Managing editor

Ten athletes and two coaches are leaving Durant Friday to head to the first-ever National Special Olympics.

Coaches Donna Hicks and Steven Remshardt from Durant, along with Earl Madison, Stillwater, will be coaching the basketball team from Durant when they compete at the national level in Ames, Iowa, which will then be the deciding factor in who gets to go to the International Special Olympics, which will be held this year in China.

Forty-six states will compete at Nationals, and Remshardt said that this was the only basketball team that will represent Oklahoma. Teams will represent Oklahoma in other sports, though.

The Special Olympics has not had a national competition before, as the teams who traveled to the international level were chosen from the state winners.

Hicks explained that in the past there were only local, area, state and international competitions.

Remshardt said there were three levels of basketball teams that compete at the Special Olympics.

In the first level, each team maintains the same goal throughout the game so as to not confuse the players.

At the second level, players cannot pressure until the ball gets to half court.

At the third level, the level in which the team from Durant will be competing, regular high school basketball rules apply.

Teams were not chosen to go to state because of their win-loss record.

“They observed us for years,” Remshardt said of the people who makes the decision. The decision was based on how the players acted, represented themselves and their team and how they played.

“There are 40-50 teams in the state,” Remshardt said. “I figure it was a big honor just to get asked.”

The team, which ages in range from 14-25 years old, will be leaving Friday on a Choctaw bus for an overnight stay at Tulsa before flying to Iowa Saturday. They are not expecting a departure party for the National games.

“If we are picked up for China, we will have a big send-off,” Hicks said.

In order to be chosen to International games, they have to medal, come in gold, silver or bronze, at the National games.

“If you don't make that, your not in the pot,” Remshardt said. If a team medals, the one team that is chosen for Internationals will be chosen on the attitudes of the athletes and the way they represent their state.

“It's a long shot, but at least we got a shot,” Remshardt said. “We're gonna have fun, no matter what.”

The decision as to who will make it to Internationals will likely be made next Friday. The team will return Saturday, July 8.