Special Olympians attend senior night

Thursday, March 5, 2009

If the lights in Allen Fieldhouse went out, Brady Tanner’s smile would have lit the entire building.

Tanner, who is a member of Douglas County Special Olympics, attended the women’s senior night basketball game against Baylor Wednesday. Fifty-seven student athletes and 34 Special Olympians partnered up to foster closer friendships and cheer on the Jayhawks. Tanner, who cheered loudly with his KU gear and crimson and blue face paint, told it all,

Photo by Jerry Wang

Brady Tanner, Douglas County Special Olympics participant, flexes for the "Flex Cam" during the women's basketball game against Baylor Wednesday evening. Kansas Athletics donated tickets for Special Olympics participants to attend the game.

“All you have to do is look at their faces when you see them interact with the student athletes,” Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said. “The positive influence and the joy that these student athletes bring to those individuals makes it all worth while.”

The event was a part of the ongoing partnership between Kansas Athletics and Special Olympics Kansas. Special Olympics has been the Big 12 Conference’s charity of choice since May 1996.

“The partnership is something we as student athletes wanted to pursue and once we started doing it, we realized how much of an impact we can make,” Lake Tapps, Wash., senior diver Hannah McMacken said.

Kansas Athletics donated the tickets for the women’s game, enabling the Special Olympians to attend. Marchiony said the partnership between Kansas Athletics and Special Olympics was one Kansas Athletics took great pride in and was one of the most enjoyable ways to serve the community.

“We have so much too be thankful for and it’s an important lesson that we try to impress upon student athletes as soon as they arrive here, because so much is given to us, we need to give back,” Marchiony said.

Drew Dudley, College Station, Texas sophomore and football player, said it was important to embrace the opportunity to work with the Special Olympians.

“Anything we can do to give back to them, because they’re so into sports and you can make them the happiest person in the world by just hanging out with them at these events,” Dudley said.

Matt Baysinger, student athlete development assistant with Kansas Athletics, said many of the Special Olympians saw KU athletes as role models, especially in the Lawrence community.

“One of our football student athletes told me how it was both interesting and great how whether we want to be role models or not, we are,” Baysinger said. “It’s not quite the Charles Barkley approach where he used to say athletes aren’t role models, but the fact of the matter is that we are.”

A number of the student athletes stayed in touch with the Special Olympians they’ve worked with in the past through e-mail and snail mail. McMacken said promoting the positive image in sports and forming friendships like those the Special Olympians and KU athletes had formed was important.

“I think it’s important to slow down because often times student athletes feel overwhelmed with their schedules, but I think it’s good to put everything on hold and take time for somebody else,” McMacken said. “It’s so easy to get wrapped up in what you’re doing and forget about the people that helped you along the way.”

Baysinger said the possibilities to work with Special Olympics were limitless, leaving it up to the student athletes to determine how many events they would like to put on.

Other events Kansas Athletics hosted included the annual men’s basketball clinic with Special Olympians, an event at Power Play Family Entertainment Center in Shawnee, which more than 200 Special Olympians and 100 student athletes attended, and the women’s Pink Zone basketball game this semester.

Kansas Athletics continues its ties with Special Olympics as it hopes to hold a few more events this spring, including a swimming and diving clinic and a bowling tournament that Baysinger said was a success in the past.

— — Edited by Heather Melanson

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