San Benito High School’s special needs students participated in
their first Special Olympics on Friday at North Salinas High
School.
San Benito High School’s special needs students participated in their first Special Olympics on Friday at North Salinas High School.
Six kids from San Benito took part in events that included a softball toss, NERF javelin toss, the mile, 50-meter dash and long jump. The first event was the mile, in which three San Benito students ran.
George Robles-Carbajal, Jessica Navarro and Melissa Castro completed it in times ranging from 10:47 to 11:55. Robles-Carbajal started out strong, but during his second time around the track was tempted to stop. He kept going strong, though, and finished with all his teammates.
During the javelin toss, Jonathan Byron had the longest throw, which measured 17 feet, 10 inches. Robles-Carbajal had the second-longest throw with 13 feet, 20 inches. And two students competed in the softball toss for the school.
It was clear they were pumped and ready for all the events.
“Everyone was just wanting to compete,” said Ramona Trevino, who teaches severely disabled students at the school.
The students received participation ribbons, and Principal Krystal Lomanto will be presenting certificates to the kids, Trevino said. She thought it would be nice to have the principal had out the awards because it would mean a lot to the kids, she said.
Games Director Paul Stanfield said there were around 600 athletes at this year’s Olympics. Ribbons were given to teachers to hand out because if organizers waited to see how the kids did, then sent out ribbons, it could take at least a month, he said, adding that some of the kids might not remember what the ribbons were for if that much time elapsed.
“There were a lot of happy people,” he said. “(The event) went great.”
Trevino said she plans to take all the kids again next year since she’s familiar now with how it’s done.
“It was cool to see so many schools and the kids at different levels,” she said.
With the Special Olympics competitions, the schools don’t compete against one another, but scores in all the timed and measured events are recorded. For San Benito’s side, eight students from Dave Tari’s sports medicine class helped out at North Salinas.
Regarding the San Benito High School Baler Games – which is a local, similar event taking place each May – Trevino said she wants to expand that meet by adding some events from the Special Olympics.
