A Brief Note On Raleigh County Special Olympics

Last year was the first time I worked the Special Olympics, and I didn’t know what to expect. I signed up for it with my basketball team because the Special Olympians would be playing basketball and volunteers were needed to help run the scoreboard and keep time. Mr. Campbell, the man in charge, told me that the opportunity to play basketball will be an incredible experience for the special needs participants, but working the event will have an even greater affect on me. I was

For this activity I was responsible for being part of our interview panel to hire our middle school basketball coaches. We hired four coaches to help mentor our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade boys’ basketball teams. I was part of a three person interview panel that featured our principal, athletic director, and me. This interview process was the first time I’ve been a part of hiring someone to feel a need at the school. The topic we interviewed is something I was comfortable with because I have coached basketball the past six years. I felt like I could find us the right fit and discussed the opportunity to be a part of the hiring process because of the need of this internship activity. It’s hard to find an interview process during the year for teachers, but I believe coaching is a great substitute for teaching because it is an extension of the classroom. Learning how to play a sport and how you conduct yourself on the court can help you later in life. I wanted to find a candidate that could be a role model for the students and help teach them life lessons through the game of basketball. We all agreed we are looking for someone who will stress that basketball doesn’t come above our education and our families. Our school has struggled with student achievement and I think sports can help motivate students to do better in the classroom. The class that best aligns with the hiring process is EL 5623. This class helped us learn

I was born into a competitive family and I fell in love with the desire to compete. Everyone who I have been coached by in my athletic career has taught me the importance of winning and how much more enjoyable it is when you are part of a successful team. I processed all my information and I still had been unable to put it all together. I emailed Mr. Spear and I asked him for some advice over the summer as the school year rapidly approached. He got back to me rather quickly and told me various ideas, but one of them caught my eye and it was something that was right there the whole time: Coaching. Since I was young, I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to learn from so many coaches, I knew it would be a superb opportunity to get myself involved in coaching. It was important for me to find a valuable way to enter into coaching and that’s when I learned the clear way to get involved in coaching is by entering into youth sports. But, I still felt that the coaching part itself was not enough to get me through the year, so I decided to implicate another part of my project. I wanted to learn league

Furthermore, I have been involved in impacting my community. Through my work with the Young Men’s Service League, National Honors Society, and Methodist Richardson Hospital I have insight into the importance of helping others. Volunteering with the Special Olympics is one of my favorite activities I have done through National Honors Society. The sense of fulfillment that pervades my body at the conclusion of the volunteering, knowing I was able to brighten up these kids’ days, is

The day was October 8th, 2014. I hardly played. One school day, my 5th teacher, Ms. Smit said, “flyers for the basketball team on the table” ordinarily I took one. Kids from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade came to try out for the team. After tryouts, a paper next to the nurse's office was hung up. The paper sheet named those who had made the team. Surprisingly, I made the team, most likely from my height. I felt like I shouldn’t have made the team. At the time, I barely started to play basketball. I went to the practices at school and tried to make myself a little bit better, since a tournament was about to begin in a few weeks.

As an individual I love staying active, socializing with others, being dependable, and keeping busy. Playing Basketball for Flour Bluff ISD, since the seventh grade, has granted me the opportunity to achieve all of these goals. For some peculiar reason I have consistently felt that I lacked experience of which my peers had, and that I would never be able to acquire it. Soon after I started playing I became intimidated of my fellow teammates and worried about the time I felt I lost, due to beginning so late in my childhood. Without fail, I always feel a sense of accomplishment after making it through tryouts every year and as I approach my final season, it has become clear just how much of my life was devoted to Basketball, that I truly love it and how I am thankful to be a part of something much more than just a team.

I attended all training sessions and spent a great amount of time playing basketball since the thrill of winning games, of becoming better pushes me forward. I believed my efforts are worthy, since I had the advantage over other players in speed and keen awareness, and I trained harder than others every day. Basketball was the only thing on my mind. Then the time came to assemble the official school team to participate in formal basketball games. I thought for all my efforts

In life, you encounter many situations and people that aid in molding you into the person you are meant to be. When these instances in time occur, we may not realize it, but looking back they made a huge impact on our lives. For the past four years, I have been a member of the Navarro Runnin’ Lady Panthers Basketball Team, and while the sport itself taught me many lessons and skills I can use to be successful, there was one coach that managed to do the same.

These are the steps of being that credible coach I would like to achieve by helping youngs adults develop physically, psychologically, and socially. Through the years of playing multiple sports I have been witness

This event happens once a year and takes place at our high school stadium. Special needs kids come from all around my community to compete in events that best suit their physical or intellectual disabilities. It is truly astounding to see a whole community come together to support these kids. At this past year's Olympics I volunteered as a peer buddy and my responsibilities included walking my buddy, Luke, to his different events and making sure he was having a good time. Luke won first place in the ball throw and second place in the 100 meter dash. I loved seeing how happy he was when he was handed his ribbons and I was so fortunate to have been able to spend the day with

This school year I had the privilege of coaching our school Native Youth Olympic team. This team was composed of 4th and 5th graders from Snowshoe Elementary in Wasilla Alaska. The team competed at two meets, a local meet as well as a statewide meet. During the local meet, we gathered at Houston Middle School and competed for the first time representing the Snowshoe Trailblazers. The State meet was held at Mirror Lake Middle School in Chugiak, Alaska. Our athletes competed in the arm pull, two-foot-high kick, wrist carry, Alaskan high kick, one-foot-high kick and the scissor broad jump.

East Stroudsburg University hosted the 2015 Eastern Fall Sectional Special Olympics Sunday, October 5th 2015. Many different events were held at venues throughout East Stroudsburg University’s campus. The Special Olympics was organized by SOPA and campus officials. The purpose of the Special Olympics was to bring together athletes with intellectual disabilities to showcase their talent by participating and competing in their skilled event/event’s.

In 1963 Mrs. Kennedy Shriver organized a day camp in her back yard for the handicapped children in Rockville, Maryland. Five years later she brought the first Special Olympics to Soldier Field in Chicago. Around one thousand enthusiastic athletes participated in the event. There are now 143 countries involved, and 16,000 sports events every year with over one million athletes ("Anniversary"). Through the Special Olympics thousands of handicapped people have conquered their fears and struggles, learned communication skills and trades for employment. Because of the underlying lessons taught through sports they can lead active, exciting, and courageous lives within their own communities. After learning about these incredible athletes, the drawbacks of special education programs in public schools, Athletes for Outreach (AFO), true success stories, and the rewards for

At a young age, without realizing it, I was developing my manual dexterity skills. Whether it was making lanyard and string bracelets for my friends at camp, drawing or painting to the Bob Ross instructional videos on YouTube, I always took great pride in my finished product. While in school, after various tryouts, I was asked to participate in travel basketball. Working as a team member not only helped me on the court and in developing my hand and eye coordination, but also in the work experience at Plainview Oral where teamwork is crucial when assisting with a

Playing basketball in elementary was always fun in P.E. but it was something that I wanted to do against real competition and not the crazy kids everyday kids in P.E. class. I first tried out for my elementary basketball team in the third grade which was the minimum grade they allowed kids to play basketball. Even though I was very shorter and smaller than the other kids I luckily made the team and it made me very happy. One day I gave my opinion to the coach regarding bettering the team thinking I could be very helpful. Unfortunately, he didn’t think so and thought I was insulting his knowledge about the game which they started a series of disagreements throughout the season. Eventually he put me off the team that year and every year afterwards. After being put off the team I told myself I would just do as the coach says even though I knew that I was right. A year past and I eventually tried out for my middle school team. I made the team and It was a whole different experience for me. I bettered myself throughout those years and carried my love of basketball into my high school years.