Special Olympics Question about Unified teams

March 20, 2011

Hi - I have a question about how Special Olympics creates their sports teams.

This is our 2nd year in Basketball and both years we have been to State finals

and have placed 1st in our division with a State Gold medal last year. Yesterday

was our State Games here in Colorado and our kids played 2 games with Unified

teams.

Has anyone else had experience with competing with Unified teams? We found both

teams we played allowed their non-disabled members to control how the ball was

being played and who was to score. Our team does not have any non-disabled

members and if we are a small team the kids have to play more. According to

Coach the rules of Special Olympics allow for non-disabled members to complete

75% of the scoring and can basically hog the ball. I realize it is just a game

but the kids were soooo disappointed because they have never lost in a

competition and I'm just thinking is this what Eunice Kennedy Shriver wanted

when she created Special Olympics? There are tons of sports available for

non-disabled kids and for our kids there are only a select few if we choose to

have them only compete with disabled peers.

I do believe my son needs to learn disappointment but sometimes I think, he

already has an uphill battle at school because he has Down Syndrome while

non-disabled peers/parents don't have the same battles so why can't there be a

place he can be just like anyone else without competing against non-disabled

peers.

Marcia

mom to 13yo (a teenager officially, god give me patience to not kill him

because of the attitude)

Marcia Freeman

March 21, 2011

I don't know anything about Special Olympics yet but I am ROFL at:

> Marcia

>mom to 13yo (a teenager officially, god give me patience to not kill him

>because of the attitude)

>

>Marcia Freeman

>

March 21, 2011

I grew up with a cousin who was blind. He preferred to socialize with other

people who were blind and his job was director of Goodwill Industries. I am

acquainted with deaf people who prefer the company of other deaf people. Not

a thing wrong with preferring to hang out with your intellectual peers as

well. It's no fun and even devastating to always be the dumbest person in

the crowd.

gem

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 12:03 AM, Marcia F <mloomas@...> wrote:

>

> Hi - I have a question about how Special Olympics creates their sports

> teams. This is our 2nd year in Basketball and both years we have been to

> State finals and have placed 1st in our division with a State Gold medal

> last year. Yesterday was our State Games here in Colorado and our kids

> played 2 games with Unified teams.

>

> Has anyone else had experience with competing with Unified teams? We found

> both teams we played allowed their non-disabled members to control how the

> ball was being played and who was to score. Our team does not have any

> non-disabled members and if we are a small team the kids have to play more.

> According to Coach the rules of Special Olympics allow for non-disabled

> members to complete 75% of the scoring and can basically hog the ball. I

> realize it is just a game but the kids were soooo disappointed because they

> have never lost in a competition and I'm just thinking is this what Eunice

> Kennedy Shriver wanted when she created Special Olympics? There are tons of

> sports available for non-disabled kids and for our kids there are only a

> select few if we choose to have them only compete with disabled peers.

>

> I do believe my son needs to learn disappointment but sometimes I think, he

> already has an uphill battle at school because he has Down Syndrome while

> non-disabled peers/parents don't have the same battles so why can't there be

> a place he can be just like anyone else without competing against

> non-disabled peers.

>

> Marcia

> mom to 13yo (a teenager officially, god give me patience to not kill

> him because of the attitude)

>

> Marcia Freeman

>

March 21, 2011

I'm surprised they don't have unified teams competing only against other

unified teams. I also find it strange that the non-disabled members get to

complete 75% of the scoring especially given that this is Special Olympics. I

know on the golf events that are unified the players have to be within a certain

handicap of each other which pretty much keeps them even. I would hope that the

other unified sports would do something similar.

Right now my younger two boys play soccer with Nick on the Special Olympics team

(soccer is one of those unified sports). The coach is pretty fair about the

amount of time each player gets (and my non-disabled boys don't get more playing

time than anyone else).

I realize everyone wants to win when playing a game but I would hope that in a

unified sport in Special Olympics the coaches would take into consider the other

team's make up. By that I mean, if their opponent is strictly made up of

disabled athletes then don't have more than 25% of your plays without

disabilities playing.

Cari