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By: Sydney O’Shaughnessy, Sarah Chaneles, Christie Citranglo
“Let me win — But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
The Special Olympics Athlete’s Oath was heard loud and clear on the cold, rainy morning of Saturday, Oct. 8. On that day, dozens of athletes gathered at the Country Club of Ithaca to compete in the first ever Special Olympics Southern Tier Super Regional Golf Tournament for Tompkins and Cortland Counties.
After the recitation of the oath and the opening ceremonies, the athletes were divided based on ability to the various events. Even though umbrellas and rain coats were a must, the athletes were excited to participate. Michael Perehinec, the event coordinator, said that there was a place for everyone at the day’s events.
“We have about 26 people, or 26 groups, playing on the course,” Perehinec said. “They are going to play the back nine. The majority of our people, though, are going to be surrounding this and they are going to be doing what’s called Skills. So they might not be good enough to be on the course, but they are good enough to do separate skills and have fun doing that.”
One of the younger athletes, Christian Stallcup, 14, participated in the Skills portion of the event. He lined up his shot on the green and pulled back his putter a couple times before making contact with the golf ball. Stallcup has been playing golf for two years so he was ready to compete.
“I feel a teeny-tiny bit stressed,.” Stallcup said. “But I feel fine with it. I feel a-ok.”
Christian Stallcup prepares to put the ball in his first event.
Similarly, Darren Schoenfeldt, the reigning gold medalist of a previous golf tournament, expressed being completely prepared for the competition. He said that the weather may affect his game a little but that he was confident he could keep his title. Schoenfeldt then pulled on his golf gloves, jumped in a golf cart and headed out to play the back nine.
Perehinec said that this event would not be possible without the help of the community volunteers.
“We’ve had so many community volunteers come out that have just brought awareness to what Special Olympics is and that these athletes are real athletes,” Perehinec said. “They get treated just like everybody else and I think that’s great.”
The treasurer for Tompkins and Cortland Counties Special Olympics and one of the day’s volunteers, Dick Krizek, said he likes to help out because of his son.
“We have a son with Down Syndrome,” Krizek said. “He is out there on the course now playing golf and he participates in all the sports.”
According to Krizek, staying involved with the Special Olympics helps his son maintain relationships with other people with disabilities.
“We need to get the younger ones involved but they are not interested in doing this,” Krizek said. “I think it has to do with the school system, where they want everyone to be as one unit. Some of them don’t have the ability to communicate with everyone else, that’s the problem. So here they socialize with all this group all the time so it helps them out.”
The Special Olympics New York has about 1.2 million participants, according to its website. However, in Ithaca, the games were exceptionally important to the community because the athletes did not have any games in the fall, which left out a lot of people, said Perehinec.
“We didn’t have a fall state games,” Perehinec said. “So they have a winter and a summer games but not a fall one so my athletes didn’t have the opportunity to play.”
At the close of the competition, the athletes gather to await the results. Perehinec said that each player earned points throughout the day and that will determine who wins.
“What we do at the end is, we tally up the scores for Skills and we tally up the scores for people on the course and then we award medals at the end,” Perehinec said.
A row of golf carts wait to take players out on the golf course.
Covered golf bags sit in the rain while the opening ceremonies are conducted.
The Country Club of Ithaca served as the venue for the event.
