VENTURA : Seniors Prepare for Olympic Competition

Louis Kiligas snuggled a black disk into the pronged ends of a long pole Wednesday, and with an arc-like motion of his arm, sent the disk gliding across the green shuffleboard court.

“It’s easy to learn and the camaraderie is great,” the 78-year-old Ventura resident said of shuffleboard, his favorite sport and cherished pastime. “I’ve never met a shuffleboarder I didn’t like.”

Next month, Kiligas will get a chance to meet some new competitors when he participates in the annual Gold Coast Senior Olympics. The shuffleboard contest, which runs Oct. 4-6, will be held at the Ventura Senior Recreation Center on East Santa Clara Street.

Friday is the last day to register for the Senior Olympics, which also includes competitions in golf, 8-ball pool, tennis, basketball free throw, bowling, lawn bowling, a 5K run and walk, bridge, slow-pitch softball, table tennis, racquetball and swimming.

The Olympics kicks off Oct. 1 with swim matches at the Ojai Valley Racket Club, and wraps up Oct. 16 with a Big Band dance at the Colony Harbortown Marina Resort in Ventura.

Shuffleboard players from the Ventura Imperial club--a group started at a Telephone Road mobile home park--are taking their competition in stride. No big deal, insists club president Kiligas--the group competes in league games every Friday morning anyway, with other clubs from across west Ventura County.

“This is one of many tournaments we play in all year long,” Kiligas said.

Still, the Imperial shuffleboarders say they welcome any chance they get to practice their craft.

“I love it,” said Rose Ross, 81, who has played shuffleboard since she moved to Ventura in 1975. “My husband passed away and now I’m all alone. It’s healthy for you to have something to do.”

Besides, she confided, “I’ve got 13 trophies!”

Eugene de Hermida, 76, also of the Ventura Imperials, said he, too, will compete in the Senior Olympics next month. De Hermida walks gingerly and leans heavily on a cane. Shuffleboarding, he said, is the perfect sport for someone like him.

“It doesn’t take any physical strength to play--any more strength, anyway, than shoving a disk down a waxed court,” he said. “It takes skill.”