Growing challenge

     By Todd Dewey
     View staff writer
      When it first started 15 years ago, it was designed, in part, to help lure people to Las Vegas.
      Now, like the city itself, the Corporate Challenge can barely keep up with its growth.
      More than 20,000 employees from 150 local companies recently competed in 30 events over five weeks at 25 sites around the city.
      It was the biggest and best year yet for the Olympic-style games, said Dave Parker, who's in his 15th year as Corporate Challenge coordinator.
      "I saw more sportsmanship and people cheering each other on than I can ever remember," Parker said. "This was a great year."
      The Corporate Challenge, which is put on by the city of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services, has come a long way since starting with 2,000 competitors in 15 events in 1986.
      "This is what the whole thing is about -- bringing people together," Parker said. "You get together and meet new people and have the opportunity to get physically fit. I just think it's the greatest community event going anywhere."
      The goal of Corporate Challenge is to bring together employees from a wide range of companies to compete outside of the workplace. With a focus on fitness, employee morale and team spirit, Corporate Challenge has grown to become the largest amateur athletic event of its kind in the state and the largest Corporate Challenge in the country.
      "That's something the city can really be proud of," Parker said. "The interesting thing, too, is that what Las Vegas has created as a community program is being duplicated all over the country. We got the idea from Kansas City, but, to a point, when people want to do a Corporate Challenge, they call Las Vegas to find out how to do it."
      The 125 company teams were divided into four divisions, based on size. The A Division was for teams with 2,000 employees or more. The B Division was comprised of companies with between 500 and 1,999 employees. The C Division was made up of teams with between 151 and 500 employees, and the D Division featured companies of 150 employees or fewer.
      All companies are welcome to compete, no matter how small. A team called "6 Pack," for instance, was comprised of six companies that couldn't field a team of their own.
      The events ranged from archery to volleyball and included basketball, a bike race, bocce, bowling, broom ball, a canoe race, chess, darts, eight-ball, fishing, golf, horseshoes, laser tag, racquetball, range shooting, shuffleboard, skeet shoot, soccer, softball, swimming, table tennis, a 5-kilometer run, tennis, track and field, trap shoot and a tug-o-war.
      Bellagio won the A Division title with 157 points. Nellis Air Force Base was second with 120 points and the Clark County School District placed third with 104. The city of Las Vegas finished fourth (83 1/2) and Caesars Palace took fifth (79).
      The Mirage (74), the Las Vegas Hilton (46), The Venetian (35), Clark County (35) and Treasure Island (26) rounded out the top 10.
      "Over the years, The Mirage has done great, Nellis Air Force Base has done great and so has the Clark County School District," Parker said.
      Southwest Gas edged M&O by a half-point -- 144 1/2 to 144 -- to capture the B Division crown. Bechtel Nevada took third with 102 points, Sprint placed fourth with 90 1/2 and Nevada Power Co. finished fifth with 88 1/2 points.
      G.C. Wallace Inc. took home the C Division title with 130 1/2 points. Kerr McGee placed second with 101, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority placed third with 95 points, Pentacore finished fourth with 83 1/2 points and Wackenhut Services finished fifth with 82 points.
      The EEA won the D Division championship with 134 points. The Department of Energy and the IT Corp. tied for second with 78. Deloitte & Touche finished fourth with 76 points and Martin & P/Martin placed fifth with 64.
      "Among the little teams, the ones that have done the best job are the DOE and the EEA and an engineering firm that has dominated the last few years, G.C. Wallace," Parker said.
      Parker expects the event to continue to thrive.
      "People look forward to this. They plan all year for this," he said. "We're really only scratching the surface of this program, too. We had to kind of limit it because of the ability to find sites to do things and the time it takes to put it on."