It's a Bronze Medal for Cory and his SOBC Delta Basketball teammates at the 2013 Special Olympics British Columbia Summer Provincial Games! Having qualified last year as a 'C' Division team, they have improved enough since then to move up into the 'B' Division. That's the good news, the bad news is of course they met some very strong opposition. It was certainly a weekend of learning to deal with much more aggressive opponents playing a much faster-paced game then they had ever faced before.
The weekend started out with a couple of seeding games, and the team easily won its first game against the Surrey Cyclones 14-0, with 6'4" Matt scoring most of the points, though Cory did chip in with 2 points of his own. But then they met their first bona-fide 'B' Division team in the form of the North Shore Wildcats, and fell 14-2.
They then played a mini-game against Coquitlam to determine final seeding and won 6-4, pushing the team into the 'B' Division.
Even though the Games were held in neighbouring Langley, at Provincial Games all athletes travel and stay together throughout the weekend.
So it was mid-day on Thursday that the boys joined Coach Andy to load the bus and head to the Langley Event Centre for the Opening Ceremonies later that evening.
Athletes from Region 4 arriving for the Opening Ceremonies...Cory waves at the sound of the bell which he was expecting to hear....sitting with his Region 4 teammates.....the lighting of the Special Olympics Flame...Elvis gets the athletes rocking....
Cory in action....teammate Alex misses, Cory's there to put in the rebound...
Passing the ball around to teammates and chasing rebounds....
And grabbing a great hard pass from teammate Jeff and just beating an opponent's challenge for 2 points:
The team takes the floor to receive their Bronze Medals:
With the 2014 National Games right here in Vancouver, it's disappointing that Cory's team will likely not qualify. So it's time to enjoy the rest of the summer, with some surfing in Mexico, and then prepare for the next Basketball season starting in October and of course preparing for the downhill skiing winter Regional competition in Kelowna next March.
