Special Olympics Delaware hosts their own version of March Madness this weekend.
The organization’s annual State Basketball Tournament tips off Saturday morning at 11 at UD’s Bob Carpenter Center in Newark and play continues through Sunday.Forty-one teams from across the state made up of 450 Special Olympics athletes and Unified Partners-peers without disabilities- will compete.
In addition to the full-court team tournament, the event includes a skills competition, a young athletes demonstration for kids aged 2 to 7 and Olympic Village activities.
Special Olympics Delaware Spokesman Jon Buzby says he hopes the bonds formed between athletes and partners will continue well after tournament play.
“We expect for that friendship to go beyond the sport of basketball whether it continues in Special Olympics or what we see a lot of times, is it continues outside of Special Olympics,” he notes. “The players and unified partners get together outside of sports just like anybody else would after they’ve had a fun successful season with a team.”
In addition to the full-court team tournament, the event includes a skills competition, a young athletes demonstration for kids aged 2 to 7 and Olympic Village activities.
Buzby says the tournament is a great family friendly event.
“Everything is completely free, we’ll be in all three gymnasiums at the Bob Carpenter Center so we are playing in the premiere facility for basketball, there’s only a handful of teams in the state of Delaware that get to play in the Bob Carpenter Center and Special Olympics is proud to be among those teams,” he says. “I would encourage family members to come out and just experience the thrill of watching Special Olympics competition.”
The mission of Special Olympics Delaware is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for 3,700 children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
