Jan. 28, 2008

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - GALLERY

The Eppley Center Natatorium was filled with the smiling faces of many children last Friday, but this time not to witness the Terps compete against another Division I program. Instead, these faces belonged to the Special Olympic swimmers of Prince George's Country, a group of children with multiple disabilities ranging from elementary to high school ages, joining the Terps for a practice session in preparation for their County Championship Meet in April.

As the 40 swimmers piled into the pool area, they divided the group into a number of training stations, included learning diving skills, stroke development and pre-meet land stretches.

3rd-grader Madison Alcorn said that her favorite station was learning how to dive off the block. "When I stood up, I felt like I was flying!" Alcorn bonded with junior freestyler Yelena Skalinskaya, who also helped coach Alcorn during the pre-meet stretches.

"It was a neat experience for all of our swimmers," said Interim Head Coach Jarod Schroeder.

As a requirement to compete in the Special Olympics, swimmers need to have a minimum eight weeks of training in order to advance in the next level of competition. This practice served as only one of the swimmers usual twice a week practices hosted by Fairland in Laurel, Md., or at the Prince George's Community College.

"The opportunity to train in a first-rate facility is not one that many programs have," said Dave Gill, Assistant Area Director for Prince George's County.

The meet in April will be held at the Sports and Learning Complex in Maryland, where 50 swimmers will compete against each other in many styles of racing. The swimmers will also compete during the summer at the Maryland Summer Games, hosted by Towson University.

The Special Olympic swimming program is a Prince George's County school program, and all the coaches for the swimmers are teachers from within the county. The county also has teams in soccer and basketball. The women's basketball program hosted a practice session for the basketball program on January 4 in Comcast Center.

As the Terps wrapped up their training sessions and individual races, the Special Olympic Swimmers medaled each of the Terps, with many hugs thanking them for their day of training.

"Today was a great opportunity for our students," commented Scott Gist, Instructional Specialist for Adaptive Physical Education with Prince George's County Public Schools. "The partnership with the Terrapins increases the children's motivation. It was a win-win situation for both sides."

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for citizens with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

For more information on Special Olympics of Maryland, visit www.somd.org.