During the beginning of our Journey the Lions started off by going to the Queensbury Hotel and we had the opening ceremony. We hosted the banner that presents Long Island Division and wore it in green. Before we opened the Special Olympic Games we had guests from athletes, new members that are willing to promote marketing to this league, volunteers who grew up loving the Special Olympics, Glens Fall Mayor Bill Collins and Stacey Hengsterman CEO & President of the New York Special Olympics made a beautiful speech. Finally, the State Troopers walked with the athlete who light the torch to let the games begin. The Local News came to downtown Glens Falls to watch the ceremony of the event. There was over 1,300 athletes Statewide to participate in the Fall Games.
During the Big of the Tournament we played at Morse Field Complex we had over 16 teams Statewide for the Soccer Tournament. After the practice round, each team will be placed in 3 Divisions of those 4 Teams. We placed against the Ithaca Dragons and lost 2-0 but we played against New York City Hawks and lost 1-0. When the Lions was ready for the Big Tournament, we went to 3rd Division with Southampton Mariners, Buffalo Storms and Friends United of Buffalo. It was Long Island vs Buffalo in the bottom division, so we played against the Southampton Mariners both teams played competitive performance but Southampton took the lead but I assist it to Phil and got the one goal which we lost 3-1. During the losers tournament, the Lions was determined to get Bronze against the Buffalo Stormers. The match was started off scoreless until almost halfway done with the 2nd Half but I made long kicks multiple time but the one moment when the Lions got a goal was when I passed it to Damien to Phil and took the lead. The Stormers had other plans to score one minute later and both ended up at Extratime. All of us had tired legs because the match would not end until someone wins the match or shootouts which make a difficult decision. Both Teams played 5 minutes each half and I was finally increasing my moments to get shots on goals. During the last few minutes of extra time, John passed the ball to me and we finally got the goal to take the winning moment. I took the ball all the way and did some cool moves to go around and got the winning goal and we won 3-1. The Long Island Lions was able to take Bronze. During the Winners/Finals Tournament, it was Southampton South Fork vs Friends United of Buffalo. Southampton did everything they could but end up took silver so Friends United of Buffalo took gold and won 3rd Division of the Tournament.
During the Closing Ceremony, we all watched the closing moments with my teammates. We watch the moment when one of the athletes use the torch to turn off the lighting torch and it was to put it on a closing note. At the end, everyone danced with their friends while having their final moments and the DJ played the greatest songs from the 80s to now.
Here’s the numbers and links for more Special Olympics from around the Highlights of the Glen Fall Games
Numbers and Links about the Special Olympics
- https://www.specialolympics-ny.org/news/fall-games-announcement-2022/
- https://www.news10.com/news/north-country/opening-ceremonies-for-the-special-olympics-ny-fall-games/
- https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/46755/20221020/the-new-york-special-olympics-come-to-the-north-country
- https://poststar.com/news/local/glens-falls-hosts-largest-special-olympics-state-games-to-date/article_098d59c2-5081-11ed-b45d-f3c4a4337296.html
- https://wnyt.com/top-stories/special-olympics-fall-games-begin-in-warren-county/
- https://poststar.com/news/local/special-olympics-hosts-states-largest-fall-games-in-glens-falls/article_9e3499fe-523a-11ed-b963-9feb4477aa56.html
- https://www.news10.com/news/largest-special-olympics-new-york-fall-games/
- https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capital-region/news/2022/10/22/special-olympics-new-york-state-fall-games-held-in-glens-falls
- https://www.k941.com/news/local-news/2022-special-olympics-state-fall-games-in-glens-falls/
- https://www.specialolympics-ny.org/stacey-hengsterman/
- https://www.specialolympics-ny.org/strategic-plan/
- https://instagram.com/specialolympicsny?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- https://www.facebook.com/SpecialOlympicsNewYork
- https://www.tiktok.com/@specialolympicsny?_t=8Wroo8Y77Zj&_r=1
- https://youtube.com/c/SpecialOlympicsNewYork
- https://www.specialolympics.org