 team finished 16th out of 29 teams, placing fifth in the bronze bracket
