NTFA and Special Olympics

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 a group of NTFA members made a trip to San Antonio to help Special Olympics Texas (SOTX) organize the first ever Special Olympics floorball tournament in the state and to our knowledge, the first ever floorball tournament of any kind in San Antonio. There were four teams from around the state competing to see who would advance to the world stage, including a local team from Lewisville!  In the end El Paso came out on top and will be preparing to represent the United States at the next Special Olympics World Winter Games.  Going forward, this is a huge opportunity for both SOTX and NTFA.

Special Olympics plays floorball in a variety of formats.  This tournament was played as a Unified sport. That means that the special needs athletes are paired with volunteer partners on the court.  Floorball is a perfect game for this setup because as we all know, floorball can be played by absolutely anyone!  Unified Floorball brings out the best of floorball and the best of Special Olympics.  We saw skill development over the course of the tournament, and the absolute essence of teamwork.

Since floorball is new to SOTX they’ll be relying on NTFA for our experience hosting tournaments and our knowledge of the game. In the future we’ll be looking for more volunteers to help run tournaments and teach the game as floorball grows within SOTX.  And of course, this is a great opportunity for NTFA to recruit new players.

Special thanks to Brian Radichel, Darryl Gross, Jukka Kotti, Chelsea Payne, Dan Torretta, and Casey Torretta for their help over the weekend!