Carson City Special Olympics athletes take on hoops and basketballs, volunteers needed
Each year, Carson City Special Olympics athletes participate, learn and grow within six different sports: basketball, track and field, swimming, bocce, flag football and bowling.
Currently, athletes are in their basketball season and practice every Tuesday at Eagle Valley Middle School.
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of sports for both children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
“This gives them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills, and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community,” according to their mission statement.
Area Director Phil Brown has been involved with Special Olympics since 1997 when his mother-in-law, who was Area Director at the time, asked Brown to come on board to help coach basketball.
Now, Brown’s daughter is also an athlete, and Special Olympics has become a huge part of his life in the 26 years since he first become involved.
All athletes 8 and over is welcome to join Special Olympics. To join, a doctor must sign off on the athlete being able to participate.
“Currently we have athletes that range from 8 years old to 71 years old,” Brown said.
Volunteers are always needed and very welcomed. Brown himself started out as a volunteer and since then has become the director for the entire program in Carson City.
“I started out as a basketball coach and then took over as the Area Director for Carson City in 2010,” Brown said. “I spend most of my spare time involved with Special Olympics one way or another.”
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please click here. Volunteer opportunities everything from repeat coaching to day-of-event volunteering.
Throughout Nevada, during 2020 (the most recent data year) nearly 2,700 athletes participated in Special Olympics, along with 1,700 volunteers. Athletes competed in seven sports across 14 competitions.
To learn more about Special Olympics in Nevada, please visit https://www.sonv.org/
To keep up-to-date with Special Olympics in Carson City, you can follow them on Facebook here.