Sure, there's the thrill of pursuing medals, but the Alberta Summer Games are so much more.

Travis Cummings, the Zone 2 distance running head coach, sings praise to the Alberta Summer Games and the opportunity it provides Alberta youth to develop their potential as athletes.

Cummings, who also heads track and field at St.Timothy High School, says he has been encouraging students at his school to strive for a chance to represent the zone at the games. But he looks beyond that and believes it holds benefits for all Alberta youth.

Knowing he was going to have even more St. Tim's athletes qualify this time around, Cummings volunteered to head the Zone 2 distance team. The whole team has been holding twice-weekly practices at Mitford Park for over a month in preparation for this weekend's games.

"This is my first kick at the can, so it's been a bit of a learning curve. I knew we were going to have kids that were going to go, so I wanted to get involved and go watch them race. I've also had a chance to get to know some other kids in the community and work with them."

"I'm pretty stoked, actually. The practices have gone well over the last five or six weeks. We did pretty well and I've seen some pretty fast stuff in the last couple weeks of practice."

The big picture of the summer games is the opportunities it creates.

"It's a good way to expose them to events that you may not necessarily have time to coach so you can do it in the summer. It gets them out of their comfort zone."

"It's a great way to get young kids exposed to multi-events. It opens a lot of doors for them, which I think is awesome. So you're going to get the high performance at summer games but you'll also get the huge development, which I think is really important."

The Zone 2 athletes, including those from the Cochrane area, have now arrived in Grande Prairie and settling in to enjoy the opening ceremonies tonight. Competition begins Friday and continues until Sunday.

"We're going to have some good stuff coming out of Cochrane. The kids have been working really hard so I'm excited to see them go."