The Fayette County Dragons were once again named the Ohio Special Olympics flag football champions over the weekend.
According to head coach and Fayette County Special Olympics Coordinator, Tim Stewart, the team has gone undefeated the past two seasons. This resulted in the team traveling to Cincinnati on Saturday to face the Tuscarawas County Rockets in the culmination of the season at Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
“This is the third year for the program, and we ended up third place in our first year and winning it all last year,” Stewart said. “It was a pretty awesome experience. The first game over the weekend was against the Franklin County Westerville Wolves at the Nippert Stadium on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. I don’t know that any of our athletes have ever been to Paul Brown Stadium and it was incredible to be able to run out onto the field with all of the other teams. We showed up very confident as we ran out of the tunnel and every player was determined to get the victory.”
Stewart said the team had a dominating performance during the first half of the game, only allowing the opposing team five first downs in the whole half. Stewart said thanks to some big defensive plays by Miguel Molina and Matt Daniels early and a great performance by Devin Ison on offense, the team was never worried about the end result. By the end, the Fayette County Dragons stood victorious over the Rockets 62 to 21.
“We are always glad to see the teams get big wins such as this championship for the second year in a row,” Stewart said. “Every win not only helps the athletes become more confident, it also helps to increase our following here in Fayette County and other places. We love that the community continues to want to become a bigger part of our program. The more people we have that follow the teams, the more the teams want to play and the more volunteers and assistance we can get for the players. It is really a great feeling to see the support of the community. Overall, we have an amazing program with a lot of sports offered and all of the credit goes to the volunteers. I cannot thank them enough for the countless hours on and off the field.”
Also this week, the Fayette County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Board of DD) held its annual awards banquet Monday evening at Grace Community Church. This dinner and presentation is an opportunity for the Board of DD to recognize not only the participants of these various sports, but also the volunteers, sponsors, donors, coaches and many more who make it all possible.
During the banquet the flag football team, the bowling team, the basketball team, the cheerleaders and other athletes were given awards for their participation in their respective sports, and were given the chance to take a photo for the Board of DD.
Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.
