Several Sage Park Middle School students will follow Geno Auriemma, Maya Moore, and the rest of the Huskies to St. Louis. After sitting in a sky box on Sunday to watch the UConn women take on Stanford University in the Final Four, the Windsor students will represent their state in an athletic competition of their own Monday.
The team will compete in the NCAA Pinnacle of Fitness Challenge. Nine teams from across the country will vie for individual and team success at Hoop City in St. Louis' America's Center. The venue is next door to the ScotTrade Center, where the UConn women will seek their sixth national championship.
Meanwhile, the UConn men will be in Detroit this weekend, playing Michigan State University in the other Final Four.
The Windsor students are hoping to help make a clean sweep for the state.
They'll take part in the President's Challenge physical fitness activities, which include the sit-and-reach, curl ups, pull ups, shuttle run, and the quarter-mile walk/run.
Whatever the result, physical education teacher Tracey DiMona said she hopes her students enjoy the experience. Many of them will be flying on an airplane for the first time.
"Our kids are kind of bouncing off the walls right now," DiMona said. "They are very excited."
The students won the right to take the trip during the first round of the women's NCAA tournament. During the halftime of a game played at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Sage Park defeated students from Mansfield, qualifying them for the national competition.
It will be a packed schedule for the students, who fly to St. Louis on Sunday to watch the first two semifinal games.
They will compete Monday against teams from across the country, including Atlanta, San Diego, and Raleigh, N.C. Winning teams and individual competitors will receive banners and trophies.
The students will fly home following the competition, in time to watch the men's national championship Monday night and the woman's championship game Tuesday.
"We're really proud of the kids we have going and the efforts they've put forth," DiMona said.
