American High School Hosts Special Olympics Soccer Event
Jessica Dosanjh
Staff Writer
On Friday, November 15, 2013, the sun was shining, upbeat music was playing, and the students in the Special Education classes were gearing up for a morning filled with soccer.
This year, American High School hosted the Special Olympics soccer event. This event was organized through the Mission Valley Special Education Local Planning Area, or Mission Valley SELPA. This is the first year Mission Valley SELPA coordinated with Special Olympics Northern California and its Schools Partnership Program. High schools and a few middle schools from the Fremont, Newark, and New Haven school districts participated.
The opening ceremony began at around 9 a.m. in the school gym. Mr. Wong’s second period class played music during the ceremony, and one of his students sang the national anthem. Senior Eddie Howard mc’ed the event. Many school district and local government dignitaries also attended, including Superintendent Dr. Morris.
The event could not have been made possible without help from the leadership class, the class councils, the girls soccer team, and the cheerleading team.
“Helping out at the Special Olympics was fabulous,” senior, varsity cheerleader Saira Aziz said. “It was really cute to see how excited all the kids were.”
Senior Mayron Mulugeta was also a key part in the organization of the event.
“She organized the jobs for different students and pretty much ran the event on the day,” Mr. Fulton said. “She was a star.”
The American High team played a match against one of the other high schools and ended up winning.
“It was so nice to see how happy they were when they were playing, “ freshman Jaspreet Mann said. “I’m really glad American got the opportunity to host the Special Olympics.”
Later in the school year, the basketball and track events will be hosted by other schools in the Mission Valley area.
Eagle Era 