With the most athletes registered since 2005, friendships will be made, and renewed, as the 2016 Special Olympics Michigan Summer Games takes place in Mount Pleasant this week.

The 44th summer games, June 2-4 at Central Michigan University, will host 2,817 athletes — the most competitors since 2,838 attended 11 years ago. More than 2,000 volunteers and 391 coaches will assist athletes during the competition.

The Hope Torch will be lit Thursday on the steps of the State Capitol Building in Lansing and run nine hours up U.S. 127 to Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Thursday's opening ceremony at 6:30 p.m. in Kelly/Short Stadium is a major highlight for the athletes, said SOMI Chief Program Officer Ann Guzdzial.

"How cool is it to enter a college football stadium and know you are the center of attention?" she said. "With all of the pomp and circumstance that goes with it, it really makes them feel very special."

Guzdzial said the closing ceremony and dance, 7-9 p.m. Friday in Kelly/Shorts Stadium, is another athlete and volunteer favorite because of the energy that comes with it.

Senior Marketing and Communications Director Aaron Mills said the dance is traditionally kicked off by Baha Men's 2000 single "Who Let the Dogs Out?" pumping up the crowd.

"It is not a Special Olympic Michigan games unless you hear that (song)," he said. "It's almost like when Wisconsin plays 'Jump Around' at a football game — everyone knows it's go time. It turned into a tradition."

Country singer Kari Lynch, of Clare, will play songs from her new album "Little Games" at the closing ceremony.

The theme of the summer games is heroes, Guzdzial said, because "all of our athletes are heroes in our eyes, along with our volunteers." The group with the best dressed heroes will win a spirit award.

"Everybody who gives to the games to make this special for our athletes, in one way or another is a hero. They bring the best out of our athletes and themselves," Guzdzial said.

The summer games include 22 sports, ranging from volleyball to horseshoes to power lifting.

One event will be absent from the schedule this year. After two summers of hosting a kayaking clinic in the Student Activity Center pool, SOMI moved the event to its Fall Games in Ypsilanti.

Project Unified, an initiative dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition experiences, will bring 300 students from around the state to compete on Thursday, Project Unified Day, side-by-side with Olympians in bowling and bocce.

"It brings people with and without intellectual disabilities together on the playing field, showing how they are more alike than different. It's formed friendships and bonds," she said.

In his 40th year of volunteering, SOMI games director and former CMU faculty member Steve Thompson will serve as Grand Marshal.

"The thing that always centered me was working with Special Olympics," he said. "For three or four days, you see results. Things don't always go right, but ultimately you see results. You see happy faces. You see people working together for a common goal. At the end of the day, you have fun stories."

After four decades of volunteering, which began when he was 27, Thompson said volunteers either get hooked right away or "it's not for them."

Many of the volunteers began in college, Guzdzial said, and haven't stopped because of the bonds formed with athletes, other volunteers and the games as a whole.

"A lot of our volunteers started in college. Now they're in their professional careers and are coming back year after year to volunteer," she said. "They’ve formed friendships and bonds with the athletes. Once the athletes know your name, they look for you every year. They look forward to seeing each other and the volunteers who come back."

Not all of SOMI's 23,000 athletes get to attend the statewide summer games every year, Mills said. Athletes from 39 areas, or districts, of Michigan compete to qualify for the state games at local and regional competitions throughout the year. The summer games, he said, is unlike any other event put on for these athletes.

"To them, it is one of the most amazing experiences because it's unlike any competition they've ever been apart of before," Mills said. "Our state summer games is one of the largest in the country. It's just a massive, all out, giant competition with fun mixed it. It's a time for them to come out and show people what they can do, versus what people say they can't do."

What's equally impressive, Mills said, is turning around from the startling line and looking at the proud parents.

"Everyone is proud of their kids. I can only imagine how proud they are to see their sons and daughters do things everybody told them they could never do," he said.

The summer games is presented by SpartanNash. Mills said SpartanNash is in charge of supplying, cooking and distributing food to the 2,000 volunteers during the three-day event.