Special Olympics Iowa has given me access to compete in sports. I love sports and basketball is my favorite. I also play softball, flag football, soccer, swim, and bowl. I am also trained to give speeches as a Global Messenger at Special Olympics events. Many of those sports I have competed on Unified teams. Unified partners are athletes without intellectual disabilities who volunteer to play sports together on a team with Special Olympics athletes. Unified partners help us learn new skills and become our friends. This helps athletes with intellectual disabilities reach new goals in their athletic abilities as well as in their social lives and educational development. I like playing Unified sports with my brothers and sisters. I like when I get first place in soccer every year at Special Olympics and I like to be with friends at Special Olympics.

Basketball is so important to me because I like being at practice and games, sitting on the bench with the players and filling up water bottles. Also, I like hanging out with them because I like playing basketball in the RSC and I get to shoot hoops after practice every single day when they are done with practice. I get to eat in the cafeteria after practice every day and the coaches always say “Hi” to me every practice. I am close with all of the basketball players and coaches and the other manager too. We get game jerseys ready during practice when told by the other manager and put the basketballs away. After practice every day we sit together at a table in the cafeteria as a team.