McDonald leading Special Olympic hoops team
When Gabe McDonald moved to Peterborough six years ago the local Special Olympics basketball team was a beneficiary.
The 24-year-old is one of the top players and a team leader for the Prowlers, the senior team of the three Peterborough Special Olympics basketball teams, which also includes the Pythons and Panthers.
All three teams were among the 12 participating in the second annual Peterborough Special Olympics basketball tournament at Kenner Collegiate on Saturday. Also participating were teams from Ajax, Barrie, Belleville and Oshawa.
McDonald played basketball in Laval, he lived in Quebec for 18 years, before his mother, who had Peterborough ties, moved here six years ago.
It was an easy transition for McDonald to join the Prowlers.
“They are terrific people,” he said.
Prowlers’ coach Patrick henry said McDonald has been a welcome addition to the program.
“Gabe is a very skilled player and a team leader,” said Henry. “He has the respect of all his teammates. He’s very dedicated and shows up to all our practices. He hasn’t missed a practice in two years. All our games and tournaments we can count on Gabe. He’s a team player who makes lots of passes. He gets everyone involved.”
McDonald attends Fleming College in the Community Integration Through Co-operative Education (CICE) program. He said it’s important to him to try to be a team leader.
“To get respect from the other players on the team,” he said.
There are 27 players in the local Special Olympics basketball program who practice every Wednesday night at Kenner from mid-September to mid-April. This is their third tournament of the season and they have one more in Oshawa in March. There are no trophies awarded or finals held, everyone gets a medal, at the local tournament.
“This tournament is advertised as a fun tournament,” said Henry. “As long as everyone has fun that’s our main objective but it is competitive as well. When the games start teams want to win.”
“I find the competitiveness is really fun,” said McDonald.
Volunteers help make the tournament and Special Olympics a success.
“It’s a real community effort,” said Henry. “We have certified referees who volunteer their Saturday. All our timers and scorers were volunteers. Several of them were Kenner students who know how to use the clocks and the gyms. We have a lunch committee that looks after preparing the lunch and serving it. We had that in the cafeteria. That’s always a big hit. Everyone likes the lunch. I’m sure we had 30 volunteers here today in total.”
Peterborough Special Olympics provides 10 sports for 200 local athletes. Other sports include bocce, bowling, cross country skiing, floor hockey, golf, snowshoeing, softball, soccer and swimming.