June 24, 2016 at 3:56 p.m.
Faster, higher, stronger: Children go for the gold at Library Olympics
Faster, higher, stronger: Children go for the gold at Library Olympics
By Kayla Thomason-
Approximately 60 children put their athleticism to the test in soccer, Taekwondo, tug-o-war, shooting gallery and obstacles Wednesday. Children also got to make their own "medals."
Dan Millot, head soccer coach at RHS, and Sydney Zettler, an RHS girls soccer captain who led the conference in scoring this year, taught the children some soccer basics and oversaw the brief matches between them.
"(Teaching the children is) fun, it's an age where they're very impressionable and if you can provide them an opportunity where they have fun and can learn and see improvement, it benefits everyone," Millot said.
"I think it's great, especially with the Olympics actually starting in a few weeks," he added.
Millot liked the variety of activities the library had set up and noted that the children were having a good time.
"I think what's nice about what the library is doing here is it's giving kids an opportunity to try a lot of different things and the kids are taking advantage of that as they rotate through the stations here," he said. "They have smiles on their faces, some of them are breaking a sweat on a day like today and they seem to be having a good time."
Calvin Loomis enjoyed the stations at the library's Olympics.
"I like them," he said, noting that soccer and tug-o-war were his favorites.
"It's pretty fun," he said.
Some children liked testing their strength in a one-on-one match of tug-o-war while others were drawn to the variety of the obstacle course.
On the course, children did "tire runs" with hula hoops, crept under low arches, weaved, ran toward the front to do jumping jacks, trampoline jumps and lift a dumbell.
"It's really, really fun," said Cloie Ring. "I would say that tug-o-war would be my favorite and my second favorite would be the obstacles."
"I think it's pretty awesome how the library is holding this for us," she added.
At the Taekwondo station children learned basic techniques like front stances, round kicks, front kicks and how to punch properly.
"We were teaching them Taekwondo, which is one form of martial arts, and we were teaching them a lot of the basic punches and kicks," said Abby Pires, a yellow belt in Pankration and a member of Sixel's USA Martial Arts in Sugar Camp.
Pires and her partner Eric Hamilton, a red belt in Pankration, was impressed with the youngsters.
"I think they did pretty good for their first time," she said.
"They did great, awesome," Hamilton added.
Pires was pleased with the enthusiasm that some of the children showed while learning Taekwondo.
"A few of them were extra enthusiastic, especially when doing kihups (like a yell, used to accent some punches or kicks)," she said with a laugh.
She liked that the library had a variety of things for the children to explore.
"I think it's pretty awesome that they bring more attention to (the Olympics) and try to get the word out there a little bit, show people all the different things that they can do," she said.
Denise Chojnacki, associate librarian, was pleased to see the children having fun.
"They seem to be having a blast," she said.
She heard a lot of excitement about the tug-o-war and saw a lot of children at the soccer and Taekwondo stations.
"I've been noticing some are very, very quick at the soccer game," Chojnacki said.
She wanted to thank the community members who took the time to teach the children. "Thanks to our Taekwondo people and our soccer people, that's very helpful when the community comes in," she said. "We like the kids to see the high school kids and what they can work toward."
Millot thought it was important for the children to experience the different sports as they may find something they really love to do.
"To be an Olympic athlete takes a lot of time and hard work and effort but it all starts with a passion and you never know what kids will develop a passion for when they're given an opportunity to participate in something," he said.
The Library Olympics continued on Thursday with younger children trying golf, fishing, ring toss and other games.
"We've got summer programs that are going to be continuing on into July so (kids) should come in and check it out," Chojnacki said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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