When track practice ended April 8 at Cascade High School, many Bruins athletes were just getting started.
About 17 Cascade team members stayed to teach Special Olympics athletes. For an hour or so, the Bruins interacted with about two dozen special-needs individuals. Ranging from ages 8 to 23, the Special Olympics competitors, mostly from the Everett School District, got tips about the shot put, relay and long jump.
“We’re fortunate to have everything we have and this is one way of us giving back,” said Chris Crockett, Cascade’s first-year head boys track coach.
The idea for the weekly sessions came from Kari and Daren Hopper, parents of Cascade athlete Dylan Hopper. Kari Hopper contacted Julie Gelo, Special Olympics coordinator for North Puget Sound Independents, and suggested a partnership between mainstream athletes and Gelo’s special-needs athletes.
Last week’s interaction went well, Gelo said. She hopes it becomes more than an informal instructional program. It could help create a more accepting relationship between the two groups, she said.
Gelo wants to take the Special Olympics participants to watch a Cascade meet this spring, and she’d like to see the Bruins come cheer for her athletes too. It’s a chance to create a bond and learn to understand differences.
“What my kids need are friends,” Gelo said.
If the Tuesday sessions continue to go well, maybe Cascade athletes will develop a passion for coaching special-needs kids.
“It doesn’t cost them anything but their time,” said Daren Hopper.
And the reward could be worth so much more than that.
3 college commitments
Here is a roundup of local athletes who determined their college plans:
n Monroe’s Jason Waltman will compete in basketball and track at Northwest University in Kirkland. Waltman, a 6-foot-7 senior, was named most valuable player of the 2008 Wesco Senior High School Boys All-Star Game.
n Monroe’s Taylor Davis will play volleyball for the Academy of Art University, a Division-II school in San Francisco that will field its first athletic teams in 2008-2009.
n Shorewood’s Colton Carr, a midfielder, will play soccer at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon.
E-W given equipment
Thanks to an unexpected upgrade, Edmonds-Woodway athletes have a much better weight room. Last week E-W received an estimated $25,000 worth of used weight-training equipment from Harbor Square Athletic Club of Edmonds. “Obviously when you get community donations like that it’s a pretty neat deal. The stuff looks brand new,” E-W football coach John Gradwohl said of the gift, which includes 14 pieces of equipment and a full set of dumb bells. It replaces gear that was as old as 25 years, Gradwohl said.
Jack Tawney, Harbor Square Athletic Club’s general manager, said the donated equipment is about six years old and would cost about $60,000 to buy new. “We were replacing all our equipment and instead of trading it in we thought it’d be nice to donate it to a local school,” said Tawney.
Mike Cane, Herald Writer
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