For seniors only

It reads like a summer full of activities at a day camp.

Archery. Badminton. Billiards. Horseshoes. Table tennis. Volleyball.

But this is no list for youngsters. Instead, it's among the 20 events available for the Minnesota Senior Games, held July 20-24 in Alexandria.

Athletes 50 and older can participate, with registration for this year's games open through Tuesday. This is a non-National Senior Games qualifying year, but last summer more than 100 Minnesota athletes advanced to the national stage. The Summer National Senior Games will be Aug. 1-15 in the San Francisco Bay area.

For those attending, it's a chance for most to live out lifelong dreams.

Paul Zabee, 51, will compete in the discus at the National Games. It's not the highest stage he once had hoped to reach. But he is looking forward to the trip nonetheless.

He first got interested in the discus while watching coverage of the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympic Games on television.

"I was one of those kids that played baseball but wasn't real good or coordinated," Zabee said.

So pretty much on a whim, he began to throw.

As time went on, his skills improved. As a junior at Elk River High School in 1975, Zabee scratched out at the region meet. A year later, he made it to state and finished third.

"That was a big, big thing -- just getting there and participating," he said. "I've pretty much stuck with it."

After high school, Zabee had his sights on making it to the Olympic Trials for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. An injury halted that possibility, but when he was introduced to the state's Star of the North Games some years later, the discus came back into the picture.

Last summer, he punched his ticket to the National Senior Games by winning the male 50-54 division in Minnesota with a throw of 113 feet, 5 1/2 inches.

"It's a national competition and I'm fired up about that," Zabee said. "It's something I've always wanted to do -- and it's the discus. This is a big meet, and I'm looking forward to the whole event. It's sort of like an adventure."

An adventure would be a good way to describe what's in store for one of the handful of teams from Minnesota headed to the National Games. The Minnesota Prize 60s, an over-60 softball team that draws from all over the metro, is bringing a traveling party of 21 to California.

They have rented a 10,500-square foot dwelling for their week of play for the 12 players and nine spouses expected to make the trip.

"But there's just six bathrooms," field manager and player Bob Hartshorn said. "We'll get creative and work it out. That's almost more important than playing ball -- is the friendship and camaraderie and chemistry we all have."

Hartshorn, 62, has been playing in the same softball league with many of the same players since the early 1990s. The league plays games Tuesday and Thursday nights 50 weeks a year -- yes, fifty. The teams play in Edina and Minnetonka during the warm months, and at the Holy Angels Star Dome in Richfield during the winter.

Players only take off around the holidays, and only because the Star Dome is not available.

From those teams also comes a group of traveling players, which on the Prize 60s has members from Brooklyn Park, Buffalo, Burnsville, Mendota Heights, Minneapolis and Savage.

Heading to big-time competitions is nothing new. Last summer, the Prize 60s won a championship in Georgia. Because of that, the team this summer will have to play in the second-highest division at the National Games.

"We probably don't belong there," Hartshorn said. "But we're there, and we'll compete. We're not going to win any championships there, but we'll have fun."

The theme of the National Senior Games is "Long Live the Challenge."

Games president and CEO Anne Warner Cribbs, a gold medalist swimmer at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, hopes that rings true.

"Bill Walsh said 'follow your passion,'" Warner Cribbs said. "These athletes are really evidence that no matter what your age is, you can follow your passion and be committed. We're all searching for the fountain of young, and I think we've found that in exercise and competition."

The National Senior Games, billed as the largest multisport event for athletes 50 and older, started in 1987 in St. Louis and have been held every other year since. More than 12,750 athletes are expected at this year's event.

Brian Stensaas • 612-673-4127