The Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center field house filled with basketball players is not such an unusual sight – unless some of those athletes are over the age of 90.

Athletes ages 50 and up competed against each other July 3-16 around the Twin Cities – including at St. Thomas – in the National Senior Games, a biennial sports competition designed to keep older athletes active.

“I’m just a big believer in staying in shape,” said basketball player Joyner Weems, who hopes to form his own over-80 team in the 2017 competition.

“It’s so much fun and the camaraderie, it’s just great,” he said.

According to the Games website, the competition is the “largest multi-sport event in the world for seniors.” More than 12,000 athletes competed this year in 19 different sports ranging from swimming to shuffleboard.

Athletes must qualify the previous year in their home states to move on to the national competition. If no team qualifies from their home state, they may join another state’s team.

The Games divide athletes by age group, but the competition doesn’t decrease with age.

“It’s competitive,” basketball player Clare Hanson, 83, said. “We play to win.”

Still, the draw of the Games is more about friendship and love of the sport than winning. Hanson hadn’t played basketball in 50 years when she heard about the Games in 2000.

“Saw an article in the paper about my team and thought, Hmm, I bet I could do that,” she said.

She has since played for 15 years, though she feels older than she used to.

“I have lots of aches and pains,” she said. “(But) if I sat home and nursed them, I’d end up being worse. You have to keep moving.”

Keep moving they do, practicing several times a week and making plans about the competition in 2017.

“The old saying is, you don’t stop playing when you get old, you get old if you stop playing,” Hanson said.

Elena Neuzil can be reached at neuz3833@stthomas.edu.