Final: Press Release 4

For Immediate Release
Date: February 22, 2009
Contact info: Robert Steed, Head of Delegation

Aggie Special Olympics provides awesome experience for Athletes
Three local athletes compete at world games

The Aggie Special Olympics Team, which provides athletic competition in many sports for many special cache valley athletes, had three of their athletes compete at the world games in Boise, Idaho recently. Matt Szorick competed in cross-country skiing, Travis McWilliams competed in snowboarding and Melissa Smith competed in snowshoeing.

The Aggie Special Olympics is a university-sponsored and state-sponsored organization that has between 35 and 40 actively participating athletes. It is the biggest team in the state which has roughly 2 to 3 thousand Special Olympic athletes from teams all over the state.

Robert Steed, Head of Delegation (HOD) for Aggie Special Olympics loves being with the athletes and teaching them. “It’s the best experience ever while going to Utah State.” Steed said. “You just get to help them with sports that they absolutely love, it’s a blast!”

For each sport there are several divisions for each skill level. Each division gives out medals at each event. There are state events every couple of months with different sports being played each time. In the past state event Szorick, McWilliams, and Smith received a gold medal in their respective sports. Their names were then put into a hat with the other gold medalists, and they were among the names chosen to compete at the world games.

The athletes and coaches are now preparing for the next state games which will be held on Mar. 27. The events will include bowling, volleyball, and unified volleyball. Unified volleyball is where the athletes and their coaches play together in the event.

The second Saturday in May the Aggie Special Olympics will be having a fund-raiser where there will be a torch run, using the official Olympic torch. The run will be approximately three miles in Logan.

The USU Special Olympics Team website says, “The Special Olympics oath is, “Let me win; but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” These athletes are not special because of their disability; they are special because they have the extraordinary ability to lift spirits of all those who come in contact with them.”

Steed is in agreement with that. “You can’t help but be happy when you’re around the athletes,” He said. “They don’t care who you are they just love to have people help them out.”

The Aggie Special Olympics is always willing to take any volunteers to help coach the athletes. Feel free to contact me or get more info at the website. Go to usu.edu and put "USU Special Olympics" in the search box.

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Chet Gardner,
Utah State University student
chet.gardner@aggiemail.usu.edu