The Alexander City Outlook

The Alexander City Sports Foundation hosted its first Field Day this past Saturday, Aug. 6 in an effort to enhance athletics in the community.

ACSF president, Randy Lee Jr. said the event went well with 75 children, ages 3 to 13, who participated.

“It was great for the first year and we always have to start somewhere,” Lee said. “Just about every coach in our system – middle, high school and college – was there to help. And that’s just going to move things forward if people see everybody wants to help.”

Lee said it seemed as if every child had a good time playing the many activities that were made available to them Saturday, which consisted of a punt and pass station for football, a cheer event, a throwing radar gun for baseball and softball, a basketball goal for free throw counts, a serve station for volleyball, a soccer net and cones for hitting certain shots in the net, a 40-yard dash and a long jump.

“You never know when you’re going to catch and spark their interest,” Lee said. “That’s kind of why we were wanting to do this.”

Sonny Wilson, Parks and Recreation Director/Athletics Supervisor, agreed and said ACSF’s Field Day was also a chance to get children active and “off the couch.”

“Every kid I talked to told me they had a great time,” Wilson said. “And the main thing was to make sure the kids had a good time and to get kids off the couch and out moving around doing something. And hopefully, beginning with the end in mind, this will get them out and make things fun for them and hopefully in the future they’ll be more active and more willing to get out of the air conditioning and outside doing something.”

Both Lee and Wilson said the event would not have been possible without the help of volunteers throughout the community.

“It took every volunteer that we had and every one of them deserves credit,” Wilson said. “It was just a huge community effort and I hope it grows every year.”

Wilson also said prizes were given at the end of the event to the boys and girls with the best scores.

Overall, Lee said ACSF will continue to move towards their goal of getting participation and registration in athletics up over the next year.

Registration deadlines for fall sports, Wilson said, are coming up soon.

Football registration deadline is Aug. 10. Soccer registration deadline is Aug. 19. Cheerleading registration, Wilson said, has come and gone, but Parks and Recreation would be willing to take them through Friday Aug. 12.

“We’re doing anything we need to do to make people aware of sports,” Lee said.

Lee said ACSF meets every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. at J.R.’s Sports Bar and Grill and anyone in the community is invited to participate.

“We welcome anyone,” Lee said. “A lot of the coaches are a part of the foundation and we have people who work in the city who are a part of it. We’re just trying to get everybody at the same table and make things better than they already are. We just want them to be as good as possible.”

For more information about ACSF visit www.alexcitysportsfoundation.org