When Mount Pleasant resident Katie Spears took the court this past April for the tip-off of a big basketball game, all she wanted to do was have fun playing and enjoy a healthy outing.
Instead, Spears had a lot more fun than she expected when she and her 40-plus teammates walked away with championship basketball gold medals, as the big game was part of the 2025 South Carolina Special Olympics (SOSC).
Held on April 26 at River Bluff High School, Lexington High School and Gray Collegiate Academy, the event drew 382 athletes, unified partners and coaches with teams across the Upstate, Midlands and Lowcountry.
Spears and her team, the Mount Pleasant Stingers, were the only ones in the area raising their hands with the sign of “We’re No. 1.”
“It was a big moment for everyone,” said Shelli Davis Boesner, SOSC volunteer and programs division chief of Mount Pleasant Recreation, of which the Stingers are a part. “It was amazing to see this team connect with one another the way they did for the season. And they played their best in these big games.”
The Stingers won two games, including the final against Carolina Courage. While Spears indicated that she would have been just as happy playing even if her team had lost, winning it all just brought a lot of extra smiles and celebrations.
“I am getting a lot better with my defense and making baskets,” Spears said. “I like hanging out and playing basketball with my friends, and I am proud of myself and my teammates for winning gold.”
Of course the big pressure question now, as with all first-time sports champions, is can the Stingers repeat?
Spears and her teammates will have to wait until next year to find out.
But in the meantime, they are serving as high-profile Lowcountry ambassadors for Special Olympics basketball, one of the organization’s most popular events among all participants, especially for SOSC and its offerings throughout the year.
“Special Olympics represents a chance,” said Kelly Garrick, assistant vice president of Sports and Competition with SOSC. “It’s a chance for people with intellectual disabilities to be seen for their abilities as athletes. For them to feel included in our society at large as people who love sports and want to have fun. For people without intellectual disabilities to see our athletes as their peers and play on a team with them and build a friendship. And for us all to see the true love of sport.”
By L.C. Leach III
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