“Stars, Stripes and Fair Nights” is the theme for the 2025 Juniata County Youth Fair at the Juniata County fairgrounds in Port Royal. Schedule of Juniata County 4-H and FFA exhibits:

Monday, July 21

9 a.m — Rabbit Show

1 p.m — Dairy Market Feeder Show

5 p.m — Opening Ceremony (Livestock barn)

7 p.m — Dairy Show (Ice Cream Social to Follow)

Tuesday, July 22

9 a.m — Goat Show

1 p.m — Sheep Show

Wednesday, July 23

9 am — Poultry Show

Noon — Beef Show

4 to 7 p.m — Silent Auction: Baking Contest, Decorated Cakes, Butter, and Club Baskets (Commercial Building)

5 p.m — Swine Show

Following Swine Show — Ag Olympics (Sponsored by Juniata FFA)

Thursday, July 24

10 a.m — Supreme Showmanship Contest

Following Supreme Showman — Animal Costume Contest

4:30 p.m — Buyer Registration Begins

6 p.m — Livestock Sale

Food trucks will be on site.

For more information, contact Juniata County Penn State Extension 4-H Educator, Emily Shoop, at (717) 436-7744.

[July 14, 2025] Special Olympics and Nike announced a three-year global partnership to further the longtime collaboration between the two global organizations to create access to sport for all youth. This new, global phase of the partnership elevates and expands upon Nike’s more than two decades of support of Special Olympics Oregon, recent support of Special Olympics Berlin and grants to other local Programs.

This partnership has been announced in tandem with Global Week of Inclusion (14 – 20 July), which is a week organized by Special Olympics every year marking the anniversary of the founding of Special Olympics. It is a worldwide celebration of unity, empowerment, and acceptance bringing together people with and without intellectual disabilities to foster inclusive communities. In 2025, we’re celebrating 57 years of Special Olympics and inviting our partners and the community to help amplify this milestone like never before.

Special Olympics (SO) and Nike are focused on setting a new standard for coach education and retention for Special Olympics Unified Sports®, the Special Olympics program where athletes with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) play together on the same team. This work is critical to the shared mission of sport for development, which is the intentional use of sport, physical activity, and play to promote positive social change. This partnership will be delivered through Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® (UCS). The support to UCS will help advance Nike’s commitment to powering the future of youth sport where all youthhave access to sport. In addition to innovating their coach training for all Special Olympics Unified Sports coaches globally according to the most recent evidence-based and expert-informed guidance on quality and inclusive youth sport coaching.

The partnership will concentrate on four key communities: Oregon, Berlin, Johannesburg, and Tokyo. Nike will engage its employees as volunteers in all four communities as a key element of the partnership, beginning with employee volunteer opportunities at both Special Olympics Oregon and Special Olympics Berlin Summer Games this July.

“Our global partnership with Nike will strengthen our sport for development initiatives by expanding our world-class coaching tools and increasing gender parity in our Unified Sports programs.” said Mary Davis, CEO at Special Olympics International. “Utilizing our capabilities as a force for inclusive education, along with support from a fellow global sports leader in Nike, allows us to broaden the meaningful opportunities available to Special Olympics athletes and coaches.”

Over the course of the three-year partnership, Nike and Special Olympics will collaborate on updating Special Olympics’ Global Unified Sports Coach courses and train-the-trainer materials, leveraging Nike’s three decades of youth sport coaching experience and deep insights with global partners and experts focused on quality coaching that’s inclusive and welcoming to all youth. They will also work to recruit more Unified Sports coaches to more closely reflect community demographics—with the ambition of training and certifying more than 600 additional volunteer coaches across the four key communities. The two organizations also aim to create more opportunities for young women and girls to access Unified Sports.

“Coaching and supporting players in Unified Basketball games has been one of the most rewarding parts of my role. Seeing proud parents moved to tears as they watch their child achieve so much, witnessing Unified partners form genuine friendships with Special Olympics athletes, and watching teams play with respect—not dominance—fills me with pride,” said Jamaal Goodlow, Unified Basketball Coach of Parkrose High School in Portland, Oregon. “As a properly trained Unified coach, I know how essential it is to foster inclusion, teamwork, and mutual respect on and off the field.”

Dakar 2026 will be the first Youth Olympic Games to benefit from the IOC’s evolved approach to the YOG sports programme, designed to better fit the local context.

There are 25 competition sports and 10 engagement sports on the programme at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

The 25 competition sports are athletics (track and field), aquatics (swimming), archery, badminton, baseball (baseball5), basketball (3×3), boxing, breaking, cycling (road cycling), equestrian (jumping), fencing, football (futsal), gymnastics (artistic gymnastics), handball (beach handball), judo, rowing (coastal rowing), rugby (rugby sevens), sailing, skateboarding (street), table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball (beach volleyball), wrestling (beach wrestling) and wushu.

The 10 engagement sports for Dakar 2026 are canoe-kayak, golf, hockey, karate, modern pentathlon, shooting, sport climbing, surfing, tennis and weightlifting.

Sports principles

Aiming at providing a sustainable and credible model for Dakar 2026, an updated set of sports principles has been developed. These limit each sport to just one discipline. The venue and operational strategy maximise the use of existing venues and promote the sharing of venues and fields of play. NOC representation and participation principles will ensure a pathway for all NOCs to Dakar 2026, with a strong focus on the African NOCs and athletes, as well as continental representation across all sports.

Dakar 2026 will be fully gender-balanced in both the overall athlete quota and across every sport, discipline and event. This acts on one of the sports principles for Dakar 2026. Out of the 153 events across all sports on the programme, there are 73 for each gender and seven mixed events. Meanwhile, the athlete quota for the Games has been set at 2,700, reflecting the IOC’s determination to delivering a tailored and efficient programme that preserves the elite nature of the event, while guaranteeing a competitive platform for young athletes worldwide.

The maximum age for participants will be 17 at the time of the Games, with the respective age requirements aligned with International Federation and elite athlete pathways where possible.

Participation principles

The IOC Executive Board approved the Participation Principles for the Dakar 2026 YOG on 17 March 2025, reinforcing the event’s commitment to universality, gender equality and strong African representation. The revised participation and entries process aligns with the strategic priorities of NOCs and IFs, ensuring an inclusive and merit-based athlete selection system. Key principles include:

• Providing an opportunity for the athletes from the territories of 206 NOCs and the Youth Refugee Olympic Team to participate.
• Prioritised participation for all 54 African NOCs, and host country representation across sports and disciplines where possible.
• Central management of the athlete quota by the IOC to uphold these principles, while maintaining competitive integrity, with a focus on youth development and alignment with existing NOC and IF investment pathways.
• IFs establishing the minimum sporting and eligibility criteria for participation in their respective events at the YOG.
• Having an equal number of quota places for women and men across the disciplines.

The framework also removes the requirement for YOG-specific qualification events, easing financial and logistical pressures on the NOCs, IFs, NFs and athletes. This structured approach ensures a fair and accessible pathway for participation, while strengthening the global impact of the YOG.

Brayden Davis of Olive touches home plate after a three-run home run Sunday. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Olive Orange Pony Bronco 12-and-under baseball all-stars are headed to the super regional beginning Friday in Corona.

The Orange squad clinched a berth in the super regional with a 12-1 victory over Santa Ana Sunday in the regional tournament at Placentia Champions Sports Complex. Olive missed a chance to advance to the regional championship when it lost to Torrance 13-12 later Sunday.

Undefeated Placentia faces Torrance Monday, July 14 at 5 p.m. in the championship game.

“We get to move on from there,” said Manager Shea Shandra after Sunday’s win over Santa Ana. “We have goals for these tournaments and definitely getting to move on to the super regions is a big day for us.

“We actually got to take district, so that let us skip section tournament and now we know we get to move on.”

To see more photos, click on the first picture:

Orange starter Victor Ayala gets ready to throw a pitch vs. Santa Ana.

Santa Ana’s Gilbert Ortiz heads to the plate.

Alexander Velasco of Olive scores a run Sunday.

Players from Olive and Santa Ana exchange handshakes after Sunday’s game.

Orange Olive also defeated South Bay 8-0 before losing to Placentia 12-7 on Saturday. Olive stayed alive with an 11-1 victory over John Mendez from Wilmington on Saturday.

In Sunday’s game vs. Santa Ana, Victor Ayala pitched a five inning no-hitter, striking out six and walking three. Gilbert Ortiz drove in the only run for Santa Ana with a groundout in the first inning.

“A no-hitter for Victor, he’s had another one, he’s our workhorse,” Shandra said.

Ayala also had a three-run home run for Olive during a four-run first inning. Jake Schierberi also had an RBI single in the inning.

Ayala was not aware he had pitched a no-hitter until after the game.

“I’m proud of myself, I didn’t think I could do it against that team knowing that they had a lot of good hitters especially the very top half, they could all hit really well,” he said.

“It’s really nice to see my team go on, maybe we can go past to zone’s like last year, maybe we can go more games in zone if we make it.”

Olive moved ahead 8-1 with four more runs in the second inning. Enrique Triana and Ben Hirsch had RBI singles and Brayden Davis had a sacrifice fly.

Davis put the game out of reach with a three-run home run in the third inning. Davis was 2 for 2 with four RBI and two runs scored.

Leadoff hitter Ethan De La Palma had a double, walked two times and scored three runs; Alexander Velasco had an RBI single and scored a run; Hirsch had two hits and an RBI;Matthew Dayton had a single and scored two runs and Triana had two hits and an RBI.

Santa Ana opened the tournament with a 15-4 victory over Olive Green Wednesday, then defeated East Long Beach 6-5 on Thursday. Santa Ana lost to Torrance 9-5 but stayed alive in the double elimination tournament with a 10-5 victory over East Long Beach Saturday.

Placentia and Torrance will also be moving on to the super regional in Corona.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com

Registration for fall soccer, football, cheerleading and volleyball is opening this week for children ages 5-14 through the Ramstein and Vogelweh youth sports program. (Areca Bell/U.S. Air Force)

Registration for fall cheerleading, football, soccer and volleyball is now open for children ages 5-6 through the youth sports program serving Ramstein Air Base and Vogelweh Housing Area.

Registration for ages 7-8 begins Tuesday, followed by ages 9-10 on Wednesday and ages 11-14 on Thursday. Sign-ups close for all age groups at 5 p.m. July 25.

An active account with the Air Force’s child and youth program business modernization system and current sports physical are required. Homeschooled children must also provide an immunization record.

Registration costs $80 and space is limited. More information is available on the Ramstein and Vogelweh youth sports program website.