By Nate West
News Assignment Editor
On Nov. 14 and 15, St. Bonaventure physical education students presented at the New York State Association for Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Conference at Turning Stone Convention Center in Verona, N.Y.
Team members included, Matthew Acquilano, Jillian Rowe, Jessenia Andujar, Lauren Capotorto, Jessica Petruzzi, Logan Dewe, Ryan Winchip, graduate student Tim Gallagher and faculty advisers Paula Scraba and Allison Barnes. Partnered with Dan Collins, director of training at Special Olympics New York, they presented “Special Olympics Coach Education System: Inclusion Model For Physical Education.”
At the conference, the students participated in a coaching training clinic. The conference began with a general session, which gave students an opportunity to ask whatever questions they have about Special Olympics. The second half of the session was spent organizing events that Special Olympians would participate in. After organizing the events, they participated in a walk through of said events.
“What we’ve done is we’ve incorporated the coaching guide for individual sports of the Special Olympics into the lessons plans and unit plans,” Scraba said. “They have to use the guide in developing their lessons plan and their unit plans to show how Olympics develop for coaches working with disabilities.”
New York Special Olympics is the largest the largest what in North America and the sixth largest in the world, Scraba explained. When Bonaventure students have in their résumé that they have a coaching certificate from New York Special Olympics, it means that internationally they could volunteer at any event.
St. Bonaventure has also been working with Neal Johnson, Special Olympics New York CEO and St. Bonaventure graduate, to bring new initiatives to the university. They include: Special Topics Course PHED 399F: “Leadership Through Special Olympics: Serving, Learning, Leading,” which will be offered on Tuesdays in the spring semester from 6 p.m. to 8:40 p.m. and a basketball program which helps create a welcoming environment for students with or without intellectual disabilities to compete together, according to a university press release.
“This course will use sports as a vehicle to build leadership skills and event management skills,” Collins said. “So, these students will plan and implement an entire competition from soup to nuts. We’ll provide supervision, but they’ll be doing all the work.”
westnl11@bonaventure.edu
