Fifty of the sports offered by the Iowa Games this summer face a registration deadline today. Spokesman Cory Kennedy says it is the final registration deadline for 11 sports, including youth and adult basketball. He says many of the sports are team sports and it takes some time to get the teams together before the deadline.

Kennedy says they would like to have as many teams as possible enter but they need to set a deadline to get officials assigned and put the brackets together for the various age groups. “You might wonder why you can’t sign up closer to the tournament date, but it takes us a week or so to get the schedules done and getting the officials for several sports…and getting those schedules ready to go,” Kennedy says.

Kennedy says registering a team is different than signing up as an individual as you have the have the minimum number of roster players to sign up and then from the registration until the time of the games you have to turn in waiver forms,” Kennedy explains. The waivers require signatures of parents for athletes under 18.

Kennedy says as always it takes a lot of people to not only officiate but help run all the different events and venues and they are always looking for people to help. He says if you want to volunteer you can go to VisitAmes.com and sign up.

He says officials can give them a call and they can set you up with game times. Kennedy says with a staff of only 10 people, it takes quite a few volunteers. The Iowa Games will be held over three weekends during July with the main weekend being July 13th through the 15th.