If anyone wants to see what sportsmanship is about, come and see a Special Olympics sports tournament.
That is the message from Kapiti Special Olympics basketball coach Tim Upton after coaching the Kāpiti team at a tournament in Porirua last weekend.
Being involved with the Kapiti Basketball Association and affiliatingthe two organisations together, Tim has found coaching the Kapiti Special Olympics basketball team to be something special.
Each club takes turns to host a tournament every two years and this year it was Kāpiti's turn.
Co-hosting the tournament with Hutt Valley at Te Rauparaha Arena, the one-day tournament was a tier one tournament for the team.
The team was winning 42-2 when one of the players turned to Tim and said, "If we get to 50 points can we share the ball around so everyone can get a goal?"
The team reached 50 points only a few minutes later and so the ball was shared around the whole team.
"So whenever one of the guys got the ball he passed it to the other players who normally wouldn't score and everyone had a shot and everyone managed to score a goal."
The results led the team to finish second in their division.
"It's all about fun and sportsmanship.
"If anyone wants to see what sportsmanship is about, come and see a Special Olympics tournament.
"The emphasis is all on fun – while we teach them catching and passing skills - but they were just so pumped about winning."
Seeing a couple of players in Coastlands a few days after the tournament, Tim said they were still pumped.
The team will now head to a tier two North Island tournament in Manawatū or the Hawke's Bay in June next year with the hope of heading to the nationals next November.
"You have to compete in a tier one tournament - a one-day tournament and a tier two tournament, which is held over two days and involves staying away overnight before being able to go to the national tournament which is longer."
Training together once a week, Tim said the team "just love it".
"We've come so far from this time last year, the emphasis at training is always fun.
"Sometime you don't always feel like going to a training, but when you get there the guys are just so happy to be there and just love it."
Finishing up the season for the year, everyone was disappointed to be stopping, especially as Covid-19 limited the season, so they will be training for a few more weeks until the end of October – just for the fun of it.
If anyone is interested in joining the team, helping out or find out more, email kapiti@specialolympics.org.nz or call Tim on 027 247 7764.
