SAN FRANCISCO, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Northern California Chinese Culture-Athletic Federation (NCCCAF) will hold its 17th sports meeting early next month, which will gather not only traditional Chinese American players, but also participants from non-Chinese communities, an organizer has said.

NCCCAF Executive Secretary Betty Yuan told Xinhua Sunday the sports meet, which features a variety of events like track-and-field, basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis and martial arts, will present a new look this year that is different from previous practices, including participation of players from non-Chinese communities.

"The annual sports meeting was indeed sponsored and organized by the NCCCAF, but it was not necessarily a Chinese community-only event, and it should be kept open to other communities so that inter-community communication and cooperation could be achieved via sports activities," Yuan said.

"Such an expansion of participants from non-Chinese communities is even more important and relevant when the China-U.S. relations are currently experiencing some tensions, which call for more interactions between different communities that lead to their better mutual understanding," she said.

For the NCCCAF and the sports meeting themselves, such a transition would be a big, first-time change for the future development of the major community-based sports event in Northern California, Yuan explained.

As the first step, Yuan added, the NCCCAF invited Douglas Frisbie, a U.S. track-and-field event management expert, to serve as an adviser to the organizing committee of the annual sports meeting to oversee the track and field program.

"I'm very proud to be a part of it. I do quite a bit of work in China ... and am very active in the USATF track and field program," he told a press conference on announcing the 17th annual NCCCAF sports meeting Saturday.

USATF, or USA Track & Field, is the U.S. national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross-country running, road running and race-walking.

Frisbie said track and field is a very important sport and he was proud to see the NCCCAF is working to keep that alive.

"It's one of the few sports where younger athletes are acknowledged for their achievements and being the part of the team," he said, adding that the track and field event will teach people a lot of good lessons for young adults and children.

"I'm hoping that this will be carried on in the future and help keep this event alive both here and China," he said.

The 17th NCCCAF sports meeting will be officially launched in Union City in the Bay Area on Aug. 10. More than 1,000 players from tens of various Chinese communities attended last year's sports meet.