Kids’ Play in L.A. : Sports: About 100,000 area youngsters take part in Inner-City Games. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a driving force behind the competition.

If it sounded like a line from “The Terminator,” that was OK.

“I’ll be back,” 8-year-old Joseph Juarez pledged at the finish of a flag football game Saturday at an Eastside athletic field.

The El Sereno boy is one of 100,000 Los Angeles-area youngsters competing in the Inner-City Games--an eight-day athletic competition partly organized by the Terminator himself, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Olympics-style event ends today with baseball, softball, basketball, gymnastics and swimming competitions on the Eastside and in Carson and Montebello. A 5K race also planned for today in the Boyle Heights area is expected to attract 2,000 runners.

On Saturday, preliminary and championship rounds in 13 events were staged at sites around town as a two-day Inner-City Games Expo was winding down at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

There, about 15,000 adults and children were entertained by music groups, received free health and fitness screenings and learned about educational and job opportunities from schools and companies that set up dozens of information booths.

Despite the huge turnout, the games have only scratched the surface of their potential popularity in the inner city, said competition originator Daniel L. Hernandez.

Last year’s inaugural competition drew 40,000 participants, said Hernandez, who runs the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Boyle Heights.

He credited Schwarzenegger, who heads the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, for generating interest in this year’s games--and for generating most of its financing.

Schwarzenegger raised $300,000 for this year’s competition from Hollywood studios and entertainers. Another $150,000 was kicked in by corporate sponsors, Hernandez said.

For his part, the heavily muscled actor predicted that the Inner-City Games will be a model for similar events next year in other cities.

Representatives from Chicago and Atlanta are monitoring the event, Schwarzenegger said. And videotapes depicting the organization and operation of the games will be sent to cities that request them, he said.

“I’ve traveled around a lot and seen firsthand how much the inner-city kids have been left behind and left out of the fitness movement,” he said.

Youngsters involved in the past week’s sporting events were determined not to be left out.

“When I opened the doors at 7:30 last Sunday morning for the karate competition, there were 250 kids already outside waiting,” said Juan Larios, who helped run that sport’s 13-hour contest.

At the Cal State L.A. gymnasium, hundreds of youths gathered Saturday for the games’ 16-team volleyball playoff.

“This is a lot better than being at home or on the street somewhere,” said competitor Geovanni Barajas, 17, of the Eastside. “It helps you stay out of trouble.”

Outside, Joseph Juarez, the 8-year-old flag football player from El Sereno, promised he would return for next year’s Inner-City Games.

“This has been a very positive thing,” said Al Juarez, the boy’s father.

“When you live in the inner city, you’re so infested with gang activities that kids are at high risk. Organized sports gives the feeling of team spirit and camaraderie.”

The Inner-City Games also brings youngsters from different communities together, said Juarez, an insurance company administrative assistant.

“Hopefully, the kids will realize we’re all brothers in this together,” he said.