By John Dobberstein, Editor
Members of the Broken Arrow Special Olympics got big news Friday when they found out the Unified Cheer team would be headed to the 2026 Special Olympic USA Games.
Coach Christina Gould and the team will travel to Minnesota for the competition. The announcement was made during a recent performance on campus.
The Games are scheduled to take place from June 20-26, 2026 at the University of Minnesota, the official host venue.
Over 3,000 athletes and 1,500 coaches representing all 50 states are expected to engage in 16 Special Olympics team and individual sports (both traditional and Unified, where people with and without intellectual disabilities compete together).
BASO’s Unified Cheer team won an OSSAA tate championship last November in Moore, and also won the Special Olympics Oklahoma State Cheer in hopes of qualifying for the Oklahoma Games in Stillwater this year.
The Broken Arrow Public Schools Special Olympics Program allows students to compete in both regional and state-wide competitions in a variety of sports including, but not limited to, bocce ball, track and field and cheer/pom competitions. The district team is comprised of both athletes with special needs and their partners without special needs.
Anita Varnell, whose daughter Natalyn is on the team, said in a Facebook post Friday she was proud of the program.
“Never in a million years would I have thought that my girl would be competing at a national level. All because one coach said ‘why not’ when I asked if Natalyn would be allowed to join because her epilepsy was a huge barrier everywhere else,” Varnell wrote.
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