Special Olympics Rhode Island Coach Lindsey Smith is always attracted to sport. She was a collegial athlete before switching to coaching, and that decision offered many opportunities to grow in the leadership space, including in 2024, recognition by Special Olympics North -America.
Every year, Special Olympics Noord -Amerika Recognizes coaches throughout the region, including coaches who have made important contributions in relatively short coaching career via the Rising Star Award. The Sona Outstanding Coach Awards Four those who help bring the Special Olympics mission to life and form an essential part of the expansion of the mission of inclusion.
Smith, a teacher and coach of Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the 2024 Special Olympics North America Rising Star Award winners. She became aware of Special Olympics for the first time through a family friend who has been athlete for 20 years and always knew she wanted to be involved in the movement. She now coaches both United Track and Field and Unified Basketball.
“I really just wanted to do it because I want to make sure, you know, my children in my class have the chance to record and also exercise,” said Smith. “I wanted to do it for them.” Eight of her ten students are currently participating in the program.
Smith provides special education at Del Sesto Middle School and says that as a special education teacher, her training has enabled her to better understand her students and to help them feel admitted to the school. Her students agree.
One of her athletes, Yarana Paulino Sosa, said: “Mrs. Smith always encourages us to try new skills and exercises during the exercise to help us improve in sport. Mrs. Smith is consistent with encouraging us to be the best we can be.” From improving basketball skills through exercises to creating connections with their colleagues, Smith is always there to support her students and improve their skills, both and outside the field.
For long periods of the day, Smith’s students are in her class, so having special Olympic programming helps to create healthy and inclusive interactions. Smith believes Unified Champion Schools® Programming Is “important because I have the feeling specifically at my school that the children I give in a stand -alone class gives them the chance to meet peers they normally do not meet.”
Smith works in a large high school and has both uniform partners and special Olympics -athletes with different backgrounds and with different experiences. Special Olympic programming has not only affected the lives of its students, but also those of the United Partners, individuals without intellectual disabilities who train and compete in addition to special Olympics Athletes.
Unified Partners can help to increase trust in special Olympic athletes by encouraging them to try new skills.
When a special Olympic athlete could not reach the basket at the start of the season, Unified Partners boarded the team to support him. They allowed him to mirror them, and he learned how he could let the ball enter. Smith has also seen similar support in other sports, including Track and Field, where encouragement of uniform partners kept special Olympic athletes from walking to jogging and eventually running on the circuit.
These friendships are real, and for Smith, to see her students walking to their partners, giving them high five, giving hugs and sitting with them during lunch is very worthwhile.
Winning the Rising Star Award is something that Smith is proud of. “It was important for me to continue,” said Smith about coaching. “You know, I didn’t want to drop it, because I wasn’t sure if someone else would pick it up and I wanted to make sure that my children would have that chance.” The impact and influence on the students made receiving the prize and the presentation that was there that was much more meaningful – her students were there with her.
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