Milpitas Elementary Olympics return

MILPITAS >> Hundreds of young students will congregate Saturday morning to run, jump and throw for glory when the Milpitas Elementary Olympics return.

The event, which started as a joint effort between the Milpitas Unified School District and the city more than 40 years ago, is being revived after a years-long hiatus to build community and camaraderie among the students, families and educators of the district’s nine elementary schools.

Opening ceremonies will begin 10:30 a.m. at the Milpitas High School fields, according to Raquel Kusunoki, director of elementary education at the district.

About 200 student-athletes are expected to compete. They were chosen during tryouts at every school’s physical education classes, Kusunoki said.

“We’ve had parents coming to the office to drop off their waivers, and these parents have smiles from ear to ear with their children in their hand,” she said. There will be running competitions including 50- and 100yard dashes, a mile run and a relay race, as well as ballthrowing and jump-roping events.

Chris Norwood, the school board’s vice president, said this week he remembers participating in the competitions when he was in sixth grade and the way it brought people together.

“It was one of the ways that kids got to see other kids that they may have never known … because we were always competitive crosstown rivals with sports,” he said.

“And all the kids in the community played on their own separate sports teams, but at the elementary school level there wasn’t anything intramural,” he said.

Kusunoki said she has heard from teachers, principals and parents since the games were announced who also are feeling nostalgic about having competed in these same games when they were kids.

“They have this fond recollection of kids coming together and just having a good time and having a healthy competition,” she said.

The city’s first recreation director, Bob McGuire, started the olympics contest decades ago as a way to bring the various school communities together, and he later took the concept to an after-school enrichment program that also has held similar competitions, called After the Bell.

About 100 Milpitas High School students are serving as volunteers for the event. “I’m excited that we’re all going to be in one area, the kids, the parents, the families, and the whole Milpitas Unified School District, coming together for the common reason why we’re all here anyway … the kids,” Kusunoki said.