Ashdown Special Olympics team members described their day as “Fun!” and “Exciting!” and called their favorite part the “Teamwork!” as players from five schools in Area 11 Special Olympics competed in Ashdown School District’s first Special Olympics Basketball Tournament on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the AHS Helen Parker Gymnasium. Teams competing in the tournament had players from Springhill, Nashville, College Hill Middle School, Arkansas High, and Ashdown High/Junior High Schools.
The special Spirit Award for sportsmanship went to Arkansas High, and all participants on every team received medals, either gold, silver or bronze. All players, coaches, and supporting staff lived up to the Special Olympics motto, “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
The tournament, hosted by Ashdown High School and EAST, opened with a welcome by Ashdown School Superintendent Mike Walker and a flag ceremony led by members of Boy Scout Troop #75. Area 11 Coordinator Dawn Serigne directed the opening ceremony with the presentation of each team, the national anthem, and the Olympic Oath.
Ashdown School athletic coaches Jeff Flanigan, Matt Richardson, Kevin Ball, Joseph Scroggins, and Marcus Bradley officiated the games, and AHS students Tanner Newton, Logan Mounts, and Hunter Pennington coached the Ashdown team. Volunteers Glen Ray Bowman and Kirk Mounts manned the concession stand, and students from the EAST department printed programs, provided publicity, and took care of clean-up. Teachers in the special education department are Angela Byrum, Donnette Dickson, and Paula Ward, with aides Ginny DeLo, Gwen Brumley and Sonia Caskey.
The Special Olympics event was the brainstorm of AHS junior Tanner Newton, who, along with fellow EAST student Josh Bradley, chose to research the program as their EAST project for the 2010-11 school year. Since then Newton, Logan Mounts, and other EAST students have organized and registered teams and secured coaches for Ashdown teams to participate in events such as Special Olympics Track and Field in May 2011, Special Olympics Bowling in November 2011, and this year’s Basketball Tournament. An earlier attempt this year at a Special Olympics Flag Football Tournament did not garner enough participants, but Newton and Mounts have high hopes for next year!
