Elsie Armijo, second from left, and Carlos Rodriguez, far right, with their family members at the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana.

After each frame of their bowling mixed doubles finals round, siblings Elsie Armijo and Carlos Rodriguez returned to a table behind the lane to check in with a small crowd of family members looking on. 

This home base included Elsie’s daughter, Sonia, and two grandchildren, and Carlos’ wife, Margaret, all sporting matching shirts displaying the New Mexican flag. 

Bowling is a strong tradition among the women in Elsie’s family – she learned to bowl from her mother in her late teens, and Sonia followed suit at a similar age. Soon, Sonia’s daughter will join her mom and grandmother, bringing three generations together over bowling. 

“My 25-year-old is starting to bowl with me now,” shares Sonia. “Next season we’ll have a women’s team with all three of us on it.” 

These National Senior Games were Elsie and Carlos’ first competing as a mixed doubles pair in the 75-79 age category, but a total of five family members competed in various sports when the National Senior Games were held in their home state of New Mexico in 2019.

Carlos, who admits his sister is a better bowler than him, plays as many sports as he can at his local and state senior games. His record for one event? Twenty-two sports with medals in 16. While he’s limited to two medal sports at the National Senior Games, Carlos earned five ribbons in this year’s swimming competition. 

Sonia turns 50 soon and is ready to compete with her mom, a two-time bowling medal winner, at the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “If you’ve ever bowled with my mom, she’s a blast,” says Sonia. “My mom is my buddy.” 

The family has more to look forward to after these Senior Games with a trip to Disney World next on the itinerary. 

Soaking Up the Moments

Christine and Richard McCandless at Sawgrass Lanes during Bowling competition for the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana.

Christine McCandless sits in Sawgrass Lanes behind a computer, tracking scores from her father’s 85-89 mixed doubles bowling roll-off in a carefully color-coded spreadsheet.

It’s a practice she started on her first trip to the National Senior Games with her dad, Richard McCandless, in 2015 to help pass the time. 

Now at her third event, Christine has a unique perspective as a supporter. “The camaraderie that I see in the bowling community is unlike anything I’ve experienced…They just cheer each other on all the time…I love that,” shares Christine. “After traveling a few times now we’ve gotten to meet some nice people, and we look forward to seeing them.” 

The two share a fun, easy-going demeanor and love to tell the story of their drive home from the 2019 National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Christine was pulled over for speeding and shared a glowing report with the officer detailing how Richard had just won a silver medal at the National Senior Games. Impressed, he let them off with a warning. 

“The time with my dad – I’m soaking it all up while I can,” Christine adds. “It allows him to do his thing and it makes him happy.”

Ray Corpuz, left, and Edna Jiron during Shuffleboard competition at the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana.

Ray Corpuz had his first taste of bigtime shuffleboard at the 2019 National Senior Games in Albuquerque, but his inspiration to eventually participate goes back a dozen years.

When Ray, who is equal parts Filipino and Native American, retired from his career as a Toyota mechanic in 2009, he and his wife moved from Long Beach, California to the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. 

There he heard reverent stories about his late uncle Sam Antonio, who was an accomplished archer who had won gold in Senior Games. “Everybody knew him for that, and I remembered him for being a veteran who was in the Bataan Death March in World War II.”

“I had the idea to do archery like him and go to the New Mexico Senior Olympics,” he says. “But I found it was too hard to pull his bow and shoot. I tried basketball and horseshoes that first year and then saw shuffleboard. I thought that looked like a good sport to try.” Ray literally learned the game on a shuffleboard mat that his Uncle Sam bought for the Laguna senior center. 

Once he qualified at the state games in 2018, it was an easy decision to go to the 2019 Nationals being hosted right up the road in ABQ. Two and a half years later, Ray finds himself sitting courtside in the Broward County Convention Center enjoying 2022 mixed doubles competition with his partner Edna Jiron of the Isleta Pueblo. He’s hooked now.

Ray loves the atmosphere and the camaraderie, although he notes with a laugh that “Some of them get a little picky about too much noise.” He also fell in love with the sport and the competition. “I like the intensity of the game.” 

Shuffleboard is intense?

“If you’re ahead it’s easy. You get behind, now you’re in trouble,” he observes. “Every shot counts, every movement you make on the mat just builds the intensity. Yeah. It’s relaxed if you’re up, but if you get behind you are done.”

By that definition Ray and Edna had a very intense experience in 2022, getting behind and losing three straight matches. “And Edna, she’s good. She’s one of the best players at Isleta,” he notes. “But I put it on two years of not practicing because they demolished the gym we used to play in and we had no place to go until it was replaced.”

The loss sticks in Ray’s craw a bit, so he’s got a fire started to do better in Pittsburgh next summer. The ironic thing that occurs to us is that Ray would not be motivated to be on the road to a more active lifestyle if he hadn’t cried “Uncle.”

Interviews at Plantation Central Park Aquatic Complex during the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana.

Thanks to a grant from Queen Latifa’s Queen Collective, two swimmers are participating in a documentary film profiling their passion of swimming as girls who didn’t let barriers to swimming stop them from seeking their sports dreams. 

Team Dream is a Chicago-based organization that provides training to women of color in swimming, cycling and triathlon. The short documentary film will be titled TEAM DREAM and will introduce close friends Ann Smith and Madeline Murphy Rabb in their final days of preparation to travel to Florida to compete in the 2022 National Senior Games. As they train, we learn about their lives growing up amid discrimination, segregation and stigma on their way to becoming firsts in their adopted hometown of Chicago. Their coach Derrick Milligan also traveled with them to Fort Lauderdale to carry them through the competition.

Grant recipient filmmaker Luchina Fisher is supported by a professional production crew and was happy with the way the “shoot” went at the aquatics complex. The grant is from Queen Collective, led by Queen Latifah and sponsors offering an immersive film mentoring and development program for female directors of color working in entertainment and advertising. The successful collaboration is in its fourth year.

“National Senior Games was indeed fortunate to have a project featuring our athletes,” notes NSGA Director of Health & Wellness Andrew Walker. “These ladies have been ambassadors for NSGA and I was pleased to help facilitate making this a reality.”

Watch our monthly free e-newsletter The Long Run for updates when the documentary is available streaming or online.

John Schultz, 2009 Florida Senior Games Male Athlete of the Year

By Nick Gandy, Florida Senior Games

John Shultz has established himself as the most consistent gold medalist in Florida Senior Games Table Tennis history. He has won a medal in 29 of the 30 years of the Florida Senior Games.

He began winning medals in 1993, the second year of the Games, in the 55-59 age group.  He claims to have won a medal in the inaugural Games, but there are no records from that year.

In the 2021 Games, he won medals in the 85-89 age group and was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award, for competing in the Florida Senior Games in all four of its decades.

However, he has not been a regular fixture in the National Senior Games, presented by Humana. Since it’s in his home state, Shultz, now living in Sarasota, will be competing in all three events at the 2022 National Senior Games.

“I’m not a regular,” Shultz said. “I’ve played a half-dozen times in the National Games. The last time was in Pittsburgh (2005),” Shultz said.  He was a fifth place finisher in Men’s Singles in the 65-69 age group.

Shultz will be in a very competitive Men’s Singles event with 13 other athletes, including his Men’s Doubles partner, Dean Chickering, from The Villages. The duo have paired to win nine Florida Senior Games Men’s Doubles gold medals since 2008.  Since 1993, Shultz has won 28 Florida Senior Games gold medals.

However, his impressive accomplishments have come in Men’s Singles and Doubles.  Of the 28 gold medals, only one has come in Mixed Doubles.

With that in mind, Shultz, the 2009 Florida Senior Games Male Athlete of the Year, will be playing with the 2011 Florida Senior Games Female Athlete of the Year, Essie Faria, of Melbourne.  While the majority of Faria’s success has come in track and field events, she has won eight Florida Senior Games table tennis gold medals.

Essie Faria, 2011 Florida Senior Games Female Athlete of the Year.

“We decided to play together in the National Senior Games in December at the Florida Senior Games,” Shultz said. “We’ve played together one time before and she decided I was good enough to play with her.”

Faria has been busy at the 2022 National Senior Games winning a gold medal in the 85-89 age group in the 1500 Meter Power Walk and a silver medal in the 5K Power Walk.  She was a seventh-place finisher in the shot put. Besides teaming with Shultz, she will play Women’s Singles and team with Jane Pang, from Clermont, in the 80-84 age group.

While Shultz has a very competitive spirit, he and Faria have quite different personalities. Shultz is friendly, but not too vociferous.  Faria is the life of the party. At the 5K Road Race, she wore a t-shirt that read, Perfect 10.” At the Celebration of Athletes, she was an enthusiastic participant in the pre-celebration dance party.

No matter the differences in personality, Shultz and Faria are talented table tennis players in the 85-89 age group. Who knows, if the two of them end up with mixed doubles gold medals, an impromptu dance party will break out in the Broward County Convention Center.