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Sussex Post – Thursday, February 1, 2007

Senior has a golden moment.

Lisehora honored for promoting Delaware Senior Olympics

By Andy Walter

Delaware State News

MILLSBORO – for three quarters of a century, Marion Lisehora has been tackling any challenge she’s faced the same way.

Head on.

This is a woman who went from helping her high school basketball team win a state title to riding the diving horse off the Steel Pier to once competing in 21 events in the Delaware Senior Olympics.

Marion Lisehora Herm Reitze Award

So just because she’s 75 now, don’t try to tell the Millsboro woman she should be slowing down.

“I’ve told many people, ‘If I die on a volleyball court, don’t anybody feel sorry for me,”’ Lisehora jokes. “I’d be happy.

“Not that I’m intending to die on a volleyball court,” she adds quickly. “But I want to keep playing and playing and playing.”

And Lisehora doesn’t limit that enthusiasm just to herself. She tries to get as many other seniors as she can out there playing something as well.

That’s why Lisehora was presented with the Herm Reitzes Award at the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters 58th annual banquet in Wilmington on Sunday evening.

The award is presented to a Delawarean involved in athletics for their commitment to public service.

A member of the Delaware Senior Olympics Board of Directors since 1998, Lisehora simply hates to see people let opportunities pass them by.

I’m just very competitive, I guess,” she said. “And if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. I don’t find excuses for not doing it.

“If it means I don’t go to bed that night to get it done, it gets done. You see so many people now, they have 50 million excuses for anything – from a broken toenail to who knows what.”

In her role as Sussex County Coordinator for Women’s Teams, Lisehora has helped organize squads in women’s basketball, softball and volleyball. A total of seven teams in those sports have qualified for the National Senior Games, which will be held in Louisville, Ky. this year.

Formerly a physical education teacher in the Indian River School District for 31 years, Lisehora also takes her camera with her wherever she does. She’s put together scrapbooks and slide shows while submitting photos to local newspapers to help promote Senior Olympics.

Lisehora is also known as an advocate for senior athletic facilities in Sussex County.

I love working with these senior women and teaching them how to play.” Says Lisehora, “and coaching them and forming these teams.

“Some of them have good athletic ability because they played sports when they were younger. And then there are other people who really never were an athlete at any time in their life. But they come out, stick with it and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

“I just enjoy seeing the improvement and seeing them have such a good time.”

But maybe nothing makes Lisehora more proud than the five children she and her husband, Tony raised.

Barbara, Patty, Jim, Diane and George all became accomplished athletes in their own right. All the children but George, who lives in Hawaii drove to Wilmington – many from out of state – to see their mom honored on Sunday night.

Lisehora, who has won 189 medals in the Delaware Senior Olympics since 1992, plans on giving her kids plenty more to be proud of.

She points to a volleyball player she knows from the Huntsman World Senior Games, which are held annually in Utah. The woman from California is 87 years old.

“She’s wrinkled and weathered and really looks her age,” said Lisehora, “But she doesn’t play her age.

“So I look at that – she’s 12 years older than I am. I figure I’ve got a long time yet to play. That’s what keeps me going.”