Free time can be spent several different ways — doing homework, hanging out with friends, spending time with family, the list goes on. Seniors Chance Andrade and Grace Gallagher, however, spend their Sunday afternoons coaching special needs children for Special Olympics basketball.

With a younger team, priorities change. The game isn’t about winning anymore.

“They’re just super fun. The little kids, it’s not really about the basketball part,” Gallagher said. “They’re just learning how to dribble the ball down the court, so it becomes more about getting them to work as a team and just the relationship part of it, which is really fun.”

Although the games aren’t all about winning, they do provide learning experiences for the kids and inspiration for the coaches.

“They’re really tiny and we play in a senior league, so the other teams are usually a lot bigger than us and so it’s rare for us to win,” Gallagher said, “but they still just have fun and I think that’s really important to us that they still are having fun even though they are still getting beat in the games. It’s inspiring that they’re having fun.”

Andrade has spent a great deal of his life around special needs children and adults due to his mother being a special needs teacher at Anthony Middle School, along with being a mentor in the Interpersonal Skills class.

“I would definitely like to continue with the Special Olympics athletes,” Andrade said. “In the springtime, I’ll be playing baseball, but if I have any free time I will try to make it to the practices and continue to build those relationships with the people in Special Olympics.”

The Special Olympics organization itself gives special needs children and adults the opportunity to participate in the same sports that high schools, middle schools and recreational teams provide. The process for putting teams together is no different than what a normal team would put their athletes through.

“We kind of put them together to see to make sure they can play together as a team. Like any other team, there’s ball hogs. You have people that have the skills but don’t really understand the game,” head basketball coach Kim Schnee said, “and I have quite a few of those that can make a basket…but they don’t really understand the game of basketball. We put them on a team, kind of lower team, because they don’t know how to do this or how to guard.”

To get involved, students can talk to Kim Schnee in room D-115 or visit the Special Olympics webpage at ksso.org.