Montgomery offers athletic avenue
By: Justin Feil
Plenty of Montgomery Township students have the opportunity to join a sports team after school.
Kelly O’Connell and a group of Montgomery Township Schools teachers are making sure that chance is offered to students of all levels within the district. They are expanding a Special Olympics in Montgomery program that got its roots last year.
The program will kick off this year with a back-to-school barbecue from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15 at Montgomery Park. It’s a chance for Montgomery residents to sign up for four sports that will be offered soccer, swimming, basketball and track. O’Connell is town coordinator for the program.
"Last year, a couple teachers ran a skills session for soccer," said O’Connell who teaches language and learning disabled for fifth and sixth grade at Montgomery Middle School. "I coached the basketball Special Olympics team. We had a fairly large amount of people come out. And we did track and field in the spring and swimming in the winter. Now we’re trying to develop a program where they compete against other teams.
"We had four athletes go to the Summer Olympic Games at The College of New Jersey and they all won medals."
The seasons for each sport will be six weeks long. Soccer and swimming begin the week after the barbecue. Basketball begins in the winter and track and field will compete in the spring.
"We’re only offering four sports right now," said O’Connell, who was girls’ basketball freshman coach last year and an assistant with the MHS varsity girls’ lacrosse team. "We want to develop teams in those programs first. Right now, (MHS varsity girls’ soccer head coach) Jeremy Beardsley is going to volunteer on Sundays to run soccer practice and bring some of his athletes to practices. For basketball, I’ll be there.
"We did it some last year and the girls loved it. My players liked it as much as the athletes did. All of them came back to help with the track season."
All of the Montgomery High School coaches have been invited to the barbecue and several MHS athletes with an interest in volunteering have been asked to come as well. They’ll be there to interact with the Special Olympic athletes signing up.
"We’re keeping it in Montgomery right now because the teachers are involved," O’Connell said. "Participants need to live in Montgomery. We’re trying to get all the kids in Montgomery to participate in these socialization skills."
The barbecue is the first opportunity for the Special Olympic athletes to meet some of the coaches and athletes they see during the year.
"We have a lot of support," O’Connell said. "Last year, (MHS varsity boys’ basketball coach) Kris Grundy, during one of his halftimes, he allowed Special Olympics to have a competition on the court and they stayed to watch the game."
This year, the Montgomery Special Olympics teams will compete against outside teams their age from around the area. The purpose of the barbecue is to start organizing the Montgomery teams and building enthusiasm for the upcoming year.
"It’s registration for the athletes and registration for the volunteers," O’Connell said. "It will be DJ’d. It’ll be like a sports expo. We’ll give them a basketball or soccer ball and get them to sign up for what they like. We’ll run them through each activity. All the coaches in the district got invited to come and help out. We have food donated."
The Girl Scouts will be on hand for face painting. The Montgomery Recreation Department will have representation there to talk about other opportunities in the district. An ice cream station will top off the festivities. Montgomery is hoping to find not just athletes, but some volunteers to help with the Special Olympics program.
"It’s one to two hours a week," O’Connell said. "We invited all the special education teachers to it. There’s no traveling at this point but there could be if we get enough good teams together. Soccer is on Sunday afternoons from 2 to 3 p.m. at the lower middle school soccer field starting the Sunday after the barbecue.
"Swimming is Monday nights in September. Swimming will be divided into three groups, tadpoles for kids who haven’t swum before, frogs for kids who have some experience, and the competition group. We had some swimming last year and the kids liked that. Track is in the spring. Basketball will be set up and probably start in November."
O’Connell and the Montgomery organizers are hoping for even larger participation numbers than last year. The program is open to students who do not attend Montgomery Township Schools. The Special Olympics will give athletes the chance to represent Montgomery outside of the classroom.
"It has been in the works for a little bit," O’Connell said. "I got myself and five other sixth-grade teachers to sit down and develop the program. We’re pushing for this to go through with the barbecue. We’re going to keep fundraising and getting uniforms for the kids and making it a successful environment for the kids so they can enjoy it year after year. This is a nice opportunity. This will give them another avenue for success."