There was a guy there whom I wish I would have taken his picture. He was a small, white, young man with a Mohawk hair cut and he had 20-30 Special Olympic medals hanging around his neck. I dubbed him Mr. T of the Special Olympics.
Basketball in the Special Olympics is a bit different. They play four six minute quarters with a five minute half time. Nobody gets called for traveling or double dribble. Fouls don't get called very often unless one team is about to skunk the other, then the refs try to help even the odds a little. The refs often have to redirect players if they head for the wrong basket.
There are bumps and scrapes just like any other basketball game, but these players don't get mad, they always help each other up, make sure they're okay, and smile the whole time. They really know how to have a good time, win or lose.
Kelly's team was good enough to win the gold medal. They won all three of the games they played in.
I don't know if you can tell from this photo but the teams are really mixed with young, old, men, and women. All teams were like that. I saw a couple of teams that had what looked to be twelve year olds playing right along with the fifty year olds. It was neat to see them all have such a good time together.
The team didn't know it, but I had invited them to ride the bumper cars before heading home. Since it was a surprise I said goodbye to Kelly after his last game on Sunday, but arranged for the bus driver to follow me. The guy (Artie) sitting in the other front seat asked Bob (the bus driver) where he was going; he knew it wasn't the same way they went to the freeway the day before. Bob said, "I saw a pretty girl in this car so I'm going to follow her." Every time I turned, Bob turned. After a couple of turns Artie yelled to the back of the bus, "Hey everybody, Bob's chasing some woman."
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