Oakville High School hosted a SOMO (Special Olympics Missouri) event on Feb. 15, 2024, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“This event is a basketball tournament that Oakville hosts with schools all around the St. Louis area,” STUCO sponsor Brianna Nitz said. “…We have an opening ceremony for them, just like at the Olympics, they then play their basketball games. When they’re not playing basketball, we have victory village booths set up for them to play other games.”
This is the second time Oakville has hosted SOMO basketball since COVID. The event, being as big as it is, requires a lot of effort on STUCO’s part.
“Stuco starts planning this months in advance. We have to be coordinating with the Special Olympics people to figure out how many athletes are coming, which schools are coming,” Nitz said. “We have to order goodie bags for them, we order shirts for them, we have to recruit Oakville buddies, we have to recruit Victory Village — it’s a lot that goes into this.”
Before and during the event, over 200 Oakville students signed up to be buddies, with even more serving as leaders, victory village, or refs for the athletes. The majority of volunteers were partnered with a SOMO athlete (with around 165 attending) to guide them through the day.
“They go to their basketball games with them. Sometimes they actually play in the games with them,” Nitz said. “They cheer them on, they play the Victory Village games with them, they eat lunch with them, and it’s a really special day for them to make a bond with a SOMO athlete.”
Getting the student body involved helped create the right atmosphere, and volunteering provided an important takeaway for many of those who participated.
“I think it’s just a really beautiful way to show Oakville students that it doesn’t matter what hand you’re dealt,” Nitz said. “No matter who you are or what your level of ability is, just this joy of playing sports and being together is for everyone.”
