Michael St. Clair, an eighth-grader at Cowherd Middle School in Aurora, had his game face on Friday morning as he walked with others inside Phillips Park during the city’s 32nd annual Sports Festival for middle school students.
“We’ve been counting down the days to get to this,” Michael said. “Ever since we were sixth-graders we’ve been waiting for this experience with the school coming together and having fun. There is some trash talk too with the other schools, but it’s all fun.”
Bragging rights among Aurora area middle school students were certainly on the line Friday during the event organized by the city of Aurora’s Youth Services Division
A press release from the city said that the annual festival “provides local middle school physical education students the opportunity to participate and compete in activities focusing on the key values of sportsmanship, teamwork and civic pride.”
The event allowed students to compete in basketball, soccer, softball, bowling, skating, chess, checkers, cornhole, volleyball, golf, tennis and more.
A tug-of-war was also part of the festival.
Organizers said 14 different middle schools from Aurora participated in the event.
Youth Services Division Manager Simon Rodriguez said the event remains “one of the largest of the year” for the division.
“We have more than 1,000 kids and a little more than 100 city volunteers, staff and vendors that come out,” he said.
“In terms of sports and participating, soccer has the most followed by volleyball,” he said. “The third is probably softball and then the mile run. There are mostly team sports, but there are some for partners and golf is individual.”
Rodriguez said that “first and foremost it is an event that our youth look forward to each and every year.”
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“It’s a day of friendly competition,” he said. “It’s a tradition, something that is rooted in Aurora’s history and it has built its own reputation as being one of the best events for our youth every year.
“It started off as a way to bring more of our students together in a day to be active, but it’s become its own identity,” he said. “We have parents who participated back in the ’90s and early 2000s and now their kids are participating in (the festival). It becomes almost a rite of passage for those who grow up in our city. I participated in this as I grew up and now every year to be in charge of it – it’s always a full-circle moment.”
Zoey Fick of Holy Angels Catholic School was playing basketball Friday at the fest and said she was pretty excited about the day.
“Kids have been talking about it and we really want to win this year,” she said.
Victoria Turnell of Aurora, a student at West Aurora School District’s Jewel Middle School in North Aurora, and her friends Natalie Patterman and Alexis McGregor – both from North Aurora – were going to play softball at the event.
“It was so much fun not to be at school last year and meet all kinds of different people,” Victoria said of last year’s event.
Victoria said winning is important, but is not the biggest thing at the festival.
“It’s more about being outside and having fun,” Victoria said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.