mountain man takes bronze

this weekend was the special olympics basketball tournament at wpi. every year, tke runs the tournament--handles all the volunteers, does registration, all that jazz. it's one of the most rewarding things i do, and i think i'll be helping out special o for many years to come. the most fantastic aspect of the games is the way the athletes behave when it comes time to handing out awards and medals. it doesn't matter if they took dead last and didn't win a single game, they are still excited to be there and having the chance to compete--the true essence of sport. and for the last 3 years, i've had i think the most rewarding job at the games. i'm special events chairman, which boils down to opening ceremonies and awards ceremonies. this year i had the bad boy chris sim helping out, so we rocked it hardcore. but it's the most rewarding job because you get to see the happiness when the teams are announced and cheered and celebrated for competing, no matter their finish. it's the best part of games, and i'm glad i've had the chance to do it multiple times. two highlights of the weekend were these: on saturday belmont won the gold in their division and when the medals were all handed out, one of the athletes asked to have the mike, and i have no problem letting the people speak. he gives thanks to their coach and how they'll miss him since he was done coaching after this tournament. the whole team then proceeded to take their medals off and place them around the coaches neck. it was one of the coolest things i've ever seen. the second was on sunday when the stompers were playing (i didn't catch where they were from), and they had this one guy on the team. we called him mountain man, cuz of the ridiculously huge gray beard he had. besides being mentally handicapped, he was also deaf. but that didn't stop him from having game. the guy was the man. insane d. he was making steals and play tough defense better than anyone else i had seen. and in one game he scored 20 of the team's 34 points. insane! so when it came to their final game, they had to win to take 3rd (which meant bronze medal instead of a ribbon). now, i shouldn't be cheering against another team, but i wanted to see mountain man get his medal. and he did. and how happy he looked at the awards ceremony made the gettting up at 6am and spending 10+ hours on both sat and sun made it all worth it. the atheletes embodied what it was to enjoy life and be happy in the simple pleasure of sport. i take my hat off to you, special olympians, and i hope you a long and healthy one