Yikes! Brett is a senior and he's expecting me to have all of these videos complete and compiled into one playlist for his grad party! It's crunch time!
Junior year's basketball seasons included the city rec league and Special Olympics league. Link.
He also played in two softball leagues! He played for the Minnesota State High School League adapted softball, which is basically wiffle ball, and played in a gym. Springs can be pretty cold and wet in Minnesota, so we appreciate the climate control! In the state tournament, Brett hit 3 out-of-the-park home runs and was intentionally walked - which we believe is a state record! He was named a member of the All-Tournament Team.
He also played in the Special Olympics softball league, which is played on standard softball fields with softballs in the summer! He proved himself as a slugger there, too, hitting many home runs and one over the fence!
Thunderbolt's Adapted Softball (high school) Special Olympics Basketball Special Olympics Softball Thunderbolt's Adapted Soccer (high school) Special Olympics Flag Football
Woodbury Athletic Association In-house Basketball
So I combined his SOMN basketball and softball into one highlight video. Bryan coaches his team for both sports and it is a lot of fun. We love Special Olympics!
Brett's favorite sport is basketball so he plays in two leagues. He plays with our city youth rec league and with the Special Olympics. I really wish the Minnesota State High School league would add adapted basketball so he could play through the high school. The Special Olympics Minnesota unified schools program has started teams in some high schools, but unfortunately not Woodbury.
In our city league, Brett's team secured 3rd place in their
bracket. The Blazing Stars clinched 1st place at the regional tournament, which
led to them competing in a more challenging bracket at the State level, where
they achieved 3rd place.
Bryan has taken on coaching duties for all three sports that
Brett participates in with the Blazing Stars, deepening his involvement in the
Special Olympics community. Our affection for the Special Olympics continues to
grow!
This video shows highlights from Brett's Special Olympics basketball season, which was April-June 2023. Life is busy and my time for video editing and blogging is limited. Better late than never and better done than perfect. Enjoy!
When he's not playing it, he's watching it. Or reading basketball news. Or organizing a fantasy league. Or setting up a Marsh Madness bracket. Or playing it on his ps4. Or playing it on his phone. Or watching NBA highlight videos. Or designing a court floor using some sort of online tool during his study hall.
Yeah, that's a thing. It's Brett's thing.
We love Special Olympics basketball, and will continue to do it. But we wanted to expand his opportunities, so he joined the city youth rec league this year.
We've had some pretty ugly experiences with youth sports, so have mostly avoided them with Brett. We were hesitant, but decided to give it a try - and be willing to bail if it was awful.
It wasn't. Prayers answered, he landed on a team with just the right coach, and welcoming teammates. He was even made a team captain!
The team was lousy. They lost almost every game. Brett loved every minute of it.
After two years of Covid cancelations, Brett was finally back on the court with the Special Olympics. For reasons I won't get into here, and certainly because it is closer now, he played with the Blazing Stars. His team was composed of about 8 guys and one girl, and they were a lot of fun. Brett was the youngest guy on the team and the older guys were happy to:
(a) take him under their wings and coach him, and
(b) have Bretty run the ball up and down the court!
The Special Olympics hosted their Summer Games for the first time since 2019. It was at a smaller venue and it was spaced out over time and location (usually four sports- basketball, swimming, track, and gymnastics-would be hosted as one big event). We are so excited that Minnesota will host the USA games in 2026!
Brett's team lost their first game in overtime! It was a very exciting game to watch with two teams so closely matched. They won their next two games, placing 2nd in their division.
That weekend, we also put together a small "8th grade graduation" to recognize Brett's big transition from homeschool to high school! What a great weekend!
In May, we trained and competed in the Special Olympics Virtual Summer Games. Brett was the only one who formally entered the competition, but Reggie, Lydia and I trained and competed along with him for the fun of it.
We held the official event over a weekend, recreating some of our favorite parts of the summer games. The entrance of the athletes during the opening ceremony is a special experience that can't be recreated in all it's fanfare, but we did our best with what we had. It included a special announcement, WWE-style entrance music, a handcrafted torch, the National Anthem, and a few curious looks from neighbors!
On to "Victory Village", which is generally a carnival-like atmosphere with games and free stuff, the kids set out our yard games and the refrigerator box became a food truck. We had badges and meal tickets and food. Because Brett is all about the food.
Then we "competed" in track and basketball events. It was fun for Brett to compete in the basketball events. Due to scheduling, in real life, he can only compete in track. Many of the basketball events were number of baskets out of 20. So, for example, he made 16 layups out of 20. He competed in the same track events as last year. We had everything measured out and marked with sidewalk chalk.
When the events were complete, I entered Brett's results into the SOMN website. They gathered results from athletes around the state, created ability-level divisions, and virtual medals were emailed to the athletes. They put together an overall celebration video and a highlight video for each sport (track, basketball, and gymnastics - no swimming this year). Brett is featured in the highlight video @ 1:08, but I highly watching the entire video. It will make any day better!
Here is the highlight video I created from our stay-at-home summer games.
It was announced this week that the Special Olympics will be doing virtual competition for bocce and softball. Better get on Amazon and order a bocce set! I'm crossing my fingers that flag football will be in real life.
We are full on into our spring season of activities, but before we get ahead of ourselves, I need to highlight Brett's basketball season.
This was Brett's second year playing for the half-court team for Special Olympics. For all the Special Olympics sports, there is an "area" competition and then the teams can compete at "state" in the Summer, Fall, or Winter Games. Basketball is played in the summer games, but only the "A" team from our delegation competes in basketball at the summer games. Athletes can only compete in one sport in the summer games, so most athletes from our delegation (including Brett) compete in track rather than basketball. So, he only participated in one event, where in the other sports he plays, there are at least two events. Regardless, he had fun and his team placed 1st in their division. Fun stat: Brett scored the winning basket of the final game two years running!
Brett went to the barbershop and got a star for the big game!
Half-court is player 3-on-3.
Both sets of grandparents were able to come and cheer Brett on!
