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Couple notes on some cool celebrities in my hometown in the recent Special Olympics.
First, on March 20 the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team won gold in the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games! Team captain Andy Yohe is a local guy who most recently played for the RIC Blackhawks Sled Hockey. He lost his legs yrs ago getting run over by a train (eep). Here's the article regarding the medal win!
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team won its second-ever gold medal at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games thanks to a 2-0 shutout victory over Japan this afternoon. Team USA did not surrender a goal in all five of its games at the tournament, outscoring its opponents, 19-0.
With the victory, the U.S. becomes the first-ever team to claim its second Paralympic Winter Games sled hockey gold medal. Team USA last won gold at the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Team USA celebrates its gold medal victory.
"I could not be more proud of our players," said Ray Maluta, head coach of the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. "These guys have given us so much over the last few years to get to this point. They've grown as athletes, players and men, and I'm lucky to have been a part of this ride."Team USA took a 1-0 lead four minutes into the first period on the power play. Joe Howard (Kingston, Mass.) fired a shot towards the front of the net, where it was stopped by Japan goalie Mitsuru Nagase. During the ensuing scramble, Alexi Salamone (Grand Island, N.Y.) located the loose rebound, dragged the puck out of traffic and flipped a backhand shot over the sprawling goaltender.Japan nearly tied the game early in the second period when Andy Yohe (Bettendorf, Iowa) was whistled for interfering with a breakaway, leading to a penalty shot. Japan captain Takayuki Endo snapped a shot towards the top right corner of the net, but was denied by the glove of U.S. goalie Steve Cash (Overland, Mo.).Following a flurry of chances for Japan in the third period, the U.S. put the game away on the power play with less than two minutes remaining. Howard threw a shot low towards the front of the goal where Taylor Lipsett (Mesquite, Texas) was parked. Team USA's leading scorer redirected the puck under the sled of Nagase for his fifth goal of the tournament and the United States' second power-play goal of the night.Cash finished the night with five saves, and stopped all 33 shots faced in five games played at the tournament.
Secondly:
We have a local cheerleading squad here called the Sparkles. They belong to a nonprofit corporation that provides guidance, peer mentoring, and online tools to enable high school students across the United States to create cheerleading squads for students with special needs and to fully integrate those squads into the high school sports curriculum.
They recently were featured on Oprah and won $25,000 in a national contest and participated in the Special Olympics. The squad has the high school students both with disabilities such as Downs and without, to mentor and develop teamwork.
http://www.spartansparkles.com/index.html |
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| Very cool, thanks Jack and congrats to he U.S.A. Sled Hockey winning gold! Yay! |
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 yes awesome!! If you haven't seen one of these games you should, it's amazing. The video link for the gold game can be found at http://www.usahockey.com/ |
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Yay! Thanks for posting that Jack.
Three of my nieces are Down Syndrome, and one of them loves cheerleaders. We're trying to find a group/team for her to participate.... so far no luck, however, she was recently allowed to *dance* with our local junior ice hockey team's ice dancers, and she was in 7th heaven!
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Kat, depending on how much interest there is, someone in your area could also get involved with Sparkles.
http://www.thesparkleeffect.org/
There is an application and a lot of information on how to start this up in any area. |
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Thanks Jack!
*runs off to e-mail her sister in law with the details!* |
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