Northeast State Community College hosts Highland Games Clinic
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — On Saturday, athletes put on their kilts for Northeast State Community College’s (NESCC) Highland Games Clinic.
The Highland Games Clinic is an outdoor, field-day event celebrating Scotland’s Highland Games. News Channel 11 spoke with Nona Shepherd, the Chair of International Education at NESCC.
“There’s a really cool variety of games to learn. So there’s like wait over bar, there’s the sheaf, toss the hammer, throw the stone toss. I mean, there’s just such a wide variety of options to learn. And course there’s the caber toss, which is so, so, so much of an epitome of the Highland Games that people think about.”
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Athletes competed in traditional Scottish games like:
caber toss
hammer throw
open stone
Scottish backhold wrestling
sheaf toss
weight-for-distance
weight-over-the-bar
Shepherd said the community can learn about international education by participating in or spectating the Highland Games.
“In this case, we tried to think about a culture that maybe would connect with a lot of folks in this area. And so, so many people in the area have Scots-Irish heritage. So this is a great opportunity for them to explore that a little bit and learn a little bit more about that culture, which is what international education is all about, is, hey, let’s learn about people around the world.”
Shepherd told News Channel 11 that this is the second Highland Games, and the plan is to make it an annual event.
The International Education Program sponsors the event.
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