The weekend of June 7th was a great time for the JESPY HOUSE Special Olympics bocce team during the Special Olympics NJ Summer Games that took place at The College of New Jersey(TCNJ).
It all started on June 8th, albeit 2 hours late, due to the rain the night before. The 14 members of the bocce team got up very early for breakfast(as did the other JESPYHOUSE athletes),so we had some time to relax before we went to the TCNJ soccer field where bocce was to take place. We had two male pairs, three female pairs and two mixed doubles.
The men went first and it seemed to have taken forever for the women to start. Under normal conditions, each match would end either the time being up(usually 25 minutes) or to score. The time was shortened by 10 minutes the first day so everyone could get their match in.
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My partner and I won our first match by 1 point and it was by less than a quarter inch. That meant we would be playing for a gold medal the next day. Three other teams won their first match and the other two teams lost.
Sunday June 8th, everything was back to normal and bocce started at 8am. Again the men went first. The first male pair from JESPY won their match and got gold, the second team lost and got silver. It was mine and my partner's turn to go for the gold, the two women we played against were very friendly and we chatted throughout the match, we won by 2 points. The other women from JESPY got a silver medal and a bronze medal as did the two mixed teams.
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I want to say thanks to "COACH" Rashon Madray, and all of my teammates, JJ Robonton(the best partner I ever had), Jessie B., Brooke, Jane Clark, Jen Rosenstock, Michael Carroll, Will Gillbert, Todd Gallanter, Amanda Merims, Dan Janiger, Ben Kramer and Amy Zeitlein.JJ, Todd, Robert and I can tryout for Team NJ for the 2014 U.S.A. Special Olympics summer games that will be held in NEW JERSEY!
