ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Liberal’s sports tourism industry has been steadily growing the past few years, and soon, it will see a big boost with the Sunflower State Games.
The Sunflower State Games is the largest amateur multi-sport festival in Kansas conducted annually three weekends in July. The Sunflower State Games are recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee and is governed by the National Congress of State Games, and Liberal’s events will be taking place July 20 and 21. Sports Tourism Director Orlando Padilla said there is a lot of excitement surrounding the coming festivities.
“What's great about this event is Liberal is the only community in Kansas that's hosting the soccer part of everything, so if there are teams from Wichita or Kansas City or anywhere else in Kansas that want to participate in an event like this, Liberal is what pops up when they're searching,” Padilla said. “Another really positive aspect of this event is how it's going to attract a lot of teams to Liberal and help with the sports tourism part of everything, which will benefit Liberal as a whole at the end of the day. We also get to use a lot of our facilities, such as Redskin Field, the Liberal High School East Campus field (which was recently turfed), the Eisenhower Middle School and Seymour Rogers Middle School fields, Leete Field, the Lambert Soccer Complex, and some others, which is also really great to be able to do. It's always great to showcase the facilities we have in Liberal because a lot of people just don't realize what all we offer – people typically think of Liberal for 'The Wizard of Oz' or Pancake Day and don't realize what all we have available for sports facilities, so it's great to showcase what we've got. And we've had so many people compliment us on our facilities and how clean they are and how well maintained they are, so that's also a great point of pride for us. The format for this event is three games guaranteed and everything starts from the 8U division and goes all the way up to 18U. What's great about having so many facilities is how well we can place everything and split everything in a way that's smooth and easy to keep track of. What's great about the schools' fields is how we can show them off to the older age groups, and those athletes actually get to compete against some of the people they compete against during the regular school season, which is always kind of neat, especially with the WAC. We also expect to see some of the traveling teams and the club teams that are a little more exclusive.”
With the event being so open, Padilla offered encouragement for teams throughout the state to sign up and participate.
“This event is going to be great because when everything is said and done, whichever teams comes out on top is going to have the bragging rights and that glory, and that's something you'll be able to bring up when the regular season comes around,” Padilla said. “Coming out to Liberal is going to be great for the teams that come because we get to showcase not only our sports facilities but also places like Adventure Bay Water Park and the Mid-America Air Museum and the Coronado Museum/Dorothy's House & the Land of Oz, among others. What's great about all of this, is getting this event was truly a team effort because I had several partners from the City of Liberal and some other local entities who did such a great job. We actually had to bid for this, and it was great to get the official announcement. For teams that do want to sign up, they would need to visit sunflowergames.com, and I've also shared some links on our LK Sports Facebook page and some other places. Basically, they would just need to visit that site and go through the process, it's actually pretty simple. The deadline for sign-ups is the week before the event, which will give us time to get everything scheduled and situated and formatted.”
Padilla also talked about what inspired him and his staff to officially bid for the event.
“I was doing some research one day, and I know Liberal's pretty well known for soccer in certain areas, so I was looking for events that could be brought to Liberal, and the Sunflower State Games popped up,” Padilla said. “I looked into it a little more and didn't see anything about soccer, which I thought was a little odd, so I reached out to the representative, and since nothing had been decided yet, we had a meeting and did some more talking. I later found out he also talked to Gov. Kelly about it, which made it all even cooler. With this, we can bring teams from not just this part of the state, but from ALL parts of the state, whether it's Central Kansas or Northeast Kansas or wherever – we want to bring all parts of the state to Liberal for this event. I want to showcase Liberal's affinity for sports and show how we can host these types of events. It was at night a little while ago when I got the call from the representative with the official news, and I legitimately started screaming and shouting from excitement, to the extent that I startled my wife and children. I waited until the next day to let everyone else know we'd officially gotten it, and everyone else was just as excited as I was.”
With this being the first year of Liberal hosting this part of the Sunflower State Games, Padilla said he has high expectations.
“We're super excited, and this is huge because of how it will help the sports tourism side and Liberal as a whole at the end of the day due to all the hotel bookings and the restaurants serving everyone and everything else,” Padilla said. “We know there will be a lot of people, but we feel like that's a good problem to have, especially with something like this. I want to have everything go smoothly and easily, and I also want to be able to show how great our facilities are and how great our hospitality is for the coaches and teams and everyone who comes through. We don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable at any point while they're in Liberal, we want everyone to feel welcome and feel like they're our guest. If there's anything that's needed, either myself or one of the staff will be able to help. With this being the first year, any number would be a success, but I would like to see 50 or more teams participate in this. We recently hosted a big baseball tournament, which brought in 35 teams, so if we can get 50 or more teams for this, I would be super, super happy, and I would love to see us keep growing from there. We know it'll be busy for everyone, but that's the way we want it. We want to see the fields and stands packed with this event with the players' friends and family members, and we want to see all the hotels and restaurants full of people. Our brochure includes a list of places to stay and places to eat, so there's no reason for anyone who comes to not find somewhere to stay and/or something to do.”
Overall, Padilla said, that weekend should be a great boost for Liberal.
“I'm grateful to have a great team working on this, from the original bid brochure to the maintenance people who will be getting the fields ready, and everyone else who worked. We've all worked together on this and worked so hard, and we'd love to see this be just an absolutely huge success,” Padilla said. “Like I said, at the end of the day, we want to showcase not only our sports facilities, but also Liberal as a whole so more people will know about us.”
