GEORGETOWN, Del. - Nearly 1,500 Special Olympics Delaware athletes and their peers have competed in soccer skills events over the past week, including a group that gathered at Sussex Tech on Tuesday.
During the day's events, athletes participated individually or with a unified partner, or peer without a disability, at different soccer skills stations or in a five-on-five tournament. One of the event's goals was to help the athletes improve fine and gross motor skills that can be used in their daily lives. However, one of the biggest benefits gained during Tuesday's games was social interaction between student athletes, their partners and other high school student volunteers.
Special Olympics athletes and unified partners played in a five-on-five soccer tournament hosted at Sussex Tech in Georgetown on Tuesday.
"The purpose of this event is to bring people with disabilities together," Jon Buzby, senior director of Unified Champions Schools and media relations director for Special Olympics Delaware, told CoastTV. "It's really to teach the lesson that we are all the same and that inclusion is important at every level. It's not just the inclusion of people with disabilities put people in general. Nobody should be bullied, nobody should be left out."