Special Olympics Unified Event
Held at THS November 12th
TREYNOR, IOWA – Nearly 200 Special Olympic athletes, coaches, and volunteers from southwest Iowa, approximately 50 Treynor High School boys’ and girls' basketball players, and about 15 cheerleaders joined forces on Tuesday, November 12th for a Unified Special Olympics event hosted by Treynor High School. This is the sixth year Treynor has hosted this event and participation has nearly tripled since the events inception.
According to Treynor Head Boys’ Basketball Coach Scott Rucker it was a successful day, “Our kids really look forward to this day and it is always a highlight of our year. We do it to help out and enrich the lives of our fellow athletes from the Special Olympics, but our students get so much out of it, too. The energy and enthusiasm from the Special Olympics athletes and coaches is inspiring.”
The day started with basketball players participating in dribbling, shooting, and passing competitions while the cheerleaders worked on skills and learned cheers. Special Olympics athletes and Treynor athletes then combined to form teams for four-on-four basketball games. While the players competed, the cheerleaders cheered for the teams. Lunch was provided by Treynor Community Schools Board of Education.
Special Olympics Iowa is a nonprofit organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities in all 99 counties of the state. Iowa has 11 areas throughout the state that serves nearly 11,000 athletes, participants and Unified Sports Partners annually.
Since 1968, Special Olympics Iowa has been serving the needs of children and adults with intellectual disabilities by providing sports training and competition in 23 Olympic-type sports. These programs would not be possible without the generous support of more than 15,000 volunteers.
Click on picture slideshow to the right to view some images captured by Coach Rucker & Cheer Coach Nicole Reed.
Treynor High School Contact: Scott Rucker, srucker@treynorcardinals.org
Special Olympics Southwest Iowa Contact: Katie Schrodt, kschrodt@soiowa.org