The crack of a bat, the sound of a ball hitting leather and the cheers of teammates filled the air Tuesday evening as members of the Steamboat Springs Special Olympics softball team prepared to take the field for a regional tournament.

“For these athletes this is an opportunity to play sports, so they get involved in whatever sport they want,” said Melissa Pollack, Special Olympics coordinator and program director for Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports or STARS. “We do have other sports as well … it just means a lot because it’s their full community. I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘It’s their family through Special Olympics’. These programs encourage these athletes to learn sports and be independent in the sports and just succeed more than they typically would on a regular team.”

This Saturday, 17 of the 24 Steamboat athletes who play for the Special Olympics Steamboat Yampa Valley or SOSY softball team will head to Barnes Softball Complex & Batting Cages in Loveland to compete in the Special Olympics’ regional softball tournament. Games will take place on Sunday.

At the same time, Steamboat Springs will also send four representatives to compete in the Special Olympics’ bocce ball tournament at Lincoln Park in Grand Junction. Pollack said the weekend is something the softball and bocce ball athletes have been working toward all summer.

“Softball is our biggest event,” Pollack said. “Then skiing is our next biggest event, and we do bowling, bocce ball and snowshoeing as well.”

The softball and bocce ball teams have been practicing every Tuesday for the past five weeks. Following the regional this coming weekend both teams will hold two more practices before heading to the Special Olympics State Championship Aug. 17 in Colorado Springs.

Steamboat will have two teams competing in the unified division where participants play alongside volunteers. Teams in the division alternate the batting order, battery and field positions on the field between participants and volunteers. There is also a traditional division where teams consist of participants only.

Special Olympics was started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968. Steamboat Springs has a long tradition of taking part in Special Olympics events in both winter and summer sports. The Steamboat Springs program is supported by several different sponsors, with STARS supplying staff and administrative assistance to the programs.  

“It’s been amazing,” Pollack said. “We recruit volunteers, and they all come out pretty much every week for the most part, and we have a ton of participants out here every year.”