Local Athletes to Compete in Empire State Games

Three local athletes will be representing Bellmore at the 2010 Empire State Games finals July 21-25 in upstate New York.

Joseph Buscarino of Bellmore is part of the Masters Division Rugby team, while Carla Miguel of Bellmore will be playing fullback/midfielder with the Scholastic Women's Soccer team and North Bellmore's Megan Butterworth will be a pitcher on the Open Division Softball team.

There are three divisions of competitors. The Open Division are age 18 and older as of Aug. 31 of the year of the Games. Scholastic Division are age 17 and younger as of Aug. 31 of the year of the Games. Qualified finalists in the Scholastic Division will be provided with campus housing, breakfast and dinner, regional bus transportation to the finals locations. The Masters Division of the Empire State Games is a program conducted for New York State residents consisting of 13 sports for men and women. Athletes compete against others in age brackets determined by the individual sports for gold, silver and bronze medals. Each sport has its own minimum age requirement.

According to the website, Empire State Games is the largest competition of its kind in the nation. The Games is a multi-sport event for amateur athletes, patterned after the Olympic program. Athletes must be NYS residents. Following competition (Regional Trials) in each of six regions of NYS, winners numbering some 6,000 will participate in finals competition.

For a complete schedule and ticket information, visit http://www.empirestategames.org/summer/sched/.