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E-mail This StoryIn what has become one of the highlights of the summer for many local athletes, the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation Games of Texas is set to begin on Thursday in San Antonio.
The Olympics-style event will feature more than 10,000 athletes from all over Texas competing in more than 20 different sports, including track and field, swimming, tennis, baseball and softball.
While several sporting events will get started on Thursday, the official Opening Ceremony is scheduled to take place on Friday at 7:30 p.m., which will feature a parade of athletes entering Wolff Stadium.
Although many of the area meets, as well all regional qualifying events take place during the summer, some athletes, many of those in track and field, began working toward this weekend several months ago.
Last year, the city of Mesquite was well-represented, as track and field athletes from the Mesquite Mercury, the West Mesquite Stampede and the Mesquite Flames, and swimmers from the Mesquite Marlins all brought home medals.
TAAF is a nonprofit organization established in 1925 to promote, organize and conduct amateur athletics in Texas, but participation has really grown in recent years. Currently, there are more than 140 organizations with more than 210,000 participants with TAAF membership.
While hundreds of area athletes will be headed to San Antonio, others will be headed out of state in the coming days to compete on a national level.
The Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games officially got started on Wednesday in Detroit.
The track and field portion of the Games does not begin until Saturday, which is when a large contingent of the West Mesquite Stampede team will depart for Michigan. The Stampede earned 49 qualifying berths for the national competition at the AAU regional championships last month.
A third option this week takes athletes to Omaha, Neb., where the 42nd United States of American Track and Field National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships are taking place.
The event actually got started on Tuesday with a handful of events and will continue through Sunday.
