It’s what every child dreams of: a chance to play and compete.
However, in nearly all traditional circumstances: a rec team, a travel team or a school team, there is rarely an opportunity for a child with special needs to participate in the same competitive atmosphere that their peers do.
But with the support of the Illinois State Police, volunteer coaches and parents who relish in every small victory their child accomplishes, Special Olympics provides children with special needs a chance to be just like everyone else.
When Special Olympic athletes get together, whether it is to practice or compete, the joy that they bring to the sport is unmatched.
“I think as a society we have it backwards,” iPower, School of Gymnastics Owner Dena Slade said. “I think that we have so much to learn from these awesome kiddos.”
Slade, who began her first Special Olympics team at iPower three years ago, loves watching the athletes as they receive awards.
“These guys are so happy,” she said. “That first award ceremony I sat through was just lovely. They all danced or did a “fashion pose” when someone is getting their award.
“They sit in awards and they celebrate everybody: themselves and their friends and they are there for anyone who gets a medal. It’s awesome.”
Slade is often fueled with the same glee as she watches her athletes progress through the Special Olympics gymnastics program at iPower.
“We had (a girl) who could barely walk when she first came,” Slade said. “We had to carry her everywhere. She really couldn’t do any of the gymnastics by herself; we just went through it with her.
“She came back the second year, and I was amazed. She was running. She could do everything by herself. She listened. She was nonverbal the first year, and then she was talking.”
The first year Slade, her daughters and future son-in-law ran the Special Olympics gymnastics program, they started small with two available events for boys and girls: vaulting on the springboard and floor routine.
But when the 21-member iPower team competed in their third annual Sectional competition in St. Louis on Sunday, the boys competed in all six events: vault, high bar, parallel bars, rings, floor and pommel horse while the girls competed in all four events: vault, uneven bars, beam and floor.
“I push them just as much as any athlete,” Slade said. “I think they can do the next level.”
Slade, who prepared a floor routine for her level three competition athletes, was surprised when each of the girls wanted to develop their own floor routine for the 2018 competition.
“It was way better than what I could do, and it’s what they wanted,” she said. “They love doing it because they built it themselves.”
Mahomet-Seymour freshman Samantha Hamilton is one of the level three athletes who competed in all four events on Sunday. She came home with a silver on the balance beam, a gold on the floor routine, gold in uneven bars, a gold on the vault and a gold in all-around.
Samantha’s mom, Robin, said that gymnastics has always been the go-to sport for her daughter.
Samantha started tumbling classes when she was 5 to help her work on some balance issues. Now, the 15-year old hopes to work at a gymnastics facility when she gets older.
Samantha now enjoys helping younger athletes see their potential through her eyes.
Knowing her own routine because it’s Samantha’s “bread-and-butter,” she has also taken the time to learn her teammate’s routines in order to help them perfect their own skills.
“She used to be on the opposite end,” Robin said. “She’d feel like she couldn’t do it; and now that she can, she’s always telling others, ‘You can do it. You’re going to love it.’ It’s really brought out that teaching mode.”
But even the teacher needs a little support sometimes.
Samantha, who loves it when her mom watches her practice, struggled to stay on the balance beam the Sunday before competition.
“Mom, why do I keep falling off the balance beam today?” Samantha asked.
Her mom immediately smiled, looked at her daughter and said, “Because you need a hug.”
The two embraced, and as Samantha popped back up onto the balance beam, walking to the end, she asked her mom to stay close as she performed a round-off from the edge.
Because of Special Olympics, Robin isn’t the only support system that is in Samantha’s life. From the first day of joining the team, Samantha has grown a loving foundation that reaches beyond the gymnasium.
“When we first started here, we were having issues at school where she’d say, ‘I don’t have any friends.’ So we came here, and I think with all the support that she got from parents and the kids; they greeted her right away. From that she has such a tight-knit group now that when she has one of those days where she’s down, I’ll ask her, ‘Do you have friends?’ and she’ll say ‘Yes.’”
Special Olympics has provided the same opportunities for athletes like Jayden Fondren.
“It’s given her the experience of just being yourself with no one judging,” Jayden’s mom Shaunna said.
Jayden competed in all four gymnastics events Sunday, receiving a gold in balance beam, floor, uneven bars and all-around. She also received a silver on the vault.
Shaunna said that the opportunity for Jayden to participate in sports has given them a different way to connect.
With a year in the program, Jayden has also participated in bowling, bocce and basketball. Jayden won a gold medal in bocce, too.
Athletes who place in the Sectional competitions also have the chance to compete in the Special Olympics State Games in Bloomington on June 15 – 17. Because Jayden placed in both gymnastics and bocce, she will have to choose which sport she wants to compete in during State.
Jayden enjoys playing basketball, the sport her mom played in high school. But Jayden’s favorite sport is bowling. Over Christmas, her mom purchased Jayden a new bowling ball.
“I love just being there to be behind her and support her,” Shaunna said. “I love just loving on all the kids.”
Linda and Jason Hodges, who are the parents of Preston Hodges and coaches of Champaign County Communities (C3) team, said that knowing that there is a community of parents behind each child makes the everyday tasks a little easier.
“It creates a network of help, support, for questions and answers,” Linda said.
“Being a parent of a child with a disability, it is easier to pick up a child with a disability; they understand to a certain degree,” Jason said. “Every child is different, every disability and the level of disability is different, but the parent will have a better understanding of this child. They’ve spent time with them, know how they interact and communicate.”
And because every child needs a group of friends to celebrate with, Special Olympics gives the athletes a built-in friend group that they can go through life together.
“Just like something as simple as a birthday party,” Linda said. “Some of these kids aren’t invited to other kids birthday parties. It’s sad. It’s not always the case, sometimes they invite the entire class, but within our organization, there are birthday parties and the kids from the team are invited to the party.”
Through bocce, bowling, basketball and gymnastics, the Hodges have also enjoyed watching their athletes grow.
The Hodges remember one young athlete, who passed away last year, struggled with basketball when he first started.
“He just wanted to roam around, didn’t want to touch the ball, dribble or pass,” Linda said.
“So I started to ask him to give me one dribble. Then, I asked him for five dribbles. He’d do it and walk away.”
But Jason said the boy knew when it was time to compete.
“To see him get so excited and to watch him at competition it was like he was another kid,” he said.
“At practice, he did it because he had to, but when he got to the competition, he showed up to compete. He knew that difference, even though he couldn’t communicate that to you.”
But an athlete who loves a sport, always finds a way to let loved ones know.
“We had one kid this year who was new to basketball, wasn’t sure if he’d like it,” Jason said.
“But after the first couple practices, he told his mom that he had to be at practice. He can’t miss practice.
“The family had something else coming up that they had planned, and he told them they couldn’t go because he had basketball. It is a driving force for him that he needs to be at basketball because he really, really likes it.”
Going from one dribble at the beginning of the season, to remembering to dribble when in movement to dribbling in-and-out of cones is an “amazing” feat for the Special Olympic athletes under Hodges’ guidance.
So is bowling without railing.
When Preston first began bowling four years ago, he could barely get the ball close to the pins, let alone knock them over.
“Preston bowled a zero on several occasions,” Linda said.
“But now when he gets a strike or a spare, there is a dance or a bow,” Linda said.
“And these kids cheer each other on. They are all high fiving each other and telling each other that they did a great job. It’s really great to see them come out of their little shells.”
“They live for this stuff,” Jason added.
For some, the excitement from the gym follows the athlete into the school.
Samantha, who did not have an opportunity to participate in athletics in a school setting, can now go to school to tell her peers about her accomplishments at gymnastics.
“It really made her confident enough to bring people into her circle,” Robin said.
With a new outlook on her abilities, Samantha also performed as Mulan through the Penguin Project. As a freshman, she also tried out for Madrigals and color guard at Mahomet-Seymour High School.
“She’s not making them yet, but she has the confidence to be like, ‘Hey, I’m going to try that,’” Robin said.
“She doesn’t fall apart when she doesn’t make it,” she continued.” Again, I go back to Special Olympics. Maybe they try something, and they didn’t get a gold, but they know someone who did, so they cheer their teammate, and they know that’s great.
“After color guard tryouts she said, ‘I didn’t make it.’”
“I said, ‘I know, I’m sorry.’”
“Then she said, ‘But you know what? I have a friend and they made it!’”
“I saw girls come out of the tryout crying,” Robin continued. “And I saw Samantha consoling them. She said, ‘I didn’t make it either. I goofed up so many times.’ She has really blossomed into that coach.”
Special Olympics opportunities begin for children with special needs at the age of 8.
Hodges said many of the athletes on his team have competed for about seven years.
As those athletes continue to grow and develop, the Hodges know that there are also other children in the Mahomet community who are looking for the same opportunities.
To find out more information about Special Olympic opportunities in East Central Illinois, contact Jackie Walk at jwalk@soill.org.
