Arizona Special Olympics basketball team to represent US on world stage
Feb 8, 2019, 4:15 AM
(Instagram Photo/specialolympicsarizona)
PHOENIX — An Arizona Special Olympics team is receiving a special honor.
A Valley-based coed basketball team was selected to represent the United States at the World Special Olympics Games in Abu Dhabi in March.
Assistant Phoenix Police Chief Mary Roberts, who coaches the team, told KTAR News 92.3 FM there are plenty of reasons this team is considered truly special.
Roberts said before getting ready to play on the world stage, the team originally represented Arizona at the USA Special Olympics Games in Seattle last August.
“We got through the Seattle games but we never really played competitively. We scrimmaged, we practiced, we played kids at the community center,” Roberts said. “So when we walked on the court we were a little bit in shock and awe, and nervous, but we did really well.”
The team was bumped up to the highest division but ultimately didn’t medal.
But she said it wasn’t long after the Seattle games that the International Special Olympics Committee called to tell her that her team would be representing the entire country at the 2019 world games.
Roberts said she thinks it had far more to do with how her team acted off the court.
“Their kindness to people, their kindness to each other, I think it had people cheering in the stands and everywhere else,” she said. “We were not the best basketball team, and you know what, I think they selected us on was truly heart and character.”
Roberts went on to add, “I do have some really good basketball players and we’ve come together really well as a team.”
The 10-player squad competes as a unified team, with four able-bodied athletes playing alongside six athletes with disabilities. The players’ ages range from early 20s to early 40s.
Roberts said something especially interesting about the team is that the only female player is the mother of the squad’s youngest player, who is 23.
“She sat on the sidelines while her son played Special Olympics sports forever, and then she was introduced to unified sports,” she said.
“Now her son’s playing basketball and she says, ‘Uh, yeah, I’m gonna play with you.’”
This dynamic is particularly touching for Roberts because she, like the woman on her team, is a single mother.
However, she said that can make it difficult for her to ask for money, a necessity in Special Olympics.
“I’ve been a single parent my whole life,” she said. “Raising my son I’ve never asked for a dime, so it’s really hard for me, but that’s what the Special Olympics needs. Everything they do is based on donations.”
It’s going to cost the team $90,000 for its 2½-week stay in Abu Dhabi.
With less than a month to go until their March 6 trip date, the team is ready to raise funds.
On Sunday, the team — along with an Arizona Special Olympics swimmer also selected to compete at the world games — and Phoenix police officers will serve an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the Applebee’s at Central Avenue and Camelback Road from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m..
The cost is $8 per person, with half of that going to to the athletes.
Anybody wanting to help who can’t make it to the breakfast can also contribute to the team’s online fundraiser.