The Big-12 conference has a partnership with The Special Olympics which is supposed to push individual universities into creating ties with their local Special Olympics branch. Missouri and Colorado have been tagged as the two most inactive partners in the conference. While MU athletes are required to participate in community service, they are reacting to their poor Special Olympics showing with the creation of a committee, specially designated to form closer ties between to the two organizations. The committee is made up of select athlete representatives who are members of the Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC). SAAC’s primary objective is to bridge the gap between university administration and varsity team members but they also work to foster relationships within the community on behalf of their teams.
The Special Olympics sent Susan Schaffer to meet with the MU athlete representatives and through brainstorms and discussions it was decided that for athlete time management purposes, the department would band together. Instead of getting the swim team to put on a swim clinic and the golf team putting on a golf camp, and involving high cost insurance and equipment cost, basketball would be the main focus. They joked that they hoped the swimmers could function on land properly.
Starting in February the athletic department will put on an 8 week camp that will focus on motor skills using basketball basics. All the teams will participate in this weekly camp, whether that is through actual interaction teaching or administrative interaction with the kids. They will then move on to other sports that promote basic motor skills such as soccer.
The committee meets once every three weeks to plan this clinic and to get updates on current Special Olympic activities to take back to their teams. The next meeting will be focused on clinic organization and how to teach athletes how to teach.
See Colleen Gordon’s post on MyMissourian.com for more information. She is a MU swimmer and a committee member.
