Not only is Houston the site for the NCAA championship game this April, it will also be host to the 2011 Summer National Senior Games.

From June 16 – 30, Houston will be overrun with athletic seniors. They expect over 15,000 competitors alone! That’s a far cry from the 2,500 competitors at the inaugural event in 1987.

The National Senior Games Association (NSGA) started in 1985. They hold both summer and winter games. The 2011 winter games will be held in Rochester, New York .

Basketball is one of the 18 sports participants will compete in at the summer event in Houston. There are two basketball divisions – 50+ and, get ready, 70+. Yes, that’s referring to age.

There are divisions in every state and there’s probably one close to you. The teams have great names, for instance – the Orlando Fossils!

There is even a National Senior Games Hall of Fame founded in 1992 by Jack Scott Fones – who is the organizer of the Gulf Coast (FL) Senior Olympics; a sports columnist; editor, Senior Floridian and former TIME editor, public relations and advertising executive.

If you can believe it, there are no basketballers in the list of inductees! Maybe you can change that.

Why wait until you retire?

So many retirees tell me that they stay so busy they aren’t sure how they ever had time to work. I think it’s because they are finally getting to do all the things they put off during the time they worked.

Wouldn’t it make great sense to embark on a sports-centered hobby before you retire? I mean, hey, think of the stress-reduction and health benefits of a vigorous game of basketball once or twice a week – things like:

• staying in shape
• improving stamina
• maintaining strength
• building endurance
• stretching your flexibility (sorry, couldn’t resist) and
• the fun.

If that sounds like a good idea (and why wouldn’t it?) start by visiting us at the Basketball Goal Store.  We have provided more families with Goalrilla Basketball Hoops than any other location in the country.

A premium, in-ground Goalrilla basketball hoop meets NBA and NCAA regulations and ASTM safety standards so practice would be on the same level of equipment as competitive play.

Practice and play with the best so you are ready to be the best – now and later.

-Pat of the Basketball Goal Store Blog Team