Special Olympics basketball returns for 10th season

In January, Special Olympics Massachusetts plans to start its tenth basketball season. This program is open to all students in grades 2-12.

Basketball is part of the program created by the partnership of the Canton Public Schools, Canton parents, the Canton Recreation Department and Special Olympics Massachusetts to provide year-round athletic training and competition. The program also offers track and field in the spring, and it just completed a very successful fall soccer program.

Special Olympics Massachusetts provides quality, year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for individuals with cognitive delays and other types of intellectual impairment. The Special Olympics Unified Program, which is operating in Canton, is a very inclusive program that matches intellectually impaired student-athletes with similar-age volunteers to train and compete together as teammates. These volunteers, called Unified Partners, can be other special needs students or non-special needs students.

The Special Olympics Unified Program provides these volunteers with an opportunity to help their classmates, compete athletically, have fun and grow as individuals.

The Canton program is very fortunate that two great coaches, Jeff and Kait Erickson, have agreed to coach this year’s basketball program. The training sessions for basketball will be held on Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. in the Massachusetts Hospital School gym. The first session will be on Tuesday, January 7. There will be 10 practice sessions this season.

There are no fees for this program.

To enroll in the basketball program, send an email to Walter Silvia at wrsilvia@aol.com, or call 781-828-1466.

The Canton Special Olympics Unified Program was started ten years ago and has grown significantly, with practically all of its athletes continuing to re-enroll for each sport that is offered. The program would like to continue to grow, so please tell other parents and students about this program and encourage them to join.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Dec 12 2013. Filed under Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.