Twelve athletes from the Greenville Parks and Recreation attended the National Youth Games sectional competition in Hoover on July 8, 2000.

The national youth games is a free youth participation program created by Universal Marketing Associates, Inc. (UMA).

Boys and girls ages 8 to 13 are eligible to participate in any of four athletic events:

basketball, soccer, swimming, and track & field.

The program was designed to promote youth participation in sport and to encourage good sportsmanship.

Each participant must begin at the local level of competition, prior to sectional competing.

Once local competition is completed, the first, second and third place winners in each age and gender group at the local level will advance to a designated Sectional.

Sponsored in part by Dole, there are approximately 100 sectional competitions held across the country.

The first place winners from every Dole Sectional will have their scores regionally and nationally ranked and the top competitors in each age and gender group will advance to the national finals; however, not all Dole sectional winners get advanced into the finals.

The National Youth Games National Finals will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii in August and September, 2000.

The events that Greenville participated in were the Washington Apple Basketball and the Ready Pac Track & Field competitions.

In the basketball competition, participants have 60 seconds to score as many points as possible from 7 different spots on the court, and they may shoot in any order.

They must also retrieve their own balls.

In the Track & Field competition, participants test their running, jumping and throwing abilities in three events:

mini-sprint:

competitors run a 50-yard dash in the fastest time possible; power jump:

Participants jump from a standing start; extreme discus:

competitors have three attempts to throw a flying disc as far as possible.

There were approximately 120 participants in Hoover, and 12 were from Greenville.

Awards were medals similar to those awarded in the Olympics, and were valued as: gold-first place, silver-second place and bronze-third place.

Broken down by age and gender, the Greenville athletes achieved the following results:

Ages 8-9 Boys:

Keilo Riley placed second in track and field, and third in basketball.

Age 10-11 Girls:

Brittney Roper placed first in track & field and basketball; Asha T. Smith placed third in track & field and basketball.

Age 10-11 Boys:

Ladarrius Powell placed third in track & field, and first place in first place went to Marcus Mickles.

Age 12-13 Girls:

Kendra Mitchell placed first in track & field, Mikki Harris placed second in basketball, Cassandra Bedgood placed third in both

basketball, and track & field.

Age 12-13 Twyaun Allen placed second in track & field; Demarcus Griffin placed third in track & field, and Demonte Crenshaw was a participant.

With twelve participants in all, Greenville took home four gold medals, two silver medals, and six bronze medals.