Underdogs Win GOLD at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games

"An Experience of a Lifetime" is heard by many who attended the 2015 Special Olympics World Games held in LA.  We here at Special Olympics NY - Hudson Valley Region were honored to send a Male Unfied BasketBall Team combined of Brewster High School, Coach Donna Schneider and Sleepy Hollow High School students, Head Coach Kim Kaczmarek and Coach and also Staff of the SONY - Hudson Valley Region, Teresa Gilli to represent Special Olympics USA.

The teammates were:

Jagger Ashley - Brewster

John Ashley - Brewster

Stephen Booth - Brewster

Hunter Burnett - Sleepy Hollow

Kevin Green - Brewster

Minquiang Li - Sleepy Hollow

Brendan Murphy - Sleepy Hollow

Yash Patel - Brewster

Timothy Schneider - Brewster

Felix Veloz - Sleepy Hollow

This team from New York, is a unified team which means five athletes on the team are Special Olympics athletes and five are “partner” athletes. When the team competes in the Games, there are three Special Olympics athletes playing with two “partner” athletes. The team was put together a little over a year ago to compete in the games this year.  Being the underdogs and hoping for the best, to our huge surprise, United States from New York were undefeated and won the Gold! They came together as a unified team, working side-by-side to accomplish a win that excited not just us, but the world!  They started their run for gold by beating Peru, 22-20. They then defeated Kenya, 20-7, and Pakistan 24-10. They played Luxembourg in the final, winning 26-12. 

The team proved that with joy, courage, determination, acceptance and most importantly, Unity we can reach our dreams..  We are one and together we can bring out the best of each and everyone of us and did so with great pride and honor. We are family!  Always and forever!

To learn more visit www.specialolympicsny.org or http://www.facebook.com/sonyhv