The Special Olympics were hosted at Carroll Senior High School on Feb 3. Eight teams participated, alongside just over 30 individual athletes.
The event has two sections: skills and team-based. The skills section allows students aged seven to 17 to practice basketball skills like dribbling; throwing through hoops, hula hoops, and in a box on the wall; bouncing the ball over a bar; and free throws from different points on the lines.
“Dribbling and shooting are my favorite parts, for sure,” a NRH Heat team member said.
The team-based section is a basketball tournament, where teams have athletes both with and without special needs. The Mustang Panthers, Keller Falcons, Keller Chargers, Blazers, Keller Wolverines, Keller Panthers, and NRH Heat, an adult team, all competed against the Dragons, who won their first game against the Keller Chargers, and then played against the Blazers, winning the entire tournament.
“I would say I’m good at it,” senior athlete Wyatt Kwentus said. “It’s always been my sport.”
The event also gives people a great opportunity to connect and make friends. While students make friends through classes at school, the Olympics often expand friend groups through the team-focused play.
“Socialization is the most important thing about the Special Olympics—building relationships with the children, the kids who are in the Special Olympics, and parents,” Jennifer Needham, mother of senior athlete Ashlyn Needham, said. “Parents get to form [relationships, too], I mean some of these kids are older or younger, so you never would have met them otherwise.”
For more on Special Olympics at CSHS make sure to watch the Feb. 9 episode of KDGN.
