HEE: Senior games could return to Pahrump

Seniors in Pahrump are more active than you think.

Since I have been working the sports desk at the PVT I have met an enormous number of seniors active in sports. Of course, they always ask me to pay more attention to seniors and what they are doing out in Pahrump and they always ask me this same question, “Will the Pahrump Senior Games ever return to this town?”

That is a good question that I don’t know the answer to, but I think it is about time that it has returned. Like in most areas of this town, it just needs a good person or group to organize it.

Why give Las Vegas our dollars? This will take a group effort but shoot, we have a lot of service clubs that could help out.

In fact, we have so many service clubs that maybe instead of one service club running the whole thing, it can be a committee of them. Maybe if we had each service club sponsor an event and then have a representative from each club serve on the Pahrump Senior Games committee.

The reason I said this was because it is a big job to sponsor and run the whole thing, but if we break it into pieces then it’s more manageable.

Regardless of how it is done, I think it is needed. The seniors in Pahrump are active and need the games to come back to our town.

I ran this by the Knights of Columbus, a service club from Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church and the Elks Lodge in town and both were positive.

Bill Rettig, grand knight for the Knights of Columbus in Pahrump thought it could be done.

“That would be worthwhile to come together for,” Rettig said. “It definitely is not out of the realm of possibility. I will work on getting support for that.”

The Elks Lodge has a long history of working with sporting events in town. They have worked with the Baker to Vegas run, sponsor the Hoop Shoot for kids and the the soccer shoot, to name a few.

John Loetterle, the new exalted ruler of Elks Lodge 2796, agreed with Rettig that an event like the senior games could be done again.

“I think something like this can happen and I will bring it up in our next meeting,” he said.

More importantly, both groups have no problem working with other service groups in town. I thought that would be a problem.

So the ball is rolling. I need to hear from Kiwanis, the Lions, and the VFW, so call me.

I have had one lady tell me that she goes all the way back to Montana to do the senior games there because we don’t have it here and she hates going to Las Vegas.

I am counting on the fact that service clubs are different than politicians and they love serving their communities. Politicians say they do, but well, you know.

Marvin Caperton, a 1973 graduate of Clark High School and a football and track athlete from UCLA is excited about the possibility of the games returning to Pahrump. Caperton is a firm believer that seniors need to get off the couch.

“That is really cool,” he said. “I will definitely put the word out.”

Caperton has been running in the senior games for 12 years. This Saturday he will be running in the Henderson Senior Games at Basic High School.

“I ran on that track when I was in high school and it’s the first time I have run on it since high school.”

He competes in local senior games and has been to the world games in St. George, Utah and the nationals, which are held in different cities every two years.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com