Dade Residents Compete in National Senior Games
Wildwood resident Bart Brannon is shown on the podium with doubles partner Johnny Morrison with their gold medals in pickleball. Brannon also took silver in the mixed doubles with partner Diane Keller.
By EDDY GIFFORD
Sports Writer
The 2023 National Senior Games were July 7–18 in Pittsburgh, Pa., with more than 11,500 senior athletes competing.
According to the Senior Games website, senior athletes like to say age is just a number. When you bring over 11,500 senior athletes together for a display of healthy active aging, it’s a number that really gets your attention. That’s what Pittsburgh witnessed when the athletes aged 50 and over competed.
The games consisted of individual sports, non-ambulatory sports, and team sports. Just a few of the sports included archery, badminton, cycling, golf, pickleball, track and field, basketball, softball, non-ambulatory bowling, cornhole and many, many, more.
This year’s games included a pair of Dade County residents – Bart Brannon of Wildwood and Patrick Core of Trenton.
Brannon competed in the sport of pickleball in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Brannon and men’s doubles partner Johnny Morrison from the state of Virginia won the gold medal for first place and Brannon and Diane Keller from the state of New York won the silver medal for second place in the 4.5/5.0 highest classification.
Trenton resident Patrick Core before competing in the 40-meter dash at the Senior Games in Pittsburgh recently. He finished in the top 15 in his age group.
Bart stated. “I would encourage people of all ages to utilize the pickleball courts at the Dade County Sports Complex south of Trenton. They are truly state of the art courts and pickleball can be great exercise that can be played by all ages both socially and competitively.”
Trenton resident Patrick Core competed in track and field in the 50-meter dash. Core qualified for the national event last September at the Georgia Games in Warner Robbins.
At the National’s in Pittsburgh Core finished in the top 15 from over 40 qualifiers for the event.
Both these men represented Dade County well at the National Senior Games 2023!