Special Olympics Montana Basketball Tournament 2016

Last week Thursday, November 10th, through Saturday, November 12th, was the annual Special Olympics Montana statewide basketball tournament. All of the Special Olympics basketball teams from all over the state, meet up in one Montana town, to compete against one another. The competition consists of 5-on-5 basketball, 3-on-3 basketball, and individual skills competitions. This year was my first year coaching the adults. As nervous as I was to make the switch, I had the time of my life, and met even more amazing people. This is also the first year I coached a 3-on-3 team and we walked away with the silver medal in our division!

It all started with the fun opening ceremonies where my team and I partied hard and got pumped up for the weekend. We cheered, celebrated, danced, hugged, and showed every other emotion possible to get ready for the days ahead of us. They were ready to compete and it made me happy to see them show up ready and prepared for the upcoming games.

As usual, we had the annual dinner, carnival, and dance, and it seems to be more fun every passing year. I danced until I couldn’t dance anymore with my team and some of my old kiddos from the previous team I coached. We ate plenty of candy at the carnival too, but we drank water with the candy so that counts for something, right? Ha!

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone for Spring games next year. I will be coaching track & field, so watch out world, the Hornets (team purple) will be back in a few months. Until then, we will all rest up and eat plenty of delicious foods for the holidays. Oh, and I guess a few of them will be doing Winter sports in between that time too. 😉

As part of my #ThankfulNovember posts for this month, this is the perfect opportunity to say how thankful I am for the Special Olympics organization, the awesome athletes, coaches, and parents. It’s really easy to get caught up in all the negativity happening around us, that it’s a nice reminder to go somewhere like this tournament, filled with so much happiness and pride. Volunteering with this organization you often hear people compliment you for dedicating your time, but if only you knew how much the people, and organization impact my life. They make me a better person. They make me push myself in all aspects of life. They are my role models. And for that: I’m thankful.