Annual tournament a welcome spotlight for Special Olympics participants
By DEBBIE MILLER
Tabor Correspondent
Don't call them special. Or different. Don't stare, whisper, or cross the street. Don't be afraid. God made them too.
We're brave. We're strong. We're athletes. We're just like you. God made you too.
The world is cold enough, especially when ground hogs are making the weather forecasts. Don't make it colder.
Come close. Learn to know. Learn to understand. It'll surprise you how much we have in common.
The Special Olympics Regional Basketball Tournament was held Saturday at Tabor College. Games were played from early morning until mid-afternoon. After a tie in double-overtime, both teams were declared winners and qualifiers for state competition.
Although sparse for a basketball tournament held in central Kansas, the crowd for the event was enthusiastic enough to keep the players energized.
Eldon and Lavonne Wiens of Hillsboro sat in the stands with their daughters, Cathy and Jane, watching their teenage grandson, Ricky.
Quiet by nature, the Wiens family boasts a long line of farmers. Their focus is commitment and connection to the earth, and its creatures.
This sensitivity has begun to play out in unusual ways in the Wiens' grandchildren.
On the court, Ricky scores what turns out to be the only three-pointer of the tournament by any player. But he won't make another shot.
Special Olympics teams are determined by region and ability. No handicaps are given to those competitors who have better function than others, and no help is given to those who have worse. The idea of imposing a handicap seems ludicrous in this tournament.
Men and women, boys and girls play together. Some competitors are barely three feet tall, some as tall as six feet. Some weigh in at 50 pounds, some 200. Some of them are school children, some are prison guards and cafeteria workers.
No one attempts to make this basketball court level. It's an impossible task.
A reporter snapping pictures and asking questions is troubling to the volunteers helping today.
"Be sure and ask permission."
"Don't use real names."
"Don't report scores."
But the coaches, players, and parents disagree. This is real life and real basketball.
Don't patronize us.
Take the pictures. Use the interviews. Treat us like you would the Tabor Bluejays.
They're glad to tell about their struggles and successes, their stories. They are not troubled.
These players and families spend too much time in the darkness to
