Community sports: Parks & Rec finds new director in-house ... - 1

Chris Wilson has a new job. Well, sort of.

For the last nine months, Wilson has served as the interim director of Greensboro?s Parks and Recreation Department.

This week, the ?interim? tag came off that title.

Wilson has worked for Parks and Rec for all but one month of the last 21 years, starting out on the ground floor.

?I?m from a much smaller town, and my family traveled up to Greensboro for big trips,? Wilson said. ?At Christmas time, we?d come to Friendly Center to look at the decorations. I?ve always loved it here. Back in ?92 I got my first job with the city, teaching tennis and working on the tennis courts. It?s such a privilege to work here. It was such a cool place back then. And it?s still a cool place now.?Continue Reading

It?s a place Wilson wants to make even cooler.

Wilson said he sees his department?s work as a way to build a sense of community, and he points to the intersection of Florida and East Lee streets as an example.

Gateway Gardens is there. So is an improved Barber Park, with plans for a new Hayes-Taylor YMCA on site ? close to the UNCG/N.C. AT School of Nanoscience.

?The YMCA?s land lease is done. We?ve got that agreement,? Wilson said. ?They?re raising funds for construction. That?s going to happen. And it?s going to be great.?

A pet project is forming a Battleground Parks District, linking the Guilford Courthouse Military Park, the Natural Science Center, Country Park, Tannenbaum Historic Park, Jaycee Park, Lewis Recreation Center and Forest Lawn Cemetery.

?All those places are right on top of each other,? Wilson said, ?and right now, they all function independently. They?re not connected at all. ? When we surveyed people, most folks who go to one of those don?t think about the others. We?re going to work on that. We want to promote it as a destination spot, because it?s got everything: science, history, education and recreation.?

Wilson envisions ?a physical connection? between the different parks, which are already doing well. Country Park drew 800,000 visits last year with 400,000 more at the federal park, Wilson said.

?This could be a Mecca if you do it right,? Wilson said.

Gymnastics

The fourth annual Greensboro Gymnastics Invitational opened Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum and continues from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The meet, hosted by Flip Force Gymnastics of Kernersville, features more than 1,800 gymnasts ages 5-22 from 62 gyms in seven states. Men?s and women?s competitions are held in gymnastics, power tumbling and trampoline.

The meet also serves as a fundraiser for Gymnasts Curing Kids? Cancer, with $1 of each ticket sold donated to pediatric cancer research. Last year?s meet raised more than $5,000.

Tickets cost $12 for teens and adults, and $6 for children ages 6-12. Parking costs $8, with a $3 rebate on the price of one adult ticket.

Swimming

Eugene Godsoe, a Greensboro native and volunteer assistant coach at Stanford University, set a pair of meet records at the 33rd annual Walter Schroeder YMCA A+ Meet in Milwaukee, Wis., this week.

Godsoe, 25, won the 200-yard backstroke in 1 minute, 41.82 seconds ??shaving nearly a second off the meet record set in 2008 by Olympic gold-medalist Matt Grevers.

Godsoe also won the 100 back in a meet-record 45.47 seconds.

?My underwater kicking technique is definitely years in the making,? Godsoe told swimswam.com. ?? I spent my first three years of college trying to perfect it ? the speed, the power, the endurance, trying to hold your breath that long. It?s nice for me to have that weapon.?

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024, and follow @JefeMills on Twitter

Source: http://www.gymnasticsfeed.com/?p=1978

cynthia nixon cspan state of the union drinking game oscar noms capital gains tim thomas oral roberts