Empire State Games: Buffalo State grad Bobby Gonzalez helps open 31st event
Empire State Games ceremony turns outside-in
VESTAL — The torch lighting didn’t involve an actual lighting, the parade of athletes wasn’t really a parade, and instead of fireworks exploding into the air, balloons fell from the ceiling.
But it didn’t seem to dampen the opening ceremony of the 31st Empire State Games too much.
Athletes from each of the six regions roared at every mention of their respective team or sport during a ceremony that lasted less than an hour inside the Binghamton University Events Center.
“It’s still the Empire State Games,“ said Starpoint High’s Sydney Palka, who along with sister Samantha is making her second straight appearance on the women’s scholastic volleyball team. “The whole experience — rooming in the dorms, being with the team, playing — it’s a good time.”
Due to a stormy forecast in the Binghamton area, the decision was made Tuesday afternoon to move the opening ceremony inside to the Events Center, home of the Division I Binghamton University basketball teams, from the artificial turf of the adjacent Bearcat Sports Complex.
“The excitement of the Games hasn’t worn off after all these years,” said 10th-year Western Region director Lou Reuter, who pumped his fist as the Western athletes roared upon their introduction. “Maybe I feed off the athletes. I’m elated.”
Reuter, a Town of Tonawanda resident, Ken-Ton School Board member and former Kenmore East football coach, is battling cancer (he will start a second six-week cycle of chemotherapy via pills today to fight a melanoma in his lower abdomen). He lauded Binghamton University and Games organizers for not only the transformation of the opening ceremony but for an efficient check-in day for coaches and athletes.
“I feel great,” Reuter said. “This opening day went exceedingly well — when the opening day has a lot of changes and other problems, you walk out of there tired. But things went so smoothly today that I feel energized.”
Athletes trudged across the muddy grounds of the state university campus from the dormitories they are staying in to the Events Center. The ceremony, which usually lasts about two hours, went without the Olympic-style parade of athletes. Athletes gathered on the floor of the arena while spectators filled the bleacher seating. Games officials estimated the total attendance at more than 7,200.
When the ceremony is outside, the torch relay usually consists of a short relay between athletes representing different regions, culminating with a large Empire Games cauldron being lit, as happens in the Olympics. Wednesday, a group of athletes posed with the torch on stage; later, the actual cauldron was lit outside the arena before a few onlookers by Jason Brannigan, a Empire State Games volunteer from Syracuse.
The keynote speaker was Bobby Gonzalez, a Binghamton native and Buffalo State graduate who is the basketball coach at Seton Hall. He’s also a former Empire State Games participant, having competed in the open basketball division — along with then St. John’s star Chris Mullin— in Syracuse in the early 1980s.
“I’ll give you a last nine words — this is how I went from Binghamton to the Big East . . . Never give up, never give up, never give up.”
Competition begins today in the 26-sport, Olympic- style event. The Palkas and the rest of the women’s scholastic volleyball team, which has the third-longest current win streak at the Empire Games with six straight golds, begin pool play at 9 a. m. against New York City. The men’s scholastic ice hockey team, winners of eight straight golds, takes on Adirondack at 4:30 p. m.
