Sports : V-S Special Olympians qualify for State competition

Ryan Lane and Marissa Yessak practice by tossing the ball at coach Tammy Zimmerman at Coe.

On Saturday, 17 athletes from Vinton-Shellsburg Special Olympics competed in the East Central Iowa Regional Spring Games at the Coe College campus in Cedar Rapids. All 17 Athletes qualified for the State competition in Ames, to be held in May. Out of 37 events, the athletes earned 34- 1st place ribbons, 7- 2nd place ribbons, and 5- 3rd place ribbons.

“I’m so proud of each of these athletes!” head coach Tammy Zimmerman said. “They’ve worked hard in practice since February, and it really showed today.”

Vinton-Shellsburg was very well-represented throughout the day at Ko-Hawk Stadium. The teams from Benton County started off the “Parade of Champions” opening ceremony.

Then, long time Vinton residents, and Special Olympics volunteers, Brian, Sara, Abby, Rachael, John and Katie Larkin were honored as the 2011-2012 “East Central Iowa Special Olympics Family of the Year.”

“We’re really honored and humbled to receive this award. Special Olympics has played a big part in our lives for many years,” Brian Larkin said. Larkin has been an assistant coach for nearly 10 years.

Vinton-Shellsburg was also represented by a large number of volunteers. The V-S girls’ track team, led by coach Heather Kalous, helped out most of the day with the events.

“I really want to thank coach Kalous and the girls for helping volunteering today. It’s great to see such support from the school. Our athletes really look up to them, and it’s awesome that they came out to support us,” Coach Larkin said. “I’d also like to thank the members of the community from Vinton who worked as timers and ‘high fivers.’ It was an awesome surprise to see so many people we knew standing at the finish line.”

One of the volunteers, Jamie Walker said, “This is great! I wish I’d done this before. I’ll definitely be back again!”

The V-S program has been noticed in the Special Olympics community as one of the leading Special Olympics programs in the state.

“We’re even expanding our program to include other schools in Benton County next year.” Coach Zimmerman said, “We had one boy join us from Benton Community this year, and a couple other families have contacted us from CPU and Belle Plaine. It’s just too important for these kids to have the opportunity to compete not to bring them on.”

The Vinton-Shellsburg Special Olympics team would like to thank the entire Vinton community for their past and future support.