On Saturday, November 9, the District 128 Storm, the Special Olympics team made up of a combination of LHS and VHHS students and transition students, won the floor hockey state tournament.
The Special Olympic tournaments work a lot like IHSA State finals. According to Mr. Andy Compton, the D128 Storm coach, there are eight classes of schools, which are divided by ability. The Storm are in class 3A. To get to state, the Storm had to win their area event, the equivalent of the IHSA sectional. Once the Storm made it to state, they were into the final four. From there it would only take two wins, one in the semifinals and one in the finals, to win the state championship.
According to the Illinois Special Olympics website, soill.org, the Storm defeated the Shabbona Park Hammerhead Sharks, 9-3, in the semifinals and then defeated the Northeast DuPage Special Recreation Association, or NEDSRA, White team by a score of 11-4 to win the state tournament.
Coach Compton believes that the Storm competes just like all other high school sports teams. There are athletes who are competitive and there are athletes who take a more relaxed approach to the game; however, the entire team wants to win.
To Coach Compton, winning is icing on the cake. The real joy of coaching, to him, is seeing the kids give everything they have. He loves to see the look on his athlete’s face after they know that they have given their all and had a good game.
The Storm practices two nights a week at the Sullivan Center in Vernon Hills, and depending on the season, they could be playing one of seven different sports. Throughout the year they will play floor hockey, basketball, snowshoeing, track, bowling, bocce ball and soccer. Snowshoeing is the equivalent of track on the snow.
