MANITOULIN—For the first time a Manitoulin Special Olympics (MSO) softball team has qualified for the Special Olympics Ontario provincial summer games.
“It’s awesome,” stated MSO coach and coordinator Janet Anning. “It is big news; this is the first time we’ve had a softball team qualify for the provincials.” She explained the MSO teams had played in a provincial qualifier in Sudbury last August.
The Manitoulin Wolverines C division team had come home with a silver medal after being defeated by Almaguin in their final at the provincial qualifier. The team members who will taking part in the provincials include Michael Cormiere, Dylan Danville, Jeff Harper, Michael Harper, Tyler Madahbee, Emily Moggy, Aaron Nickol, Jamie Payette, Rebecca Strain, Mary Beth Taliotis and William Leclair. MSO coaches Roslyn Taylor, Sandra Graham and Ms. Anning will be coaching the softball team. The MSO team will be one of the teams representing Northeast Ontario at the provincials.
“We also had three athletes, Kelsey Mellan, Matthew Bedard and Bruce Vanhorn who will also be going to the provincials in track and field,” said Ms. Anning, who said there may be other local athletes going to the provincials as well. “And we will be picking up two players from Sudbury for the softball team.”
“It is an exciting day today, as we released our first round of athletes named to the district training team for the provincial summer games,” wrote Jarrod Copland, manager, sport, and competition with Ontario Special Olympics in a letter to MSO on January 24. “Please do know that this is just the first announcement and that many names are still to come.”
The Ontario Special Olympics provincial summer games will take place July 10-13 in Brantford.
Ms. Anning told The Expositor that, “for the second time MSO will be hosting the Northeast regional curling meet at the Little Current Curling Club on Saturday, March 8. “We hosted the games several years ago.” She added, “we are asking for anyone who would like to volunteer to help out to let us know. We need as many volunteers as we can get.”
To volunteer you can contact Janet Anning at 705-282-7343 or janet_anning@hotmail.com or Heather Strain at 705-282-4186 hastrain1963@gmail.com
