Sponsorship Opportunities

Please support our athletes by being an event sponsor. More than 2,300 people participate, and over 1,000 programs will be distributed. Learn more

2013 Ohio Special Olympics North Section Basketball Tournament  

The joy and magic of the Special Olympics is ready to return to the spotlight at LCCC.  The 18th annual North Section Basketball Tournament is set to be played March 1 - 3, 2013.  The tournament will bring more than 600 athletes with varied developmental disabilities and delays together for a weekend of competition and camaraderie.

This is an outstanding event, and everyone is invited to help support and encourage the participants.

• Please click here to signup!

How to Volunteer

Click the Special Olympics Volunteer Sign-Up Form to select the days and times you are available to help. We will contact you prior to the event with the final schedule.

Thank you for your help. If you have questions or suggestions, please e-mail tdake@lorainccc.edu. 

About the Special Olympics

Special Olympics is an international program of year-round sports and athletic competition for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The Special Olympics Oath is “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

The Special Olympics Mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for individuals with developmental disabilities by giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness; demonstrate courage; experience joy; and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendships with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

The benefits of participation in Special Olympics for people with developmental disabilities include improved physical fitness and motor skills, greater self-confidence, a more positive self-image, friendships, and increased family support. Special Olympics athletes carry these benefits with them into their daily lives at home, in the classroom, on the job and in the community. Families who participate become stronger as they learn a greater appreciation of the athlete’s talents. Community volunteers find out what good friends the athletes can be. And everyone learns more about the capabilities of people with developmental disabilties.

Special Olympics began in 1968 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver organized the First International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field, in Chicago. The concept was born in the early 1960s when Shriver started a day camp for people with mental retardation (then regarded in that time period as acceptable terminology). She saw that people with deveopmental disabiltities were far more capable in sports and physical activities than many people thought. Since 1968, millions of children and adults with developmental disabiltities have participated in Special Olympics.

To be eligible to participate in Special Olympics, athletes must be at least eight years old and identified by an agency or professional as having one of the following conditions: developmental disabiltities, cognitive delays as measured by formal assessment, or significant learning or vocational problems due to cognitive delay that require or have required specially designed instruction.

Special Olympics provides year-round training and competition in 24 official sports. Special Olympics has developed and tested training programs that are outlines in a Sports Skills Guide for each sport. More than 140,000 qualified volunteer coaches train Special Olympics athletes.