Canton Special Olympics Basketball
Program
In
January, Special Olympics MA plans to start its eleventh Basketball season.
This program is open to all students in grades 2-12. Basketball is part of the
program created by the partnership of Canton Public Schools, Canton parents,
Canton Recreational Dept. and Special Olympics Massachusetts to provide
year-round athletic training and competition.
In the spring we offer Track & Field… and we just completed a
very successful Fall Soccer program.
Special
Olympics Massachusetts provides quality, year-round sports training and
athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for individuals with
cognitive delays and other types of intellectual impairment. The Special
Olympics Unified® Program, which is operating in Canton, is
a very inclusive program that matches intellectually impaired student-athletes
with similar-age volunteers to train and compete together as teammates. These
volunteers, called Unified Partners, can be other special needs students or
non-special needs students. This program provides these volunteers with an
opportunity to help their classmates, compete athletically, have fun and grow
as individuals.
We are very fortunate that our great coach -- Jeff Erickson and Kait Erickson-Picozzi -- have agreed to coach this year’s basketball program. The training sessions for Basketball will be held on Tuesdays, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, at the Massachusetts Hospital School gym. The first session will be on Tuesday, Jan 6th. There will be 10 practice sessions this season.
There are no fees for this program.
Please
let me know if your student plans to enroll in the Basketball program by
e-mailing me at wrsilvia@aol.com or calling 781-828-1466.
The
Canton Special Olympics Unified Program was started eleven years ago and has
grown significantly, with practically all of our athletes continuing to
re-enroll for each sport that is offered. We would like to continue to grow. Please
tell other parents and students about this program and encourage them to join
us.
Sincerely,
Walter Silvia
