Frank Brocato
Frank Brocato
In just a few days, hundreds of athletes will descend on our city, and we can’t wait to roll out the red carpet! For the second year in a row, Hoover has been chosen to host The Hartford Nationals, conducted by Move United. The event will be held July 12-18 at various locations around Hoover and the Birmingham metro area.
The Hartford Nationals is the largest and longest-standing national sport championship event for athletes with a physical disability, visual impairment and/or intellectual disability. This is the 67th year for the event. More than 400 athletes and coaches are expected to participate in this weeklong series of events that include competitions, clinics, educational sessions and social opportunities. The sports include archery, para-triathlon, para-powerlifting, shooting, swimming, track and field and wheelchair tennis.
The Hartford Nationals is hosted locally by the city of Hoover, the Lakeshore Foundation and the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau. Activities will take place at the Hoover Met Complex, the Finley Center, the Lakeshore Foundation and Spain Park High School, along with the Birmingham CrossPlex and Oak Mountain State Park.
Move United is the nation’s leading community-based adaptive sports organization. Athletes that compete at the Hartford Nationals event must have qualified through more than two dozen sanctioned competitions that previously took place across the country throughout the Move United member network. In addition, this national competition has been a stepping stone for many athletes to go on and compete at the international level, including the Paralympic Games.
There are still volunteer opportunities for area residents. For more information, you can go to moveunitedsport.org/events/nationals.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank our city employees, police officers, firefighters and E-911 staff along with leaders of the Hoover City Schools system for their recent participation in two tabletop exercises. One involved an active shooter scenario at two of our schools, and the other involved a major weather event that impacted several schools. The goal was to bring all of these organizations together to participate in and get training on these hypothetical scenarios so that we are prepared to work together in case anything like this were to happen in our city. It was a very successful training exercise.
We certainly hope we never have a scenario that requires us to put this training to use, but we are prepared if need be.
Frank V. Brocato
Mayor of Hoover
