Carroll’s Tournament of Champions gives disabled kids day of athletic fun: ‘I’m hoping that they feel special’

Uncertainty and anticipation melted away to excitement and pure joy Thursday for more than 100 kids with disabilities who attend Carroll County elementary and middle schools, as they paraded into the McDaniel College gymnasium before participating in a fun-filled day of adaptive athletics.

Tournament of Champions is a yearly event in which the Westminster college’s kinesthesiology students apply what they have learned to create activities for disabled children, allowing the young adults to glean hands-on, field-relevant experience, and providing the children with a day of activity and exercise.

The college supplied more than 100 volunteers, or “buddies,” to ensure everyone received enough attention to properly enjoy the event.

“This is an awesome event,” said Carroll County Board of Education President Marsha Herbert. “Teaching [physical education] and seeing kids active is what it’s all about. … Students at McDaniel will encourage those kids all day long, and that’s what they need to be successful in life.”

After the 10 p.m. opening ceremony and athlete parade, kids rotated among 15 play stations designed to let everyone participate in two campus gymnasiums. . The event concluded after lunch, with a 1 p.m. awards ceremony that included members of the Maryland State and Westminster police departments.

Tournament of Champions, in its 33rd year, is aimed at empowering children to make their own fun — from creating unique ways to experience a multitude of games to simply running around the gymnasium full-tilt.

McDaniel College President Julia Jasken said the event had great energy and that she appreciates the partnership with the school system.

“There’s this really special kind of connection between the students and the buddies,” Jasken said. “It’s an example of the great things that happen when the communities come together and partner in these ways.”

About $5,000 from the school system’s special education budget was spent on buses, food, shirts and medals in support of the event, said CCPS adaptive physical education instructional consultant Rob Vaughn.

One of the stations was designed by Nathan Brown, 20, a McDaniel sophomore majoring in kinesthesiology — the study of the movement of muscles and joints — and minoring in education. He said he is passionate about providing all kids with the opportunity to have sports experiences.

“I’m hoping that they feel special,” Brown said. “That’s what the whole thing is about. This is for them, kids with disabilities don’t get that too often.”

Many stations offered several difficulty levels for the same activity, such as different sized balls or different ways to play the game.

At Brown’s  parachute station, some kids preferred to sit underneath the parachute, while others would rather move it up and down, he said.

“Station preparation really comes down to understanding the needs of different students,” Brown said. “You have to prepare your station to adapt to be fun for everyone, regardless of what their skill level is.”

Brown said McDaniel’s adaptive physical education class has opened his mind to countless possibilities to provide adaptive activities.

“There are a lot of things you don’t think about in life,” Brown said. “People who don’t interact with kids with disabilities often don’t realize how many things that they do that someone else can’t do.”

Patrick Stull, of Union Bridge, 31, said his autistic, nonverbal daughter, 7, who attends Winfield Elementary, enjoyed the event when she participated for the first time last year.

“It’s cool that the college does stuff like this for all the special needs kids,” Stull said. “They have fun for the most part.”

McDaniel faculty member Linda Kephart, who teaches the adaptive physical education class, said it is a joy to watch her students go from well-prepared but nervous, to smiling and putting their best selves forward as they explain and monitor their respective stations. The project provides a wealth of experience to kinesthesiology students, who are likely to become educators, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians’ assistants or athletic trainers.

“I try to stress with them that at some point in time in your career, you will be working with individuals — students, clients or patients — with differing abilities,” Kephart said. “A lot of the time, this is their first opportunity to do that.

Eldersburg Elementary physical education teacher Shaun Thompson, a McDaniel alumnus, said he applies what he learned in his adaptive physical education class every day.

“All of the games, the activities and the instructional methods that Linda Kephart taught me in class — I use it every single day when I’m teaching and guiding instruction,” said Thompson, 26, of Hampstead. “When I’m planning and developing those lessons and units, every single thing that I’ve learned in class with Linda directly comes back into the county back into the curriculum.”

Thompson, who is pursuing National Board certification using McDaniel’s Teacher Collaborative Grant, said it was a full-circle moment to see the kids who he teaches enjoying the Tournament of Champions after participating in the event as a McDaniel student.

Tournament of Champions would not be possible without the efforts of a four-student committee tasked with creating volunteer sign-up forms, coordinating volunteers, and making sure everything was set up, organized and ready-to-go on Thursday morning. Hannah Costa, 21, a junior majoring in kinesiology and minoring in education said she spent about 10 hours making sure the event would go off without a hitch.

“It’s a great experience,” Costa said. “It’s a great day for all the kids.”

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