In March, 13 Linton and Senior High Life Skills and Autistic Support students participated in the Allegheny County Special Olympics Basketball Tournament. This event was held at the University of Pittsburgh in the Fitzgerald Field House.

Any Special Olympics event that is held allows participants with a disability in the age range of 8 to 80 years old to complete in the event.  The Basketball Tournament had three different events that individuals with disabilities could participate in--individual skills, 3 on 3 and 5 on 5. Games were officiated by PIAA referees and played by official game rules.

Both the middle and high school teams participated in the 5 on 5. Since there is a vast age range of competitors, our teams played against other teams that had members 20+ years of age.

Penn Hills Team White (Linton) was coached by Eric Kulzcyski and Lisa Romah.   Coach Kulzcyski and Ms. Romah had been practicing with the team during their gym class to prepare them for the event. Taking the court for the preliminary game, the boys were pumped and ready to go. It was a close match but the Penn Hills team got the win. The next game took place right after the preliminaries. The boys demonstrated the drills they had been taught in gym and looked like a team that had been playing for longer than a month. The game went on and the Penn Hills players kept scoring baskets. One of the Team Linton members was able to steal the ball from the other team. As he was getting ready to make his way down the court, he turned to the player that he stole the ball from and said, "Thank you."

"We always try to teach our students good manners!" Ms. Romah said. The whistle blew to end the game, with a final score that had the Penn Hills boys crushing the other team 42-8. It was hard to believe that a group of 12 to 15 year olds were playing against adults who had been doing this for a long time and were able to beat them.

Since they defeated the last team by such a large score, the Special Olympics staff talked to Coach Kulzcyski and told him the team would be moving up a division. Now, playing their final game for first and second place, some of the boys were nervous. This was because there were girls on the opposing team. The boys could not believe that girls were willing to play basketball like this since the ones in their gym class do not like to play. Bumping up the students to another division, it was a little harder, but they were able to keep up and still score. "I can't believe that even the students with a physical disability could move down the court like that," Director of Special Education Cathy Guzzo remarked.  As the whistle blew to end their final game, the score was 22-18. The team lost a close one, taking the silver medal home. The boys were a little disappointed but still excited that they got to play basketball all day and were taking home a medal.

Coached by Gina Sciulli and Katie Leone, the Senior High Red Team members were very nervous about playing. Several of the students had played sports for the school before so they knew what it was like to have healthy competition but, for the others, it was clear they did not know what to expect.

Playing together as a team for the first time, the young men took to the court for the preliminary game. Coach Sciulli told the students that they needed to play hard and smart, because they would have to play the entire game since the team only had five players. At first, they struggled but soon were able to get into the swing of things. The Senior High boys lost a close one by a score of 9-5. Since they knew a little more about what to expect, they looked great in the next game. Even though this game did not count in the brackets, the boys played their hearts out as if it were their last game. They looked more like a team and were playing together. The game came to an end and, even though they fought hard, they unfortunately lost another close game. After watching several other games, the boys were able to scope out the competition and see their strategies.

In their last game, the young men were pumped up and ready to play. Coach Leone told the team that it was time to play the final game of the day but did not tell them it was for first and second place. The game began and both teams kept going back and forth down the court, taking rebounds from each other. Finally, the Penn Hills team scored first, making a 3-point shot. This pumped our team up and they started to look like a team that had been playing for years. During the first time out, one of the Penn Hills players turned to Coach Leone and said, "That dude has a full grown beard! How are we playing against them?"

Half-time came and the young men had huge smiles on their faces even though you could tell they were exhausted. Strategies were put into place. Even they bus driver that drove the team to the tournament got into the game and gave the players some words of wisdom. In the second half, it was all Penn Hills Team Red, using all of the skills they had been taught. The game finally ended with a score of 25-16, and the victorious High School team took home the gold. The team they beat for the gold had been playing together for 18 years. That is older than any of the Penn Hills team members. "For only playing together for the first time today and beating a team that has been doing this for a long time, I am proud of my players," Coach Sciulli stated. One of the students told Mrs. Guzzo he was going to wear his medal to school.

On the ride home, one would have thought the boys would be tired from all the hard work they put in on the courts. But, they were laughing and sharing highlights of the games they had played that day. Some of the students were even heard saying they would like to do this again next year. As they were getting off the bus to go home, the bus driver told them that he was proud of what they had accomplished on the courts and that he was also proud of them for playing hard.