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Minus Justin Bieber, the games go on

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By Emily Sorensen

It would take more than a wet field, a chilly day and a lack of Justin Bieber to dampen the spirits of these athletes.

Over 80 special needs athletes from Poway High School, Rancho Bernardo High School, Del Norte High School, Westview High School and Mt. Carmel High School, as well as Mira Mesa High School, came together Dec. 14 to celebrate their achievements in everything from the tennis throw to soccer in the Special Olympics School Games 2012, hosted at Poway High School.

“It was about sportsmanship and teamwork, and how character counts,” said Sue Buhler, special education teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School, who brought her two classes of 20 students to compete in the Special Olympics. “We had a lot of fun.”

Erin Nixon, a critical needs teacher at Poway High School, organized the event after her students went to the Special Olympics in Mira Mesa last year. While Nixon said organizing the logistics of holding an inter-school competition at Poway High was “a lot of work,” she said it was worth it. Now that the groundwork is in place, Nixon said, it will be easier to set everything up next year.

“It was so fun,” said Andrea Esparza, a Poway High School senior, who is in Nixon’s critical needs class and competed with her classmates on a soccer team. Esparza and her teammates won second place. “Soccer is my favorite sport, so I wanted to do it [over a different event],” she said. Nixon said the students used their physical education class to practice for the event for a month ahead of time. “We practiced a lot,” said Esparza.

Esparza and her classmates had previously filmed a music video with an academic tutor asking Justin Bieber to come to the Special Olympics. While the day was Bieber-less, Esparza said it didn’t matter. “The video was so fun to make. Everybody saw it, the whole world,” she said. She’s not far off, as their YouTube video was nearing 350,000 hits as of press time (those curious can check out “The Bieber Project” on YouTube).

The athletes even had their own fans, as many Poway High School students came out onto the field to watch the events, some with homemade posters cheering on friends who were competing. Though the day was gray and cold, the rain had luckily stopped that morning, leaving the Special Olympics free to continue outside on the track and football field, rather than having to be moved into the gym.

After a morning of individual and group events, the athletes all received awards in a ribbon ceremony, and were then treated to a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers provided by the Hamburger Factory.

The excitement still hasn’t worn off for the victorious student athletes of the Poway Unified School District. Buhler said her students were still excitedly talking about the event on Monday, and some even came to school still wearing their award ribbons. “They did a great job of it at Poway,” said Buhler. “It was a fun time for everyone.”

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