8/7/2019 Dunlap Special Olympics feature story pg. 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dunlap-special-olympics-feature-story-pg-2 1/1

www.ChillicotheTimesBulletin.com Chillicothe Times-Bulletin Wednesday, January 26, 2011 A7

The basics

All o the sports bas-ketball, soccer, bowl-ing and track and eld are run just like any other high school serieso competitions with aregular season, Region-als, Sectionals and anal State tournament.

In basketball orinstance, a team has tohave three qualiyinggames against ellow“high-school rated”teams made up o players between the ageso eight and 21.

Therein lies one o thebiggest problems withnding competition.

“There are a lot o senior teams to play, butit’s hard to get SpecialOlympic high-school

teams,” Taylor said.Dunlap is only one o 

three local communi-ties that have a qualiy-ing Special Olympicsteam Princeton andMorton are the others.

So, while they may beable to play other teamslike those at HISRA,they do not count asqualiying games towardthe State tournament.

Another way SpecialOlympics allows as

many athletes to partici-pate as possible is hav-ing skills programs, orthose athletes that needto work on the basics o a sport.

“It kind o breaksdown dierent parts o the sport shooting,dribbling, passing,” Tay-lor said. “The goal is orthe skills to eventually come up to the team.”

Burns said athletesare put in divisions and

compete against oneanother individually.

“It’s designed that way primarily to cover all

o the abilities,” Burnssaid. “I they’re not ata caliber to play on aregular team, then they have their events in theskills division.”

The future

Last year’s SpecialOlympics basketballRegional was hosted atDHS, and Taylor saidshe could not have beenmore proud o the Dun-lapians who came out tosupport the athletes.

“We had over 110volunteers just rom theDunlap community,”Taylor said. “They allcame back and said,

‘Thank you or the op-portunity to let us helpout.’ It was really magi-cal to see.”

DHS plays host toanother Special Olym-pics basketball skillstournament Sunday,and Taylorsaid she

is lookingor volun-teers.

Taylorsaid shewantsschooldistrictsto see thevalue o investingtime inits specialathletes.

“I you see these

Dunlap and Princetonteams, these are twoschool districts thatsaid, ‘We’re going to

support you, let you usethe acilities,’” Taylorsaid. “Maybe there’seven a Peoria school dis-

trict to pulltogether a

ew ath-letes, (starta program)and grow it… at a stu-dent level,so thesekids can eellike they’rea part o an athleticsystem.”

Taylorsaid while they arealways looking or more

volunteers, the leastanyone can do is justshow up to a game orevent and cheer on the

athletes.She said when Drake

is too old or the pro-gram at 21, her hope isthat someone will carry on with the program,

and they will not have toworry about money.

“I have a lot o hats Iwear, so my hope anddream is the next personto step in doesn’t haveto worry about wherethey’re going to getmoney … and they canstill buy those greatlooking jerseys or thosekids,” Taylor said.

While just compet-ing and having un withtheir riends is impor-

tant, they are still ath-letes and do care aboutwinning a lot.

Drake gets up rom

the table and leaves theroom. Taylor continuestalking about the roleSpecial Olympics hasplayed in their lives.

Drake returns rom

his room, the sound o metal clanking togetheras he makes his way toward the table.

He lays more than 30medals on the table inront o him and takes aseat, a big smile on hisace.

As much as Drakeloves winning over theyears which includesgold medals at State orbasketball skills andsoccer skills there is

still one thing he saidhe enjoys more thananything, “being with allo my kids.”

District shows support

From the beginning, Bev-erly Taylor said the Dunlapschool district has goneabove and beyond to maketheir teams eel as welcomeas possible.

“Jeanne Williamson (theprevious district superin-

tendent) gave us the oppor-tunity to just really identiy ourselves with the district;although they don’t supportus in any way besides theacilities,” Taylor said.

“We get the identity o ourschool with Dunlap, and thekids love it. They have thoseofcial basketball uniormsand warm-ups they looklike a million bucks and they eel like a million bucks.”

DHS athletic director,Duane Peterson, has also

been instrumental in not justallowing them to play gamesat the high school, but takingthat extra step to make surethe students eel like every other athlete at the highschool.

“We have, as a school, em-braced our special-needs kidsand realized what they do isas important to them as it isto us,” Peterson said.

The Dunlap district is alsoone o only two in the state o Illinois to letter its athletes.

“They were having prac-tices, games and doing a loto things our regular teamswere doing,” Peterson said.

“We thought it would benice to recognize our SpecialOlympics team just like wedo other athletes to getgraduation numerals and avarsity letter.”

Taylor said that is whenshe really elt acceptancerom the district.

“Nobody prodded themto letter our athletes … that

was our crowning moment,”Taylor said. “I was just sotouched. It was just then you

knew we were on the rightpath and doing the rightthing. There was an accep-tance there … We rely onpeople with big hearts.”

The support rom the dis-trict has had a trickle-downeect on its students.

“What has really beenexciting and I’ve seen ahuge change in is just thesupport o the student body,”Taylor said.

At a game in early Decem-ber, Taylor said there were

more than 120 people in at-tendance, a pep band and thecheerleaders all there doingtheir best to will the athletesto a victory. It was like any other Dunlap Eagles homebasketball game.

“The parents were really blown away … very touched,”Taylor said. “It was pretty magical. I think the parentsare loving the idea o seeingthe other students out therecheering on their kids.”

Bobbie West said it has

been especially eective onher son, Adam.

“My son is shy, and he re-

ally gets excited when peoplerecognize him in the com-munity,” West said. “He likesthat more than the athleticcompetition.”

The gym is packed orhome games, where thegeneral student body gets achance to see their specialathletes in a realm wherethey are just like everybody else.

“I think it opens their eyesto realize that these are justkids having un,” Taylor said.

“They like the same thingand can do the same thing.Sports can be an equalizer… it kind o breaks down thebarriers just or them tosee (the special athletes) ina dierent perspective andmaybe not as a weaker stu-dent at school.”

Peterson said the supportrom students is just oneexample o how the commu-nity has supported its specialathletes.

“I’m as proud o our stu-

dent body or embracing ourSpecial Olympics teams asanything they’ve done sinceI’ve been here,” Petersonsaid. “It really speaks to thecharacter o our students.”

Peterson and Taylor bothsaid the support has grownover the years in large part

because o student volun-teers like O’Kane and an-other senior, Sullivan Curtin,who helps with DHS’s BestBuddies program.

Best Buddies is a studentorganization that works withstudents with intellectualdisabilities and pairs themwith other students. Theclub meets twice a month inaddition to group activitiesoutside o school, such as go-ing to Wildlie Prairie Park,bowling or the movies.

Curtin said it is all aboutorming those riendshipsand aiding the social process.

“I hope that through thisthey could not dread goingto school,” Curtin said. “They could have things to lookorward to they aren’t justspecial kids (they) havepeople to say ‘hi’ to and havethings to do outside o school go to youth group, bowl-ing, a movie or anything withtheir Best Buddy.”

Best Buddies has beeninstrumental in helping pro-mote the DSO teams.

“We’re looking at ways tomake the Special Olympicsathletes eel like athletesequal to the regular athletes,”Curtin said.

One way they accom-

plished this was making andputting posters with theirnames and numbers on theirlockers leading up to a game just like the cheerleadersdo or the ootball or basket-ball teams beore a Mid-Illiniconerence game.

“It’s just one o thosesmaller things that incorpo-rates them into the group,”Curtin said.

He said the response romthe student body has beenremarkable. The club started

with 20 to 30 members aew years ago, and has sinceincreased to more than 80this year.

“It’s been a group eortbetween our administration,”Curtin said. “(The students)have known about (the spe-cial students) and seen themaround … now they have theopportunity to spend timewith them. (Students) havejust jumped at that opportu-nity.”

DHS cheerleaders support the DSO basketball team every game,doing their best to make it like any other high-school game.

Coach Chris O’Kane congratulates Nick Muller orhis hustle on the court during the basketball gameagainst Princeton.

Mark Hofman looks to pass the ball to Dante Milleras Courtney Carroll runs down the court to help.

Oliver Smith looks to pass the ball into the lane against a longer-armed Princetonplayer in a game Dec. 13.

Junior Paighten Day and sophomore Jaden Elsasser converse withNick Muller and Oliver Smith during haltime o the game.

If you goWhat: Area 6 Basket-ball Individual SkillscompetitionTime: 11 a.m.Date: Sunday, Jan. 30Place: Dunlap HighSchool, 5220 W.Legion Hall RoadContact: Beverly Taylor 243-9604

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6