New coach leading Special Olympics teams

First year coach Carissa Andermann recently led the Special Olympics bowling team through another season. 

Former coach Jan Williams decided to “phase out” of the coaching life and has been teaching Andermann how to take over. 

In order for the students to be able to become an athlete, they must first have an IEP (a learning goal with their teacher/coach). They also must be age 8 to start and end when they graduate. However, if someone has been part of the team for a long time, they can still play until the age of 26. 

The bowling team has help from other students and their role is titled unified partners. Unified partners are students without disabilities that hang out at practices and practice with the team. The Special Olympics bowling, basketball and track are looking for unified partners. Basketball season begins in winter, and track is a spring event. They are in search of students who are caring, compassionate and want to join to interact with and help students. 

Though they did not have the chance at state bowling due to COVID, Andermann found that the team had made a lot of progress. With 13 athletes for this year’s bowling team, Andermann said she got to see the team improve as a whole over the season. 

The team got to practice at Maple Lanes once a week for eight weeks. 

“This season was a blast,” Andermann said. “It went really well. Students improved.” 

The bowling team had their big regional meet in the middle of October with many other teams from around our area. State bowling would take place in Iowa City, but they were unable to hold a state tournament this year due to COVID.