BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee hosted its Annual Special Olympics Basketball Tournament in Timothy Breidegam Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon, April 22 with more than 60 participants from the Lehigh County Special Olympics. Bethlehem City Special Olympics, Northampton County Special Olympics and Monroe County Special Olympics and 75 Moravian student-athletes.
This is the sixth year of hosting the Special Olympics Basketball Tournament at Moravian. SAAC advisor and Head Field Hockey Coach Kristen Gillis and Head Women's Volleyball Coach Shelley Bauder met with local Special Olympic coaches to help organize the tournament.
"It was fun to get involved with this tournament again and Coach Gillis the SAAC advisor, along with the SAAC committee did a great job organizing the event," commented Bauder. "The best parts of the event for me was watching the Special Olympic athletes compete and then watching the Hound athletes having a blast interacting with them. As I was walking around the courts one of the athletes who was off at the time said this to me: "This is so much fun, and your athletes are so" (I thought she was going to say 'good' because she was watching some of our guys play against her teammates) but she said "they are so nice!" Hearing that comment really warmed my heart and provided just one more reason to be proud of our Hound family."
The day began with an opening ceremony with the Special Olympic athletes parading through a tunnel of the Moravian student-athletes from various squads before Lehigh County athlete Cheyenne Burton sang the National Anthem
Several games of both five-on-five and three-on-three were played with Greyhound athletes officiating, cheering, keeping score and playing some games with the Special Olympians, and there were also special skills activities and individual events. Moravian also had a pizza lunch for all of those in attendance after the games were finished for the afternoon.
