File photo taken at the Lethbridge Country Club. Golf is one of the sports Lethbridge is hosting as part of the 2022 Southern Alberta Regional Events. (Lethbridge News Now)

By Mario Cabradilla

All skill levels welcome at 2022 Southern Alberta Regional Events

Jun 21, 2022 | 11:21 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge is hosting six sporting events open to everyone as part of the upcoming Southern Alberta Regional Events, which will run throughout July 2022.

The Lethbridge Sport Council (LSC) is encouraging residents, families, and friends to register and participate in the events no matter their skill or experience level. The events include Indigenous games, horseshoes, badminton, golf, climbing, and sports photography.

Allen Parker with the LSC and organizer of Lethbridge’s events, says that sports are important to the community due to their physical, social, and mental benefits. Parker also says that sports allow people to connect through shared experiences and interests, something that is reflected in the format of the games.

“For example, with badminton and golf, there’s no singles bracket,” says Parker, explaining that if participants register as a single, they will be paired with another single to play doubles matches.

“It’s a great way to go meet friends, right? I think that’s one of the best benefits we get from sports, is the new social connections.”

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He also says that sports are a productive use of time for youths because the experiences gained will always be worthwhile.

“Being able to provide different levels of those experiences is so important for the community,” says Parker. “I think we sometimes lose sight of grassroots sports [and] focus on high performance. It’s more impressive when people are competing at the highest level, but there will always, always, always be an important place for grassroots sports and fun competition.”

A report to the European Commission defines grassroots sport as a “physical leisure activity, organized and non-organized, practised regularly at non-professional level for health, educational or social purposes.” The 2016 report was a proposal to the European Commission to promote grassroots sport in Europe.

In Canada, the Southern Alberta Recreation Association (SARA) annually organizes a sporting event that shares that same idea.

According to the SARA website, the annual Southern Alberta Summer Games (SASG) provides people of various ages, and skill levels in different sports the opportunity to compete in a regional competition. It was last held in 2019 for SASG’s 50th anniversary and has not run since then to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In a news release from April 19, 2022, SARA noted that it was postponing the 51st annual SASG, which would have been hosted by the Town of Raymond, due to ongoing pandemic restrictions. The postponement was announced before the provincial government lifted the remaining COVID-19 health restrictions on June 15, 2022.

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Despite SASG’s postponement, SARA stated that the 2022 summer season would have sporting events hosted by 13 regions across southern Alberta, under the 2022 Southern Alberta Regional Events banner.

“We are excited to keep regional events going in 2022 and look forward to bringing back a full Southern Alberta Summer Games event in 2023,” the organization stated in the same news release.

To register and find out more, visit the Southern Alberta Regional Events registration webpage.