Cal State Games to Be All Around the County

If you’re suffering from a post-Olympic letdown and crave more pomp, pageantry and medal ceremonies, then the eighth California State Games may be just what the doctor ordered.

The games, which will feature approximately 5,500 athletes ranging from ages 5 to 69 competing in 17 Olympic or Pan American Games events, will be held at venues in 13 Orange County cities.

Competition begins Thursday, in basketball only, and concludes Sunday. Most sports begin play Friday. An Olympic-style opening ceremony--complete with a parade of athletes and a ceremonial torch lighting--is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium.

The California State Games, a nonprofit sports festival under the auspices of the U.S. Olympic Committee, distributes entry booklets to schools, YMCAs, recreation departments, boys’ and girls’ clubs and youth groups throughout the state. Forty-six states hold similar events.

Qualification standards vary greatly. Track and field is open to any participant, while wrestling determines its competitors through 16 area qualifying tournaments.

More than 90% of the competitors range in age from 6 to 18, with both genders competing in all sports except wrestling (males only) and synchronized swimming, gymnastics and field hockey (females only).

This is the first time the games will not be held in one city. The Orange County Sports Assn. won the bid for this week’s event as well as the 1997 games and pulled together 13 cities--from San Clemente to Fullerton to Los Alamitos--to donate facilities.

“We’ve never been this spread out before, so logistically, it makes it a little tough,” said Sandi Hill, executive director of the California State Games. “We’ll have to see how it goes and see if maybe we need to condense it a bit for next year.

“But we’ve certainly gotten fantastic support from the cities involved and have some great venues.”

Troy Lindquist, who spearheaded the OCSA drive to host the games, set up a meeting with representatives from all 31 cities in the county and got together with the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County to arrange for more than 400 volunteers who will begin work today.

“With all the bad publicity over the bankruptcy a year ago, we saw this as a chance to say something very good about Orange County,” Lindquist said. “The county is somewhat splintered too, so this is also a chance to say something good about ourselves as citizens of Orange County, to show we can work together on a very complex and worthwhile endeavor like this.”