District 128 Special Olympians Qualify for State Winter Games

The D128 Special Olympics basketball teams recently competed at the Area Tournament at Hersey High School and came away with a 3rd Place and 4th Place finish. The first team, Storm Black, lost to Palatine in its first game and then came back to win its second game 44-42 behind Nathan Ferrara’s (VHHS) 24 points and Austin Josenhans’ (LHS) 16! The second team, Storm White, lost two hard-fought games to Maryville Academy and District 203. They were led by Johnny O’Connor (LHS) and Michelle Shepley (LHS).

The team members are:

Storm White - Johnny O’Connor, Michelle Shepley, Ellie Goldberg, Eric Haderlein, Mallory Marvin from LHS, and Patrick Sanchez, Darryl Bermas, A.J. Aquende, Sherice Clay and Quincy Stackhouse from VHHS

Storm Black - Nathan Ferrara and Corey Truger from VHHS, and Joseph Maller, Alexa Donato, Chris DeRose, Austin Josenhans and Mason Reyes from LHS

On Jan. 9, the team members took to the snow in their snowshoes at our Area Winter Games at Lambs Farm in Libertyville. Eight of our athletes won Gold in their races to qualify for the State Winter Games in Galena, Feb. 2-4. This ties the team’s all-time high for state qualifiers for the winter games.

D128 state qualifiers were Nathan Ferrara (VHHS), Austin Josenhans (LHS), Mallory Marvin (LHS), Michelle Shepley (LHS), Eric Haderlein (LHS), Alex Aquende (VHHS), Patrick Sanchez (VHHS) and Joseph Maller (LHS).

Photos of these amazing athletes in action can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/district128/sets/72157663096905559