For the last eight years, the West Texas Track Club has held a meet to honor Nikolas Moralez whose life was tragically cut short.
The annual event, called the Nikolas Moralez Mini Olympics, returns this week, beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday before continuing Friday and finishing on Saturday at Ratliff Stadium.
The event is an emotional one for West Texas Track Club meet coordinator Stella Neboh, whose son, Dexter Neboh, was good friends with Moralez.
14-year old Moralez died in a car accident on the last day of eighth grade at Bonham Junior High back in 2012.
“We’ve done this meet for several years,” Stella said. “This meet is to honor a kid who was my son’s best friend and classmate who suddenly died in a motor accident on the last day of the secondary year. My son couldn’t think of how to honor his friend and then came up to me and asked if we could hold a track meet to honor Nikolas Moralez. They were good friends. I saw Nik as one of my sons. They stayed at the house a lot. It’s always a touchy event for me. I’ve honored him every year and I will continue to honor him so long as I’m here and can breathe.”
The three-day track and field meet follows the AAU standards with athletes ranging from 2-19.
The Tiny Tots Division (children ages 2-6) will compete first on Thursday with the long jump and the running events following after.
“We have kids coming in from all over Texas to compete,” Neboh said. “The Tiny Tots compete in 50 meters, 100 meters and long jump. We also put together a relay for them as well. It’s an inclusive meet and I want to reach out to as many athletes as I can and keep them active over the summer. That’s my goal.”
The rest of the divisions will begin competing on Friday with the field events starting at 4:30 p.m.
An opening ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Ratliff Stadium which will include recognition of the Moralez Family, an opening prayer and a balloon release.
The running events are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Saturday’s competition begins with the field events at 7:30 a.m.
The running events will take place after the completion of the field events.
This week’s Mini Olympics is one of the numerous track and field meets taking place at Ratliff Stadium in the coming weeks.
Next week, the West Texas AAU Regional Meet will take place from June 22-24. The following week will be the 20th Annual Dr. Daniel Cepero Memorial Track and Field Meet from June 29-July 1.
“Both the Mini Olympics and the Cepero meet are pretty similar in the sense that we are honoring people that have touched the lives of the community,” Neboh said. “Nikolas Moralez touched the lives of everyone. Cepero was a physician here in Midland and Odessa until he died but he was also the chairman of our track club. He played a big role in establishing the West Texas Track Club. He used his resources to make sure that kids that did not have whatever to participate, he provided. He provided running shoes, spikes and he always told us that having the track meet in the summer was great for the kids. It would keep them healthy and fit.”
For more information about the upcoming track and field meets, go to https://tinyurl.com/3cj5h69m.
