The crowd of senior participants at the first day of the preliminary State Masters Games Wednesday, June 12.

The Athens Recreation Center hosted dozens of seniors on Wednesday, June 12. for the opening day of the 2024 Masters Games of Alabama.

“We are happy to be hosting our District 2 local Masters Games here at Athens Recreation Center this year,” Emmitt Davis, the community services coordinator for TARCOG, said. “Today is the kickoff day, so we are only doing singles and doubles dominos and Friday will be all of our main activities.”

Those activities on Friday, June 14, include a basketball free throw competition, cornhole, rook and a softball throwing competition as well.

For the State Masters Games, District 2 for the Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments (TARCOG) is made up of all senior ages 50 and older from Cullman, DeKalb, Jackson, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall and Morgan counties.

Wednesday’s action started the preliminary rounds for the Masters Games, as those that perform well enough can qualify for the state level games on September 23-26.

“The top three winners in any given category, here in June, will progress on to the state games in Valley in September,” Davis said.

Davis explained that some of the older participants in the day’s activities reach well into the 80s, with the oldest participant coming in at 90 years old.

“It is wonderful to see seniors maintaining a healthy lifestyle, keeping up their fitness levels no matter what age they are,” Davis said. “That’s what this is all about, exercising and having fun is what life is all about.”

Not taking the old age and the comfortable attires for granted, Wednesday’s dominos action showed there is still a lot of competitive fire in the seniors participating.

Lydia Weeks, a volunteer at the State Masters Games, detailed some of her favorite moments after she got thrown into the fire as a referee during the singles and doubles dominos action.

“You would be surprised with how competitive they can get, it can get a little dicey sometimes,” Weeks humorously said. “They forget how old they are sometimes and really get into it.”

Weeks said she gets emotional as she watches the senior citizens play each other and enjoy fellowship while exercising their minds in a way they might not have been able to in a long time.

“The Masters Games really [enables] these seniors to enjoy some of these games that they played when they were younger,” Weeks said. “It means a lot to know that when I get to that stage in my life, there are going to be opportunities to get to be with my peers and keep my mind sharp.”