EVENT FEATURE
The Games still has the Olympic sports
standards of track and field, swimming,
archery, table tennis, wrestling, judo and
synchronized swimming, just to name
a few. Joining the now-more-than-30-
sports roster of events through the years
has been ultimate, lacrosse, taekwondo,
flag football, powerlifting and the beach
games.
Through the sports offered at the
Sunshine State Games since 1980, one of
the benefits to the competitors and fans
alike continues to be the state’s highquality
sport facilities.
Through their participation in the nation’s
longest continuously-running State
Games, Florida athletes have competed
on the same fields and complexes as
collegiate All-Americans, Olympic and
professional athletes.
Everyone wants to Come Play in Florida!
One of the highlights of the 2019 Sunshine
State Games calendar of events is the
AdventHealth Center Ice Complex in
Wesley Chapel, host of the Figure Skating
Championships in May and the Ice
Hockey Championships in June.
This 150,000-square-foot, two-story ice
rink and sports facility is the largest and
grandest in the state. The complex boasts
an Olympic-sized rink, three NHL-sized
rinks and one junior rink.
It drew national attention last year when
it played host to the gold-medal-winning
2018 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey
Team. It’s also the training grounds of
other Olympians, such as French pair
skaters Vanessa James and Morgan
Cipres.
Already this year, 42 SSG karate
champions, including Mark Duarte, of
6 2019 SUNSHINE STATE GAMES COMMEMORATIVE PROGRAM
Cape Coral; Gustavo Quinones, of Orlando;
Fernando Chirinos, of Orlando; Lucas
Ross, of Spring Hill; Trey Regar, of Lake
City; and Alison Post, can claim to have
shared the same floor at the Exactech
Arena in Gainesville as the Florida Gators
NCAA Championship Basketball teams
of 2006 and 2007. Those teams that
defeated UCLA in 2006 and Ohio State
in 2007 were the last back-to-back
championship winning teams.
At the 2000 Sunshine State Games, Alex
Forbes, of Longwood, won gold medals
in the O’Connell Center Aquatic Center
swimming in the same pool as Olympic
Gold Medalists Nicole Haislett, Dara
Torres, Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Ryan
Lochte. After his performance at the 2000
Games, Forbes was named the Male
Athlete of the Year, earned All-American
status at the University of Kentucky and
swam in the 2008 Olympic Time Trials.
The 2003 Sunshine State Games in
Tampa featured a couple of high-profile
venues. The 600,000-square-foot Tampa
Convention Center hosted boxing,
judo, karate, taekwondo, weightlifting
and wrestling, in the same downtown
Tampa location that has hosted events
of the NFL Super Bowl, NCAA National
Championship Events and the 2012
Republican National Convention.
Competing over the weekend of June 12-
15, 2003, at the Tampa Convention Center
were seven SSG athletes of the year. Boxer
Sammy Valentin earned the 2003 Award,
Karate athlete Tyler Wolf was the 2004
Female Athlete of the Year and comrade
Matt Tamayo earned the 2010 Award.
Brian Germain and his daughters, Katie
and Kelly, were the 2009 athletes of the
year as a family, and Chris Follenius, an
Olympic weightlifter was the 2011 athlete
of the year.
Also that year, the Plant City Stadium
and Randy Larson Softball Complex
served as one of the hosts of the 54-team
softball competition. The facility is home
of the International Softball Federation,
the worldwide governing body of softball,
and host to many tournaments such as
the annual Florida High School Softball
Championships and various international
and domestic competitions. It has been
the home of the Tampa Bay Fire Stix
and the Florida Wahoos of the Women’s
Adapting
to change
Over the last 40 years, the landscape of sports has
drastically changed in the State of Florida.
While the Sunshine State Games has remained a mainstay
for Florida’s amateur athletes of all ages, the sports
available for athletes to participate have rolled with the
changes.
Archery
attracts
all ages.