RANDOLPH — A Randolph Central School student will soon be on his way to Seattle, Wash., to represent New York state in the Special Olympics USA games in bocce ball.
Kyle Eddy of Randolph and the rest of his four-member team will be heading to the nationals in Seattle at the end of June — a week after his high school graduation. His teammates are Josh Holsinger and Jennifer Yost, both of Frewsburg, and Ginny Petrillo-Sparcino of Tonawanda. Coach Barbara Haverty of Dunkirk will be attending as the coach for bocce ball. Mya Torres, also of Dunkirk, will be going to compete in track and field.
Kyle’s mother, Donna Eddy, said it’s pretty exciting to have her son participating in the nationals, and the whole family is thrilled for him. Eddy said she and her husband, Larry, will be traveling to Seattle to watch Kyle compete.
“He doesn’t seem to be very nervous because he knows his coach and the other players,” she said. “I don’t think it has hit him yet, that he’s going on an airplane and flying to the nationals.”
More than 4,000 athletes and coaches representing 50 state programs and the District of Columbia, along with the support of tens of thousands of volunteers and spectators, will compete July 1 to 6 in 14 Olympic-type team and individual sports.
“The 2018 Special Olympics USA Games will showcase the abilities of athletes with intellectual disabilities, promote the ideals of acceptance and inclusion through sport, and celebrate the transformative power of Special Olympics,” said Beth Knox, president and CEO, 2018 Special Olympics USA Games.
The Opening Ceremony will include ceremonial traditions such as the Parade of Athletes and the lighting of the Special Olympics Flame of Hope. The festivities will also feature music and entertainment by some of today’s most popular artists. Serving as a living backdrop to the show will be a 2,018-member choir, one of the largest vocal ensembles in Washington state history.
Eddy said anyone with an intellectual disability from age eight and up is welcome to play sports through Special Olympics. She works at the Resource Center in Jamestown, where she found out about the sports organization through a friend who is one of the coaches. She said Kyle loves sports, so they thought the athletic events would be a great thing for him to do. “This is Kyle’s third year playing bocce, which begins each year in August,” she said. “He practices once a week on a court at a church in Jamestown. All of the games for this area are played in Jamestown. One competition each year is played with the Dunkirk team at the Dunkirk High School.”
In addition to bocce ball, Kyle also plays golf, bowls and swims — all through Special Olympics. Eddy said each sport takes place at different times of the year. Golf competitions are held in the fall, and bocce and swimming are held in the summer.
Eddy said it’s important for Kyle to be a part of the whole event from practices and games to competitions. She said he is a very social guy as is evident by his comment about participating in the games.
“I like playing ‘bocce’ because I get to hangout with my friends,” he said. “I’m excited to be in the games, but even more excited to fly and stay at a hotel with my friends.”
Eddy said Kyle and his teammates have a really good time when they get together to practice, but he definitely knows the nationals are a really big deal. She said he has competed in other events, but this is his first time competing in the nationals.
According to Eddy, Dunkirk High School hosted a torch run May 30 from the school to SUNY Fredonia, where more than 350 athletes from eight area schools assembled to compete in the 30th annual Northern Chautauqua County Special Olympics. The Law Enforcement Torch Run is a nationwide campaign to increase awareness and raise funds for the Special Olympics movement.
“Kyle was invited to participate because he’s one of the national athletes,” she said. “The athletes got to run the torch with the state troopers who were running for the Special Olympics event in Dunkirk.”
Eddy said these athletes will have the honor of running the torch to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls on June 12, where ceremonies will take place in the middle of the Rainbow Bridge. They will be joined by United States and Canadian law enforcement officers carrying the Flame of Hope for Special Olympics New York.
Before the team heads for the nationals in Seattle, they will go to the State Summer Games at Siena College in Loudonville on June 16, where 1,500 athletes and coaches from across the state will participate. The Summer Games are one of three annual state games held each year throughout New York.
For more information, visit online at specialolympicsusagames.org.
(Contact reporter Deb Everts at salpressdeb@gmail.com.)
