Sports Highlight

The 2017 Flag Football Tournament took place on Saturday, November 4th In London Ohio. The event featured 11 Traditional Adult Division 1/2/3 Teams and 3 School Age Teams. A huge THANK YOU to Lincoln Comer and Madison County Special Olympics for hosting this event!! This was previously a regional only tournament and this year marked our first state-wide competition. The top teams in each division were: School Age- Lucas County T-Rockets, Adult Division 3- Highland County Wildcats, Adult Division 2- Madison County Tigers, and Adult Division 1- Franklin County Goodwill Gladiators. Congratulations to all the teams on their games and we are excited to see this tournament grow next year! The date to reserve for the state tournament is Saturday, November 10, 2018. We will likely incorporate some regional qualifiers around Ohio to help prepare teams for tournament play and provide coaches reports for feedback on their opponents, similar to what is done for basketball.

Coming Soon!

December Events—On Saturday and Sunday, December 9th and 10th, SOOH will host the State Swim Meet at McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion at The Ohio State University Columbus Campus. The competition will take place from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and 9am to noon on Sunday. There are over 400 athletes registered for the event! If you plan on attending, we recommend you park in the Neil Avenue garage, which is located just south of the Aquatics Pavilion. All day special event parking is $5.

Featured Topic: Coach of the Month announcements will begin in January!!

Beginning this month, please forward me nominations for Coaches within your local organizations which deserve some special recognition. Simply send me a brief narrative of “why they are the best” and a coaching photo to my email address: jwysocki@sooh.org and I will take the best of the month and call them out on the monthly newsletter for the difference they are making for our Special Olympics Athletes. This will also help us create more nominations for Coach of the Year which are recognized at our annual awards banquet in late October.

Request for Information: Attention Coaches!!

Please let me know if you have Skills Basketball Teams or Skills Unified Basketball Teams in your areas who would like to have similar teams to play. Several coaches have expressed there exists a gap in the Individual Skills athletes and Division 5 or School Age Division 2 teams which could be filled with some regional matchups for those just learning team play with floor coaches. I would like to compile a list of those programs who have these teams so that I can help share this information!!

Certification Corner

A quick reminder on the beginning of our new Ohio Special Olympics Certified Coach is January 1, 2018. A checklist for completion by the coach and endorsed by the Local Coordinator was attached to the same email you received this newsletter. A course which is not a requirement of the certification; however, is still very helpful for all coaches to complete, focuses on coaching athletes with Autism. Check it out:

A Coach’s Playbook: An Introduction to Autism and Instructional Strategies for Coaching

Quote to Remember

People will say you should quit running if you’re a slow runner. Or you should quit basketball if you can’t dribble with your left hand. I don’t agree with that. If you’re not a very good reader at 14, nobody thinks you should stop reading.

~ Timothy Shriver

Remember to ALWAYS have your Athlete’s and Partner’s Application for Participation and Release Forms in your possession while training, traveling and/or competing. Should a medical event occur, those forms will be necessary for the athlete to receive treatment!

I hope everyone is enjoying training for winter sports and can take some time off to reflect on what they accomplished in 2017 and what they hope to attain in 2018. Time is our most precious resource. Make the most of it!! Happy Holidays to all!