Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Joys of Special Olympics

Tonight was the "Awards Ceremony" for Special Olympics Soccer. I've been actively volunteering with a local Special Olympics group for over a year now. I also did Special Olympics coaching in Texas (Bowling and Track and Field).

Special Olympics is, by far, the most spectacular organization out there. I'm telling you, these kids fall in love with sports. They deserve to participate in sports activities, but have never had the opportunity to! I coached the "Developmental Skills" program for Soccer. Basically, how to put cleats on, how to wear shin guards (and tolerate them), how to kick (ever so lightly), what a "goal" is, chasing after the ball, and basic following directions skills. These are the kids that are brand new to a sport with Special Olympics. I also coached Developmental Basketball Skills last year. That was so fun. I would hold the kids up on my shoulders so they could make a basket. It's not all fun and games - I also coached the junior team (8-12) and we won the Silver Medal in the State Games last year! They come running towards me, shout "Coach Sarah! Guess what?" They are a great group of kids.

People ask me, "You do that after a full day of your job?" Yeah, I do. I love it so much, that yes, I do! I was a little nervous in the beginning, that I had taken on too much. Or that I wouldn't be able to be fully there for the kids because I'd be so exhausted with my grad school work, job, other duties of being a 26 year old. I was wrong! Even on my most tiring days, to walk into the gym and have the kids run up to me, hug me, call me over to watch them shoot, it made it all worthwhile.

Tonight, the parents got flowers for the coaches. After all of the kids got their trophies and medals, the parents stood up to deliver "the coaches awards." They stood up and said great things. One mother said that I, "Have a passion for what I do and the kids know it, and the parents appreciate it." They gave me flowers. They said, "Thank you for all that you do for our kids." It felt so good. Not that I need to be recognized, but in my field, it's not a frequent thing!

As a side note, they presented an award to a little boy tonight. This kid is 13 years old and for his "Bar Mitzvah project" (?) he started up "Unified Sports" in this township's Special Olympics group. He got all of his friends to come and play soccer. It caught on, and more and more kids joined. We had a huge group of "typical" kids playing with our Special Olympics athletes. What a cool kid to take on a project like that and share it with his friends.

If you've never had a chance to check out Special Olympics and all of the wonderful things that happen, please do. Even if you just watch. The smiles will pull you in. There are often "day-events" that you can volunteer for, even if you know nothing about sports (filling out name-tags, being a "runner," to take athletes from one event to the next, scoring, ribbons, awards ceremony, passing out drinks, refilling water bottles, the works!)

I could see myself working for Special Olympics some day. I'd like to look into starting a Unified Sports team (probably basketball) at my school. That would be a great way to bridge the gap between my kiddos and the other kids. Maybe we could achieve success with sports, too!


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