Florida Sports Monthly Update - July, 2016 Upcoming Events FSF Presents 37th Annual Sunshine State Games September - November, 2016 Sunshine State Games Over the course of 45 days between May 13 and June 26, nearly 9,000 Sport Shooting Championships Various Florida locations of Florida’s Finest Amateur Athletes competed in 25 sports of the Sunshine State Games, spread out among 25 sport facilities in nine September 25-26, 2016 Florida communities. Sunshine State Games Beach Ultimate Championships Sheraton Sand Key Hotel Clearwater, Florida November 5-6, 2016 Sunshine State Games Fall Lacrosse Championships and Baton Twirling Championships Vero Beach, Florida For 37 years, the Sunshine State Games has provided Floridians of all December 3-11, 2016 ages with amateur sports opportunities on a variety of levels. Following Florida Senior Games are stories of some of the athletes who competed during the month of a qualifier for the 2017 National June in Florida's Olympic-style Sports Festival, presented annually by Senior Games Clearwater, Florida the Florida Sports Foundation. FSF Sponsors Record number of Water Polo teams compete in 2016 The final weekend of seven weeks of Sunshine State Games events featured a record-breaking event in South Florida. With 69 teams playing in eight age groups, the 2016 Sunshine State Games Water Polo Championships was the largest field in the 23-year history of the sport in the Games. Beginning with the first game Friday morning, June 24, at 8:40 a.m., through Sunday evening, June 26, a total of 41 hours of Water Polo were played at the Coral Springs Aquatic Center. Florida Sports Foundation A Division of Enterprise Florida, Inc. 101 North Monroe Street Suite 1000 Tallahassee, FL 32301 (850) 488-8347 Clearwater Satellite Office 1501 N. Belcher Road, #238 Clearwater, FL 33761 (727) 724-3082 www.flasports.com In those 41 hours, The Riptide Women’s Open team, from Miami, won its seventh consecutive gold medal, dating back to 2010, outscoring opponents 45-18 in four wins. The Women’s Open team was one of three gold medal winning Riptides teams at the 2016 Championships. The Men’s Open and Girl’s 18 and Under teams also won gold medals. 13-year old Table Tennis wunderkind beats adult players in the highest level divisions For the second consecutive year, 13-year old Sherilyn Barwie-Perez, of Tampa (pictured in middle below), won the gold medal the Under 2000 Division, topping several adult competitors. The five levels 2000 and over and the Open Division are the most competitive of the SSG Table Tennis Championships. After winning two gold medals at the 2015 Sunshine State Games, she competed in six events of the U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships in July in Las Vegas. Sherilyn says she plays table tennis because it is her passion and one of the best exercises for both body and mind. It is also a great challenge – a sport impossible to master. Florida Sports Community Supports Orlando Shooting Victims Governor Rick Scott turned to the Florida Sports community for support during visits to meet survivors and the families of the Orlando shooting at Pulse Nightclub. Governor Scott enlisted the services of former Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Johnny Damon, Orlando City Soccer player Ricardo Kaká, former NBA standout for the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, Shaquille O’Neal, Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston and his college coach, Jimbo Fisher of Florida State and former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. Governor Scott and the First Lady also presented the “Orlando Strong – Governor’s Medal of Unity” to the survivors, their families and hospital workers. Track and Field athlete keeps coming back for more For the last 14 years, Dr. Brian Hickey, a Professor of Exercise Science and Sport Management at Florida A&M University, has won SSG Track & Field gold medals. Since 2002, Hickey, a distance runner, has run in the 400, 800, 1500 and 3000 meter races, winning 36 gold medals and a silver during this streak of SSG performances. He began his streak running in the 30+ Masters age group and in 2016, he was in the 45-49 age group winning the 800, 1500 and 3000 meter gold medals. In 2011, when no SSG Masters Track & Field was not contested, he won a gold medal at the all-ages 5K Road Race in the Florida Senior Games in Lakeland. Since 2010, his wife, Rachel, has also run the distance races and has won 14 gold medals. Through this SSG competition, Brian puts theory into practice by competing regularly in duathlon, track and field, running, obstacle course racing and lacrosse. Over the course of his athletic career he has earned 30 national titles, set an American Record in Masters Track & Field and competed in the 2004 US Olympic Trials for cycling. Brian is also currently the coach of the Florida A&M Lacrosse team, a program he helped form in 2015. Mother-To-Be Returns to SSG after a Nine Year Layoff Former Sunshine State Games Synchronized swimmer Courtney Karolinko, 27, from Boynton Beach, swam, coached and judged her way back into the 2016 Games. After a nine year hiatus, Karolinko (on right in left side photo below) returned with her mother, Jacqueline Barrett (on left in left side photo below) to compete in a team routine with five other members of the Palm Beach Coralytes. Along with the seven team members performing lifts and tucks in the water, was a future synchronized swimmer joining in on the fun. Karolinko was swimming at eight months pregnant with her future daughter, Aria. Karolinko has been involved in synchronized swimming for 20 years. She has been swimming since she was 18-months-old, and she started her synchronized swimming career at the age of seven with the Palm Beach Coralytes until she graduated high school. Upon graduating from Keuka College in New York, Karolinko returned home to follow in her mother and older sister’s footsteps as a coach for the Coralytes. Karolinko currently coaches the Teams Age Group, the advanced synchronized skills division for the Coralytes. Barrett, who started her synchro swimming career at 45, wants her granddaughter and future synchro swimmer to be just as dedicated as her daughter Courtney. “I hope that baby Aria falls in love with the sport as my two daughters and I did,” said Barrett. Judo athlete pulls double duty There are two-sport athletes and then there are athletes who pull double duty caring for fellow athletes when not competing in their own sport. Such is the case for gold-medal winning Judo athlete, Carlo Guadagno, of Seminole, who at the Sarasota/Bradenton Festival, cared for Ultimate athletes as part of the SSG medical staff and the following week suited up in his gee and took to the mats himself. Luckily, he did not become a patient for one of his counterparts while competing among more than 200 judoka at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Guadagno (in red shirt in photo at left), a chiropractic physician, joined St Pete Judo in 2015 and has been training consistently since. Prior to his Sunshine State Games outing, he earned a silver medal at the US Open in Ft Lauderdale. He has assisted the Florida Sports Foundation in recent years at the Sunshine State Games and Florida Senior Games. As an athlete himself, he sees in others what motivates him to care for and compete. “ It’s the outstanding attitude of the competitors no matter what their age, they all seem to understand "joie d' vivre " FSF Salutes Athletes of the Year for Skills and Dedication to Sport Each year, Sunshine State Games Athletes of the Year are honored before their peers at competitions or events statewide. The athletes are chosen for their performance at the Games, their dedication to their chosen sport and the Olympic ideals of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. The 2015 Athlete of the Year selections achieved success gliding across the water and pinning opponents to the mat. Jennifer Figueroa, of Gainesville (pictured below on left), has been a fixture in the SSG Rowing competition for the last several years as an athlete and an administrator. She won three gold medals at the 2015 Games. As the coach of the Gainesville Area Rowing team, she was instrumental in the SSG competition when it was part of the Alachua County Festival. She has served as a planner for Learn to Row Day and promotes rowing in the Gainesville area as a summer camp counselor. Figueroa is the fourth Gainesville area Sunshine State Games Athlete of the Year since 2000 joining weightlifter Chris Follenius (2011), Matt Tamayo (Karate, 2010) and Tyler Wolfe (Karate, 2004). The City of Gainesville has a long Sunshine State Games heritage as it community has hosted the Olympic-style Sports Festival 11 times and was the site of the original Games in 1980. Jaden Villalobos, a 12-year old wrestler out of Fort Lauderdale (pictured above on right), was honored for his outstanding achievement at the 2015 Games as a member of Calvary Wrestling Club. Villalobos won medals in the last three Sunshine State Games and in all three events, Freestyle, Folkstyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. NFL Camps Open in July Fans who have been waiting for the National Football League to hit the field since February when the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers met in the Super Bowl are now counting down the days. Jacksonville Jaguars fans can register to attend this year's training camp practices that begin on Friday, July 29. The practices are free and open to the public with free parking available at EverBank Field.