YORK -- The stadium was not filled with raucous fans. No public address announcer called out names. No cheerleaders. Yet today on York Comprehensive High School's football field, and the running track and field around it, every athlete was a star.
Tyrell Reid pushed his new buddy Jeremy Orr close to victory in one race of the 100 yard dash in the ninth annual York One Games for special needs students. Orr was a star even though he was in a wheelchair and needed a push. His face as he crossed the finish line was just like the face of Van Wyck's Shawn Crawford, Olympic champion. And Reid's face showed the incomparable gain of friendship. A pair of faces of joy, and triumph.
When a class of girls threw a softball for distance, a 17-year-old senior ran the whole event. Shealy Bigach, a star on the high school volleyball team, knows she is lucky to have the chances she has in life. So she gave back some of those chances to all these other kids Monday. Shealy called out their names, yelled them out loud, and congratulated each one. She hugged and ran and jumped and smiled.
“I just want everyone who participates out here today to know they are really special in their own way,” Shealy said. “I want them to know they are great.”
And they were. They were great when they ran and walked and jumped, or tossed a beanbag or balanced an egg. One classmate cheered each time even though she didn't throw a softball the farthest. Thirteen-year-old Necole Lucas clapped for all her classmates. And so did an 18-year-old student, “J.S.,” Jessica Sims. Maybe the tiniest of them all, her throw not nearly the farthest, yet she seemed to cheer the loudest.
“They are my favorites,” J.S. said of her classmates. “The winners.”
The games are similar to the Special Olympics other school districts participate in every spring. In 2000, York decided to hold its own fall games, dubbed them the York One Games, and a tradition of participation, teamwork, sportsmanship, and mentoring began. Special education teacher Cynthia Babb coordinates the games, gets her volunteers from the high school students, and her athletes from all of the district's schools. The Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization in York, donates thousands of dollars each year to pay for the medals, the lunch, the T-shirts that all kids get.
“Participation today is the real success,” Babb said. “Every athlete tries his or her best. And these high school kids who help give their best in helping each athlete out.”
Today on that football field, where somebody wins and somebody loses every Friday night, the scoreboard was blank. Today, everybody won.
Winners included Jeff Lawnsdale, a senior who runs cross-country and plays soccer. But today he was a friend, a buddy, to a group of special needs boys running and throwing and achieving. When student Alden Rash won the 100-yard dash and threw up his arms with that thrill of victory that feels like a lightning bolt, Jeff Lawnsdale's smile and joy and arms thrown into the air showed that lightning hit him, too.
“This is my third year helping and I wouldn't miss it for anything,” Lawndale said.
The mentors stick with their assigned athlete. Through the races and the events, a 7-year-old kid named Mason Kiser tried his best. Zach Hudson and Clay Razo, a pair of 10th-graders, were Mason's mentors. They started out a little quietly, but got louder in encouragement as the events wore on.
And after the softball throw, Razo stuck out his fist: Mason gave him a fist bump, that knuckle-to-knuckle touch that has replaced the handshake. The trio walked off. Hudson on one side, Razo on the other side, Mason the 7-year-old on cloud nine right smack in the middle of his two new buddies. Mason went off to get his gold medals afterward that showed he was a winner. Hudson and Razo got no medals – but they too sure looked like winners.
Want to Help?
To donate to the annual York One Games for special needs students, call the York school district Floyd d. Johnson technology center at 684-1910; or call Tom Swartz of the Knights of Columbus at 684-1190.
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