A male and female Special Olympics basketball team made up of CILA residents in Marion and Jefferson Counties are participating in the State Championships at Illinois State University at Normal this weekend.
A total of 22 athletes, along with others coming to watch the event, left from Salem late Thursday afternoon with a Salem Fire Protection District fire truck escort. The night before the Grace United Methodist Church provided them all with new basketball shoes.
Chris Watkins, who works for the Horizon Center, started the JETS team to give the CILA residents some activities.
“We have bocce ball, bags, soccer, softball, all coming up, so there are a lot of things here in town for them to do so we are going to try and get them moving around a little bit. Without that, they are just walking around the community or trying to find things to do. This way we can have something for them to do and monitor what they do.”
The Jets advanced to the state competition with two wins over the Olney Rebels. The newly formed Jettas also beat Olney but had already automatically qualified in the first year of the women’s competition.
Both teams are guaranteed two games and have four teams in their divisions.
Members of the Jets and Jettas teams wait to get shoes at the Grace United Methodist Church.
The two basketball teams are led out of town by Salem Firemen as they head to Springfield for state tournament play. Photo by Austin Williams.
